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Ratan Kumar

actor (1941-2016)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ28035443
Source-derived summary

Ratan Kumar (19 March 1941 – 12 December 2016) was the screen name of the Indian born child artist who later migrated to Pakistan. He acted in Indian and Pakistani movies. He was born as Syed Nazir Ali Rizvi. He is best known for his work in films Boot Polish (1954), Do Bigha Zamin (1953) and Jagriti (1954).

Early life and career

Ratan Kumar was born as Syed Nazir Ali in 1941 in British India. He became the most-sought-after child-actor in India in the 1950s after his initial success in 1952.

After making the popular Indian movie Jagriti (1954), Ratan Kumar migrated to Pakistan in 1956, with his family, and remade the movie into Bedari (1957) (Urdu translation of Jagriti or awareness) and used the same old tune for a film song in Pakistan, aimed at igniting a similar emotion and patriotic zeal, among the listeners. Aao bachcho tumhe dikhayen jhaanki Hindustan ki... (come children let us show you glimpses of India), is a popular Hindi film song of the 1950s. Aao bachcho sair karayen tumko Pakistan ki...

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ratan Kumar” is actor (1941-2016). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ratan, Kumar and actor, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 2016, 1954, 1953—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941-03-19. For this dossier, Ratan, Kumar and actor is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “actor (1941-2016)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28035443. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2016, 1954 and 1953.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ratan Kumar”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ratan Kumar primary sources, Ratan Kumar archive and Ratan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ratan Kumar”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ratan Kumar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.