My Father’s Colour Films (Concluding Part)- Ek Nazar, Nirmaan and Aankhon, Aankhon Mein

Before I go into my post I would like to apologize to those who follow my blog, despite my long breaks. Last time a technical error on my part led to some confusion as a result of which some of you may have missed my last post. So here is a link to MyFather’s Colour Films – Part 2

When my father passed away, he was in the best phase of his career.  Given the fact that he drew a salary from Bimal Roy Productions,  my father did not have to

My Father’s Colour Films (Part 2) - Bikhre Moti, Aan Milo Sajna & Parde Ke Peechey

Before I begin my post I would like to clarify something. Those of you who have been regular followers of this blog may have noticed that I have been posting clips directly from You Tube. I recently discovered an interesting tool Tube Chop (www.tubechop.com). Usually when we want to draw attention to something particular in a You Tube video, we usually have to specify the exact point at which it comes in, with  Tube Chop, all you have to do is just chop off that portion and share it with everyone. Since, I usually discover all these things a little late in the day, I thought all my readers were already aware of this website. Much to my surprise however, from the feedback that I got from some of my friends and readers, I realized that they thought that I had embedded the entire film and as they did not have the time, they did not bother to watch the videos. You will find plenty of clips in this post, so please do not be under the impression that I have
embedded the entire film from You Tube, I have just chopped off the relevant portions from my father’s films.

Coming back to the post, last time I talked about the prank my father played on Jeetendra ( that goes into the trivia section), he did it while shooting on location in Hyderabad for Bikhre Moti.

                                                     Bikhre Moti                      

Sujit Kumar, my father, Kamini Kaushal, Jeetendra and Babita

My Father’s Colour Films (Part 1) - Choti si Mulaqat & Choti Bahu

Choti si Mulaqat                                Choti Bahu with Sharmila Tagore

 When I started this blog I knew I would have difficulty posting at regular intervals – time is a major constraint – I had the choice of going ahead with the blog no matter how irregular I am with my posts or drop the idea altogether. I chose the former, as it was always my dream to have this blog, so here I am after a long interval.

As I had indicated in my last post, I am now going to focus on some of my father's colour films. In this post I will talk about Choti Si Mulaqat and Choti Bahu both of which were based on Bengali novels. Those were the days when films were based on novels and short stories. The story was the king, the stars were not superior to the story. You could relate to the characters, and the dialogues often found an echo in your own heart. Watching a particular character in such films, you may have found a reflection of someone you know or had known at some point in your life.

Kohraa and more…..

I am very sorry for this long gap, I was busy with some activity and also spent considerable time  digging up stuff for this post.

If you are wondering why the title Kohraa and more….? You see, as I was watching Kohraa once again, I could not help but think that my father had a very expressive face and also very expressive eyes so I thought why limit this post to Kohraa, let me dig deep and look at his other black and white films too (I am restricting this post to his black and white films) some of which sadly sank at the box-office.

Gumnaam - My Father's First Colour Film

"Kaun hai woh, aahkir woh saamne kyon nahin aata” gumnaam hai koi badnaam hai koi... Gumnaam!

 If you are wondering what was all that about, well that is one enduring memory that I have of my childhood. Actually to be honest the memory was a very faint memory, my brother sort of filled in the details. That sentence above is the line from Gumnaam’s radio spot. “Kaun hai woh……” was the dialogue that my father repeated in the film. Those were the days of radio spots, there was no television or internet but of course there were billboards too, which some ‘smart-alec’ used to disclose the murderer’s identity. He circled the murderer and wrote ‘Murderer’. But that did not deter the audience, surprisingly this was one of those suspense films which had a huge repeat value. People saw it again and again even when there was a re-run. Not surprisingly therefore, when people talk about my father they associate him with Gumnaam and Anupama. I do find it disappointing that his other films are ignored but I guess it cannot be helped considering that both the films had him in author backed roles. 

Though most of you may have seen the film, I am just giving a brief outline of the film which was inspired by Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’. I say inspired because Gumnaam’s story is a little different from Christie’s novel although the basic premise is the same.

