Matineemasala

No one would ever forget the scene in Bobby where Rishi Kapoor comes to Dimple Kapadia’s house and she answers the door looking very casual. Well, the scene is actually a replica of the immortalized meeting between Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Raj Kapoor went to Nargis’ house to offer the lead lady’s role in Aag. Nargis described the incident to her friends as a ‘fat pinkie’s arrival who had come to sign her’!

But the pair had an instant chemistry on screen which was extended off-screen too. They went ahead to do 15 films together including the classics Awaara and Shri 420. The two developed feelings for each other and had become the talk of the town. Knowing Raj Kapoor’s liking for the color white, Nargis wore white in her films and was known his Lady in White.  While Nargis was keen to get married to Raj Kapoor and have a family, Raj Kapoor- who already had a wife and a child, refused to break the societal norms and marry Nargis. The lady even tried to seek permission from the then Home Minister Morarji Desai for a second marriage. But Raj Kapoor was afraid of being ostracized from his family and society. The man who made films on bold and rebel themes succumbed to the norms in real life. It was during this time that Nargis was offered Mother India by her mentor Mehboob. Sunil Dutt, who played her son in the movie, saved Nargis from a fire accident on the sets of the same film. Dutt later married Nargis and soon after the that the lady retired from her film career and looked after her family and was involved in social services.

Thus ended the journey of once adored golden couple on screen. What remained were just the immortalized scenes and songs.

Dilip Kumar and Madhubala- the daring on screen couple in Mughal-E-Azam who sang “Jab Pyaar Kiya To Dar Na Kya” did not carry their guts off screen. The sizzling on screen couple had a hot-shot off screen romance. It all started when the stars met on the sets of their first film “Tarana”. Madhubala was not yet eighteen and she sent a note written in Urdu through her hairdresser with a red rose to Dilip Sahab, asking him to accept it if he loved her. This amused and intrigued Dilip Sahab and he readily accepted it. Next came Sangdil ‘ (1952) and Amar’ (1953).

When matter eventually came to marriage, Madhubala’s father opposed it strongly and also didn’t let her go for outdoor shoot for ‘Naya Daur’ because of which she lost a ugly court case and had to pay compensation to the producer of the movie. A very unhappy Dilip Kumar declared dramatically in a crowded courtroom at the end of the case, ‘I shall love her until the day she dies.’ There the relationship ended in a bitter note. During the 10 years span that Mughal-e-Azam was being made, it is said that, both the stars never spoke to each other.

Madhubala eventually married her other co-star Kishore Kumar and died at the age of 36 from heart trouble. Dilip Kumar on the other hand went through a high profile nikah with Saira Banu who was a good twenty years his junior and still remains married to her. And thus ended another classic love story in a sad note! The third and the last part will have the eternal love story of Raj Kapoor and Nargis.

AMITABH BACHCHAN – REKHA

The greatest and timeless memory of Amitabh Bachchan-Rekha affair needs no introduction. The obvious and evident chemistry between the stars started with the movie Do Anjaane. Rekha had an amazing makeover after meeting Amitabh Bachchan: from a plump actress to a fine seductress and a refined actress. Their chemistry gave 20 hit movies including Suhaag, Khoon-Pasina, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Mr Natwarlal, Silsila and so on.
The affair became the grapevine for media and it still is whenever they make a public appearance. Amitabh Bachchan who was already married to Jaya Bhaduri had the media and family pressurize him after certain outrageous incidents that were reported by the media. Rekha had turned up for Rishi Kapoor-Neetu Singh’s wedding wearing a sindoor, mangalsutra and two rings on her fingers gifted by her Amit. More than any one at the wedding it was Rekha who took all the attention. There were rumors like ‘Jaya catching the couple at one of their early morning rendezvous and slapping the other woman’.

Jaya Bachchan always remained tight-lipped about the affair and mentioned that if Amit was cheating on her, his conscience would eventually get the better of him and straighten him out. And the same happened. But the time Silsila released the couple had already split.

The affair remains the most sensational one till date in Bollywood. Read Dillip Kumar- Madhubala romance and Raj Kapoor-Nargis romance in the sequels to this post.

