Roundabout | He gave magic, mystery, great music to cinema

The 12 months was 1964 and in that one 12 months, I actually swallowed plenty of Hindi movies into my coronary heart and soul. These had been cinema instances and my brother would make it some extent to take us for each new launch in Patna city and on Saturdays we’d see previous movies screened within the open for the opposite ranks. My brother, who headed the household after my father’s passing away, was a good-looking and a strict disciplinary at instances however no restriction did he placed on us watching cinema. These had been cinema and radio instances and my favorite was in fact Dev Anand. A few of my pals had switched their loyalties to Pleasure Mukherjee, who danced round Asha Parekh with a guitar in his arms singing ‘Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon’. Surprisingly, I had no favorite heroine, though my mom was very appreciative of Nutan. However that 12 months I discovered my position mannequin in Sadhna and guess how and by which movie? It was a Raj Khosla movie with haunting music and thriller and even earlier than I acquired to see the movie, I’d be glued to the radio listening to the promo I nonetheless recall like a nursery rhyme. It went thus: ‘Andheri raat, sansanati dastan, kabristan ka darwaza apne aap khula aur woh dekhate hello dekhate gum ho gayi. Woh kaun thi?’ (A darkish evening, a scary story, the door of the graveyard opened, and he or she was misplaced eternally. Who was she?). Properly she was to develop into my position mannequin and I wept earlier than my mom that she give me a fringe reduce. Now hair cuts for ladies was a no-no in our male-dominated household and my mom was afraid of the response of her haughty Main son. So a narrative by my mom and bhabhi was made that I burnt my hair whereas lighting a lamp in my mom’s little temple and there was no selection however to offer me a fringe reduce. This earned me the nickname of Sadhna in my peer group, to my nice pleasure!

The Raj Khosla instances

All this involves the thoughts as I’ve in hand a mint-fresh authorised biography of Raj Khosla by Amborish Roychoudhury with ardour and deep analysis, together with lengthy interviews together with his pals, colleagues and associates. The e book comes from Hatchette when he’s all however forgotten, not due to his advantage, however owing to the truth that he was not occasion savvy or publicity acutely aware. But Khosla was at all times a lover, at all times a poet with a singing soul and the nice urge to be a singer like his ideally suited Kundan Lal Saigal. He was a fantastic connoisseur of the poet of all poets, Mirza Ghalib. Born and schooled in Punjab he was proficient in Urdu poetry. His dream was to be a playback singer however ‘Bambai Meri Jaan’ had different issues in retailer for him. Dev Anand, in his early days of wrestle, grew to become a buddy of Khosla within the Bombay Espresso Home and later referred him to Guru Dutt when the Navketan cinema took root. Dev Anand at all times referred to him as a buddy of the Espresso Home days. The story of the Anand-Dutt camaraderie is well-known. The 2 cherished in the identical constructing whereas they had been looking for a foothold within the Bombay Island as they referred to as it. As soon as the press wala exchanged their shirts by mistake. So the 2 confronted one another within the foyer within the exchanged shirts. They grew to become such good pals that once they acquired an opportunity they’d work collectively and the phrases got here true. The e book recounts that when Khosla was making an attempt arduous to get a break as a singer, Dev Anand informed him, “My buddy Guru Dutt is directing my subsequent movie. Why don’t you develop into his assistant. Come on Raj, we’ll work collectively,quickly it is possible for you to to sing too.” The singing by no means got here however a lot else got here and Khosla was to develop into a fantastic director together with his movies having a few of nice songs that are sung until date. If he reinvented Sadhna as a ghost singing ‘Naina barsein rim-jhim’, he additionally gave the feisty Mumtaz alluring tune ‘Bindia chamkegi’ to lure Rajesh Khanna in one of many nice breaks for the star. Biographer Choudhury writes; “After I informed my pals that I used to be writing a e book on Raj Khosla, solely the hardened movie buffs amongst them confirmed any comprehension. Later, after I posted a collage from his movies, my inbox was overflowing with messages of the next nature, “Wow! All these songs are from his movies? “He must be celebrated”. Certainly, he’s celebrated on this biography with aplomb and it’s a e book one discover arduous to place away.

As Mahesh Bhatt remembers

The heartwarming prelude to this soulful remembrance has a prelude by Mahesh Bhatt who approached Khosla in 1969 to be his assistant. Witness to his period, Bhatt writes: “Raj Sahab’s story is bigger than my reminiscences, bigger than my single telling. He was a magician, a creator of sunshine and shadow, a person no biography might totally seize. However I salute the audacity of Amborish who has dared to try this”. Properly mentioned.

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