Oonche Log

When we watch a film, I think, what appeals to most of us is the manner in which the director narrates the story and how well the actors have interpreted their characters. Some directors are pretty skillful in their narration while others resort to straight forward story telling. Oonche Log directed by Phani Majumdar is more or less straight forward story telling, where the film scores is in the acting department. Please excuse me, I may sound a bit prejudiced but I do think this is one of my father’s best performances. Unfortunately nobody mentions this film for it sank without a trace, my brother says it ran for just 6 weeks. It is unfortunate really for almost everyone performed well but to me personally besides my father, it was Ashok Kumar who gave a mind-blowing performance as the visually challenged Major Chandrakant.

Mujhe Jeene Do

In my last post I drew your attention to an interview which my father gave at the initial stages of his career, in this interview he expressed his concern at being typed as a father. Thanks to the success of  Sujata he got flooded with such roles, but thankfully there were some filmmakers who cast him in different kinds of roles, Sunil Dutt was one such filmmaker.

Usne Kaha Tha

Ever since I was old enough to understand films, I was keen to see 'Usne Kaha Tha'. One of the reasons was that my father was doing something different for a change, he was playing the heroine’s(Nanda) husband. All I had seen him do was either play the villain or the father and usually not the affectionate father that he was in real life. There were a few films where he did play the affectionate father but they were more the exception rather than the rule. The other reason being, my father was brought back from the jaws of death by the film’s hero (Sunil Dutt).

Sport & Pastime, August 5, 1961

Benazir

I mentioned in my last post that my father preferred to play the villain, I came to know about this from one of his interviews that I chanced upon long after he had passed away. Mum too confirmed this, after all one got a better opportunity to showcase one’s acting talent through such roles. I never saw Benazir in my father’s lifetime. Much later we did manage to get a video cassette, but it was  such a terrible one that I could make head nor tale of the film. Recently I managed to get the DVD and finally I had the pleasure of seeing my father in Benazir. This was just the kind of role he enjoyed playing. He didn’t have to do anything indecent like molesting the heroine for instance. I had mentioned in my guest post for Memsaabstory - The Soft Hearted Villain, he disliked doing such scenes.

Benazir was not his first outing as a villain, Shama,another Muslim social co-starring Suraiya and Nimmi, which like Benazir was also in Urdu, came much earlier, but as I am still on Bimal Roy Productions, Benazir is the topic of this post.

Apradhi Kaun

I know the intervals between my posts are rather long and  therefore, I have to thank you my dear readers for your kind support and encouraging comments. I have some compulsions due to which I am not able to post at shorter intervals. I will not bore you with the details of my compulsions but come straight to the point.

I did say that I will now talk about the films produced by Bimal Roy but not directed by him, I think it is only right that I start with Apradhi Kaun – my father’s first film.

Bimal Roy - Part 7 - Madhumati (concluding part)

 Bimal Roy is usually perceived as a director of serious films, light-hearted comedy is something that most do not associate with him. Though he never did direct a full length comedy film, at least I am not aware of any such film, he handled the comedy scenes in his films with the same finesse he did the serious scenes. I remember several comedians complaining how they never got well –written scenes, often directors would tell them “Aap kuch kar dijiye”, that means, 'please do something yourself.' Obviously doing something without any direction can be quite painful for anybody.

Bimal Roy – Part 6- Madhumati

When Madhumati was launched my father was nowhere close to being in the film industry. According to what  a  former assistant of Bimal Roy  told me, Madhumati was under production for six years. Bimal Roy had staked almost everything on this film, had the film flopped it would have more or less sounded the death knell for Bimal Productions. Thankfully the film was a huge box-office hit and the entire Bimal Roy Production team heaved a huge sigh of relief, not only that a bonus was also declared. I remember my mum often telling us, " We purchased this (now I do not remember the item) with Madhumati’s bonus". Yes dad too received the bonus, because he too received a salary from Bimal Roy Productions; he was perhaps the only actor then to be employed by a production house. Although technicians were employed, actors had begun freelancing for quite some time. My father had requested Bimal Roy to pay him a salary, as he was a little nervous about exchanging his secure government job for the uncertain world of films.

Bimal Roy - Part 5 Sujata (concluding part)

Managing two blogs is akin to sailing in two boats. I know many bloggers do it with ease but I guess I am not adept at multi-tasking. I do not want to give up either, I would like to take this blog to its logical conclusion, no matter what it takes, therefore those of you who have been supporting me with your comments and visits, I request you to bear with me for I cannot help the long intervals between my posts.

Continuing the Sujata story, I would like to show you how well Bimal Roy handled children. There are very few directors who present children in a heartwarming manner.

