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.