The longest film title in any Indian language has been of 20 words. This belongs to the Telugu film ‘Shree Shree Rajadhiraja Shree Shree Madana Kamaraja Shree Shree Vilasa Raja Shree Shree Madhubana Raja Shree Shree Krishnadeva donga Raja’ which was released in Chennai in December 1994.

Talking about the longest Hindi film title, according to me there hasn’t been any title consisting of more than 7 words, which are…

Andheri Raat Mein Diya Tere Haath Mein
Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai?
Raja Ko Rani Se Pyaar Ho Gaya

Hindi Film titles with 6 words have been plenty like…

Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli
Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaaye
Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain
Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon… so on and so forth.

Do you know of any Hindi film title consisting of more than 7 words?

Continuing with film releases, the combination of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt spelt magic at the box-office when GolMaal released in 1979. The same combination continued when they again teamed up to give Naram Garam. Naram Garam was released on 28 February 1981, produced by Subhash Gupta and Uday Narayan Singh.

It was a typical Hrishida film from start to finish with memorable performances by Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt. Hrishida almost came up with the same starcast of GolMaal except for a rural backdrop. Naram Garam was a hilarious situational comedy for which Hrishida was known for. The story revolved around the boss played by Utpal Dutt who falls in love with his employee Amol Palekar’s love interest. How Amol gets back his girl and how he ends up getting married makes the film very funny, also earmarking the debut of Swaroop Sampat.

Music was by RD Burman and lyrics by Gulzar. Naram Garam was clean comedy that went down well with the masses and the classes. Going down memory lane it’s remembered as an extension of GolMaal. Worth again a dekho even today.

Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie was released on the 27th February 1976. A film that still lingers as one of the most refreshing performances of the angry young man- Amitabh Bachchan who was riding high those days after a string of successes.

Produced and directed by Yash Chopra, Kabhi Kabhie also had Shashi Kapoor, Rakhee, Simi Garewal, Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh. This was Yash Chopra’s second directorial film with Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor in the lead roles after the mega success of Deewaar (1975). The movie was a great commercial success with excellent performances and haunting music by Khayyam.

Kabhi Kabhie was an idea developed by Yash’s wife Pamela Chopra while reading the great Sahir Ludhianvi’s book ‘Kabhi- Kabhie’ which also had quite a few lines narrated by Amitabh Bachchan in the film. Kabhi Kabhie was a matured effort deftly handled by Yash with heady lyrics, lilting music, pithy dialogues and a theme that explores myriad aspects of romance, both young and mature.

Studded with a huge starcast, Kabhi Kabhie was written by Sagar Sarhadi which takes you to a whole new world of romances with excellent performances by everyone. Lines where Amitabh says, “Humein koi haq nahin pahunchta ke hum apni khushi ke liye apne maa-baap ke armanon ka gala ghont de” or “ Daag maine daaman par nahin dil pe liya hai, aur yeh sab karne ke liye bade himmat aur hounsle ki zaroorat hai” or my favorite line when Amit and Pooja meet- “Kabhi rastey mein mil jaao toh takraake guzar jaana, humey aiyse taknaa jaise pehchaana nahin tumne, humaara zikr jab bhi kahin aaye toh yun anjaan ban jaana ki jaise naam sunkar bhi humey jaana nahin tumne” – who can forget?

Khaiyyam’s music and Sahir’s lyrics take you on a poetic journey with gems like- Kabhi Kabhie mere dil mein, Main pal do pal ka shaayar hoon, Main har ek pal ka, Pyaar kar liya toh kya, Tere Chehre Se, Mere ghar aayi ek nanhi pari, Tera chandi jaisa rang, Surkh jode ki…

Kabhi Kabhie is a tribute to Sahir and his poetry. It’s one of the finest works or may be Yash Chopra’s best work to date. Have a look incase you haven’t as Kabhi Kabhie gives me goose flesh even today when I watch it on DVD.

* For luck just before the release of the film Yash Chopra added another ‘E’ to the title of Kabhi- Kabhie.