Baby Farida in Sujata

 Children in Hindi films are sometimes quite precocious  and made to mouth high flown dialogues, what gets on my nerves is when they are made to deliver silly dialogues like, “Woh badmash uncle” (that bad uncle). I have yet to hear any child referring to a bad person as bad uncle.

Bimal Roy Part 4 - Sujata

 

After the brief interruption caused by my unlocking some sweet memories, I am now continuing with my posts on Bimal Roy. This time I shall discuss Sujata.

Before I go on to Sujata, I would like to share something with my readers; some jerk has been commenting anonymously on this blog (older posts). The comments have no relevance to this blog or to any film blog for that matter and has been giving links to his or her blog (I do not know if I should call the person a jerk or a 'jerkie' since I do not know if it's a male or female), I have therefore been compelled to enable my moderation option for the older posts. So please understand my predicament in case  any of you find your comments going for moderation. Thanks. Having now got that out of the way, let me go back to Sujata.

Unlocking Memories

My father passed away on March 8, 1972, the day following my birthday. One day our house was full of people and laughter and the following day too it was full of people and film stars only this time there was no laughter only tears. Recently my neighbour was telling me," I remember Rajesh Khanna crying, I was trying to console him, your father was truly loved by everyone". Yes he was. Since March 8 just went by I thought it was okay to interrupt my posts on Bimal Roy and unlock some personal memories. I raided the cupboard and decided to post some of those precious memories right here.

My father was born on September 14, 1928, that is a long time ago, those days cameras were not as ubiquitous as they are now, therefore we have only a few photos of his childhood.

Bimal Roy- Part 3- Bandini (the final chapter)

To begin with I would like to say a big Thank You to you my dear readers for the positive feedback to my previous post.
So without wasting any more time I will continue the Bandini story. Continuing from where I left off in my last post I will now move on to one of the most talked about sequences – the murder sequence. It has drama, excellent acting (Nutan) ,wonderful photography (Kamal Bose). Bimal Roy built up the scene gradually without resorting to any melodrama.

Bimal Roy –Part 2- Bandini (continued)

In my last post I did say  that I would not be reviewing Bandini, in fact this post and all the future posts on Bimal Roy will be a sort of film appreciation- appreciating Bimal Roy - the director.

 Bimal Roy’s vision was that of a true artist. He never over dramatized or over emphasized a scene, his direction was understated and he handled the emotional scenes with utmost sensitivity and in a subtle manner. His brilliance as a cinematographer was reflected in his brilliant shot compositions. There are some directors, who, in their bid to show off their directorial skills, indulge in some peculiar shot compositions – almost telling the audience, “Look what a great director I am, just look at this brilliant shot composition”. Roy refrained from such directorial stunts- if I may put it that way. Before I delve deep into Bandini, I have to give a brief synopsis of the film for the benefit of those who haven’t seen the film.

Bimal Roy- Part 1 (Bandini)

Nutan with my father in Bandini

January 8, 2013 was the 47^th death anniversary of the master filmmaker Bimal Roy. Way back in 1991 I wrote an article(it appeared in the film weekly Screen) to mark his 25^th death anniversary.I had discussed Bimal Roy’s films in considerable detail. 

Tarun Bose, My Father -- Song & Dance

 Finally I did it! I finally launched the blog I have been wanting to for a long time. The timing couldn’t get better considering that Indian cinema completes 100 years. Initially my brother and I had thought of launching dad’s website, but after having had some satisfying discussions on cinema with film bloggers I was tempted to have a film blog which would be both about dad and cinema in general; so now you know why I call this blog Tarun Bose and the World of Cinema.
I am overwhelmed by the response to the 'About' page. I have  great plans but how successfully I implement these plans remains to be seen.

About

We (my brother and I) have been planning to put up our father’s – (Tarun Bose)-- website for quite some time. We kept planning but nothing materialized because we were both busy with our respective careers and personally I had this niggling doubt – Would anybody be interested? After all my father was an actor of the sixties, besides that, he had a brief career so the obvious question that crossed my mind was -- Do people remember him? Or even know him? We therefore got on with our lives and the plan remained just that ‘A Plan’.

 Then one fine day my brother decided to do a Google search on dad; he wanted to see what was available on the internet and he stumbled upon a review of ‘Oonche Log’ in a film blog – Memsaabstory.