I am a movie buff. Television had not made its advent in Mumbai, till I entered college. Even when television came, there were no private channels on television, only Doordarshan, which would condescendingly exhibit a feature film, week-on-week, every Sunday evening. So the theatre was the only place where I could watch a movie.
RISE OF A SUPERSTAR
It was in college that I started watching movies regularly .There were no multiplexes then, only single screen theatres, with a flourishing black market for the tickets of ‘hit’ films released. Films completing 100 days, completing a 25 week continuous run(silver jubilee) or completing a 50 week continuous run(golden jubilee) were milestones, publicised through banners, newspapers and film parties. I saw Aradhana and like countless millions, became a Rajesh Khanna fan, overnight. A superstar was born. Welcome to the idyllic and gentle world of Rajesh Khanna! Romance got a fresh lease of life, with his winsome smile and come hither looks.Silver jubilee and golden jubilee hits became the order of the day.
The very presence of Rajesh Khanna in a film was reason enough for a visit to the theatre for all his fans. His aura would light up the screen. He could do no wrong, even in a macabre film like Red Rose , where he played a psychopath . In his films, he would be either romancing life, or death. There were no villains to bash up. Pran had switched to character roles, since Upkaar .There was no violence. Amrish Puri had yet to open his innings.Salim -Javed wrote gentle scripts like Haathti Mere Saathi .The situational antagonist in a Rajesh Khanna film would be either the rich-poor divide, or the heroine ‘s father playing the spoilsport, or a misunderstanding between the hero and the heroine, or illness or death, of Rajesh Khanna, all grandstanded with adequate melodrama. The flesh and blood villains were a Prem Chopra, ( Kati Patang, Do Raaste, Ajnabee ) or sometimes a Vinod Khanna( Aan Milo Sajna ). Their trespasses into the plot of the film, could be forgiven, as theirs were only pass-through intrusions, to elongate the screenplay, while the protagonist, Rajesh Khanna, serenaded and romantically wooed his heroines(notably Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Asha Parekh, and Shabana Azmi) with elan, songs, dances, with a tilt of the head here, a crinkling of the eyes there.
To mothers, he was a son to shower affection upon; to college girls, someone whose photo they could secretly keep under their pillows, and pine for; to unmarried maidens, the suitor they could take home to their parents, (arranged marriages be damned); to boys, the man they could grow up to one day, without needing to be a he-man or looking like a Greek God. Rajesh Khanna’s USP lay in his seeming vulnerability, and his universal appeal across all ages, making his films hugely popular family entertainers.
Rajesh Khanna had the uncanny ability to choose good, unusual scripts coupled with good producers/directors/banners of the likes of Shakti Samantha( Aaradhana, Amar Prem, Ajnabi, Kati Patang ), Mohan Kumar( Awatar and Amrit ), J.Om Prakash productions( Aan Milo Sajna and Aap Ki Kasam ), Hrishikesh Mukherjee( Anand, NamakHaraam and Bawarchi ), Ramesh Sippy( Andaz (a guest role), Basu Bhattacharya( Avishkaar ) Yash Chopra( Ittefaq and Daag ), Dulal Guha( Dushman ), Chinnappa Dewar productions( Haathi Mere Saathi ), Asit Sen ( Safar and Khamoshi ), Manmohan Desai( Saccha Jhoota , Roti ), Chetan Anand ( Aakhri Khat, Kudrat ), Vijay Anand ( Rajput ), Bharatiraja( Red Rose ), Raj Khosla( Do Raaste ) et al. For example, Chinnappa Devar was a money bag producer from the south, and he showed the script of Haathi Mere Saathi to most of the then contemporary stars, before he approached Rajesh Khanna.
All of them reportedly rejected the script, on the premise that an elephant would get primacy, and walk away with the honours, or that the audience would not accept such a film. Rajesh Khanna took up the challenge, got the script rewritten by Salim-Javed, and the rest is history.In an industry, where destinies are made or unmade, every week on a Friday, he acted in more than 160 movies.
Rajesh Khanna had the best of contemporary lyricists(Anand Bakshi, Indeevar, Yogesh, Majrooh, Gulzar, Sahir, Kaifi Azmi) penning timeless lyrics for him, and the best music directors lending mellifluous music to his films viz .Shanker-Jaikishen( Andaz and Dil , Daulat Aur Duniya ), S.D.Burman( Aradhana, Prem Nagar ), R.D.Burman( Kati Patang, Amar Prem, Mere Jeevan Saathi, Namak Haram, Apna Desh ), Kalyanji-Anandji( Raaz, Bandhan, Safar, Saccha Jhoota, Adalat, Maryada ), Laxmikant-Pyarelal( Do Raaste, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, Daag ), Salil Choudhary( Anand ), Madan Mohan( Bawarchi ), Khayyam( Thodisi Bewafai )and so on.Though Kishore Kumar was the voice Rajesh Khanna preferred, and who crooned the maximum number of hit songs for him, he also delivered a fair amount of romantic hits with Mohammad Rafi( Aradhana, Do Raaste, The Train, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, Aan Milo Sajna ), and a few sober hits with Mahendra Kapoor, Mukesh and Manna Dey( Bandhan , Anand, Kati Patang, Maryada, Bawarchi ).
Add to all this, his personal charisma, his versatility in essaying a variety of roles, his acting skills honed from his early days at the theatre, a unique blend of mannerisms, a well-modulated voice, his punchlines, and oneliners à la’ Pushpa, I hate tears’, in Amar Prem, * the efforts of publicists like Devyani Chaubal and Bunny Reuben-all these brewed into a cocktail formula for success-and Hindi films saw the birth of its first superstar.
THE DECLINE
And then came an *angry young man with films like Zanjeer , Deewar , Khoon Paseena , Namak Haram in tow.We, as loyal fans of Kaka, as he was known by then, would watch Amitabh Bachchan films, and walk home, sometimes a confused lot, as to whom we should owe allegiance to, the superstar or the babumoshai . To be fair enough to Amitabh Bachchan, the angry young man’s image was not consciously sought by him, but thrust on him after Zanjeer and Deewar by the Hindi film industry which has a penchant for stereotypes. Amitabh Bachchan was eminently watchable even in staid films like Saudagar , Sanjog and Ek Nazar .
Rajesh Khanna had a comeback of sorts when he gave major hits in Avatar , Amrit and Souten in the 1980s.But none of these films resurrected the magic. The denouement was there for all to see. Maybe he was a victim of fickle audience tastes, or maybe he could not establish the same emotional connect with the audiences, that had earlier catapulted him to success. Or perhaps, as some believe, his personal idiosyncrasies, his megalomania, and his insecurities, with their attendant consequences, probably did him in. His fall from grace at the box office for compulsive fans like me was as painful, as had been our unalloyed pleasure and adulation, in his heady success.
ADIEU
Adieu, Mr. Khanna, I never met you in person, in your lifetime, but the news of your passing away upset me to the point of transporting me into deep melancholy, as must have been the experience of countless other fans. I heard you were lonely in your last years, when everyone, including your fans, deserted you.
Sad, but in your tryst with death, you have recouped the love and affection, which lay dormant in our hearts, over the years. We will always fondly recall the moments we spent, watching you and your classics, on cinema and television screens.
This then will be your legacy: a cinematic legend, adored by millions, while alive, and bequeathing fond memories, now that you are no more.
May your soul R.I.P.