* The combination of Amitabh-Shashi Kapoor -Yash Chopra did five films in a row — Deewaar, Kabhi Kabhie, Trishul, Kaala Patthar and Silsila.

* Parveen Babi was the first choice of Yash Chopra for the role opposite Rishi Kapoor which eventually went to Neetu Singh resulting in both falling in love during the making of the film.

* Gulshan Rai was to produce Kabhi Kabhie but refused saying that it would never run but the film went on to break all box-office records.

* The film had been written with Raakhee in mind, and she had agreed to do it during the making of Daag (1973), but before production started she married Gulzar, who wanted her to retire from acting. Later Yash Chopra persuaded Gulzar to let her do the film.

* It was during the shooting of the film in Kashmir that Yash Chopra first noticed his 5 year-old son Aditya Chopra getting inquisitive about film making.

* There are two versions of the poem “Kabhi Kabhie” – one is the romantic poem Amit sings to Pooja when they are in love, and the other version, rewritten by a shattered Amit since the marriage of Pooja to Vijay, is a bitter, self-hating ode of misery and loss. Sahir Ludhianvi wrote this version of “Kabhi Kabhie” first; the more romantic version was written for the film.

* Kabhi Kabhie reconstructed music director Khayyam’s career who made a thumping comeback with this film and went on to bag the Filmfare award for The Best Music in 1976. The popularity of the music prompted Khayyam and Yash Chopra to continue collaborating with Trishul, Noorie, Nakhuda and Sawaal.

* Mukesh sang for Amitabh while Kishore Kumar lent his voice to Rishi Kapoor. But Mukesh was unable to reap the benefits of the film’s success as he died within months of the film’s release.

* Sahir Ludhianvi deservedly won the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist for the title song.

* Looking at the popularity of the song- Kabhi-Kabhie mere dil…many music directors composed the song in their own way. The qawwali version of the song became very famous.

Being a die-hard film buff I’ve always made it a point since 1990 to see the Filmfare Awards on TV. Talking about yesterday’s 52nd Filmfare Award function on Sony TV, although the winners were already announced in the Sunday (25th Feb, 2007) newspaper edition, yet I sat to watch the recorded program.

To be honest I always thought that the Filmfare jury was fair many a times and the awards would go to the most deserving candidate. For the last three or four years I feel that the awards are rigged and have lost its value. More than the jury the people’s vote thru SMS’s decide who is going to win.

I do believe Aamir Khan and Ajay Devgan to an extent who have lost faith in these awards. Agreed, Rang De Basanti was a popular film but was it more popular than Lage Raho Munnabhai ? I don’t think so, then how come it walked away with all the awards, just because it got the most votes? What if I liked Lage Raho Munnabhai more than Rang De Basanti, and to enable LRM to generate more votes I buy a 1000 copies of Filmfare? Would LRM have won?

I know that King Khan loves winning awards and he would go to any extent to get one. Why is it that Filmfare dances to the tune of SRK? Is it that Filmfare only sells because he is on their cover most of the times? It’s been noticed that no matter what the show is all about, no matter who is nominated and who is not, SRK and Yash Chopra always walk away with a Filmfare award at least.

While watching the Filmfare Awards yesterday, when SRK lost out on the ‘Best Actor Award’ to Hrithik Roshan, he couldn’t believe it!!! I know he might have got paid for anchoring the show but this is the first time that he ended up walking away empty handed.

Filmfare has always obliged SRK whenever he missed out on the popular awards by creating an award for him to keep him in good humor or else how would he perform next year at the awards. The awards that were created for him were- Power House Award or Jury Recognition Award or Most Vibrant Actor Award or Filmfare Golden Award or Popular Critics Award or People’s Favorite Award and the list is endless. The same with Yash Chopra.

I am not anti-SRK or Yash Chopra but why not accept that you can’t win always and others deserve it too. Take a look at the Bachchan’s, they are so modest even after winning so many times. Finally, would like to see a better way to select the winners at the next Filmfare Awards and can we do without SRK and Yash Chopra?

