"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.
