By IANS
New Delhi : Veteran journalist Mohammad Shamim, who reported with equal élan on cinema and politics, died here Friday of cardio-respiratory failure, his family said. He was 77.
Two brothers and a sister survive Shamim.
Shamim had been keeping indifferent health for the past few years and for the last three months had been admitted to the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here. He was discharged Thursday.
The end came Friday afternoon at his home in the Dwarka neighbourhood of west Delhi.
Beginning his career with the Urdu daily Inquilab in Bombay (now Mumbai), Shamim switched to the Times of India (ToI) and quickly made his mark as a film critic at a time when stars like Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor were on the ascendancy.
“He knew the film industry inside out and it was said in those days that if you didn’t know Shamim sahib, then you didn’t know the film industry,” recalled his ToI colleague and long-standing friend Yogendra Bali.
“Shamim was one of the most fearless, independent and humane journalists I was privileged to know. His time as film critic spanned the most glorious period of Indian cinema,” Bali added.
Even as he continued to write on films, Shamim paid equal attention to the political world and reported from close quarters on stalwarts like former prime minister Indira Gandhi, former defence minister V.K. Krishna Menon, and Congress leader Acharya J.B. Kripalani.
Shamim held the positions of chief reporter and special correspondent in the Times of India.