Best Film
Rang De Basanti

Best Actor
Hrithik Roshan – Dhoom 2

Best Actress
Kajol – Fanaa

Best Director
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra – Rang De Basanti

Critics Award
Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Lage Raho Munnabhai)

Critics Award for best actor
Aamir Khan – Rang De Basanti

Critics Award for best actress
Kareena Kapoor – Omkara

Lifetime Achievement Award
Jaya Bachchan, Javed Akhtar

Special jury recognition
Deepak Dobriyal – Omkara

Best Dialogue
Abhijit Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai)

Best art direction
Sameer Chanda – Omkara

Best editing
P S Bharati – Rang De Basanti

Best Screenplay
Jaideep Sahni – Khosla Ka Ghosla

Best Story
Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani (Lage Raho Munnabhai)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)
Abhishek Bachchan – Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)
Konkona Sen Sharma – Omkara

Best Actor in a Comic Role
Arshad Warsi – Lage Raho Munnabhai

Best Actor in a Negative Role
Saif Ali Khan – Omkara

Best Music
A R Rahman – Rang De Basanti

Best Lyrics
Prasoon Joshi – Chand Sifarish (Fanaa)

Best Playback (Male)
Shaan and Kailash Kher (Fanaa)

Best Playback (Female)
Sunidhi Chauhan – Beedi (Omkara)

Best Cinematography
Binod Pradhan – Rang De Basanti

Best Costumes
Dolly Ahluwalia – Omkara

Best Sound Design
Subhash Sahu , K J Singh (Omkara)

Best Background Score Award
Salim-Sulaiman (Krrish)

Best Debut (Female)
Kangana Ranaut – Gangster

Powerhouse Awards
Yash Chopra

R D Burman Award
Naresh Iyer

Sony – Fair One face of the year
Kangana Ranaut

Best Choreography
Ganesh Acharya – Beedi Jalayle (Omkara)

Best Special FX
Krrish

Best action
Siu Tung Ching, Sham Kaushal (Krrish)

Best Costumes Award
Omkara

Indian cinema music wouldn’t have been what it is today without Rai Chand Boral, popularly known as RC Boral. RC Boral was born in 1903 at Calcutta, his father; Lal Chand Boral was a classical musician (expert of Dhrupad). He had three sons, and Rai Chand was the youngest. Music was in his blood but still never would let go an opportunity to learn from stalwarts of renowned Gharana’s.

RC Boral joined the Indian Broadcasting Company in the year of its inception, 1927. In 1931, he shifted to the New Theatres in the silent era for supporting the stage with live music. It was in 1935, where he introduced playback singing for the first time in the Hindi feature film Dhoop Chhaon (1935). The song- Main Khush Hona Chahun, had an all women chorus led by Parul Ghosh with Suprova Sarkar and Harimati picturised in a dance sequence. R.C. Boral came to Bombay in 1953. After coming to Bombay, he composed music for Dard-e-Dil (1953) with Lata’s songs.

RC Boral went on to compose music for more than 150 films including Hindi and Bengali films. He received National Award Sagar Sangam in 1958 and Sangeet Natak Akedemi Award in 1978. He also received the Dada Saheb Phalke Award in 1978 and died in 1981 at the age of 78.

RC Boral’s Filmography

Mohabbat Ke Aansoo (1932), Zinda Laash (1932), Subah Ka Sitaara, Pooran Bhagat (1933), Rajrani Meera (1933), Chandidas (1934), Dakoo Mansoor (1934), Rooplekha (1934), After the Earthquake (1935), Karwan-e-Hayaat (1935), Dhoop Chhaon (1935), Manzil (1936), Millionaire (1936), Maya (1936), Anath Aashram (1937), Vidyapati (1937), President (1937), Abhagin (1938), Street Singer (1938), Jawani Ki Reet (1939), Sapera (1939), Haar Jeet (1940), Lagan (1941), Sugand (1942), Waapas (1943), Humrahi (1945), Wasiatnaama (1945), Anjangarh (1948), Pahela Admi (1950), Dard-e-Dil (1953), Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1953), Swami Vivekanand (1955), Amar Saigal (1955)