Remembering Raj Khosla, director of a string of hit films
Khosla directed 26 movies between 1955's 'Milap', starring Dev Anand and Geeta Bali, and 1989's 'Naqab', starring Rishi Kapoor and Farha. His last years saw his creativity under a cloud.
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Mint
6 days ago
- Mint
Raj Khosla@100: Asha Parekh remembers director who helped her break glam girl image with Do Badan
Mumbai, Jun 1 (PTI) Veteran actor Asha Parekh has credited the late writer-filmmaker Raj Khosla with recognising her potential beyond the "glam girl" image by offering her "Do Badan", a film that changed the trajectory of her career. At a retrospective event to mark Khosla's 100th birth anniversary on Saturday evening, Parekh said the filmmaker's decision to cast her in the 1966 drama came as a surprise to her as it went against the industry's perception of her. "Everyone in the industry thought I was just a glam girl, a dancing girl and that I am not a good actress. I do not know what Raj ji had in mind when he came to me and offered me 'Do Badan'. The critics wrote good things about me and my work in the film. It gave me confidence to do more such films," Parekh said at a panel discussion. "Do Badan" tells the story of two lovers -- Asha (Parekh), a wealthy young woman, and Vikas (Manoj Kumar), an orphan -- whose romance takes a tragic turn due to a series of unforeseen events. The film, which became a box-office hit on its release, also featured Simi Garewal and Pran in pivotal roles. The Dadasaheb Phalke award winner revealed that initially, her contemporary, Rakhee, was supposed to star in the film. "I remember, Raj ji called me and said, 'I want to talk to you'. I said, 'okay'. He came home and narrated the story. After the narration, I told him to promise me to make the film as it is. It was a beautifully-written film. It was poetic. I remember, women would cry watching the film," Parekh said. The actor also shared that she had suggested a different climax to Khosla for "Do Badan", one where only her character would die. However, after further discussions, Kumar convinced the director to go with a more tragic ending in which both lovers meet their fate. "He would say what he wanted but leave the artists to emote the way they want," Parekh said about their collaborative process. After "Do Badan", the two also collaborated in "Chirag" (1969), "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" (1971) and "Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki" (1978). Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was also part of the panel discussion along with Amborish Roychoudhury, the author of "Raj Khosla: The Authorised Biography", and Khosla's daughter, Anita. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), moderated the panel discussion. Khosla gave Hindi cinema some of its most memorable songs like "Lag Jaa Gale", "Mera Saaya", "Jhumka Gira Re", "Kahin Pe Nigaahen Kahin Pe Nishaana", "Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan", "Nazar Lagi Raja Tore Bangle Par", "Hai Apna Dil To Awara" and many more. Parekh said she loved the way Khosla shot the song sequences in his movies. "When you work in four films, the whole unit becomes like a family.... Raj ji came from the Guru Dutt school, there was a little bit of Guru Dutt ji that he had while doing (songs)," she said. The daylong retrospective, titled "Raj Khosla 100 -- Bambai Ka Babu", was curated by the FHF at the Regal Cinema in south Mumbai. As part of the celebrations, three of Khosla's acclaimed films -- "CID" (1956), "Bambai Ka Babu" (1960) and "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" -- were screened. The first two films have been restored in 4K resolution by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and National Film Archive of India (NFAI) under the National Film Heritage Mission, an initiative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Parekh said re-watching "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" brought back fresh memories. "It did bring back fresh memories. I had the most fun working with him. I wish I could see the entire film, but I had to leave," the veteran actor told PTI. "It was a film that was different from the films I was doing. It had beautiful songs. Laxmi Chayya had a better role than I, but despite that, I stood my ground," she added. Earlier in the day, actor Raima Sen introduced "Bambai Ka Babu", which featured her late grandmother, Suchitra Sen, opposite Dev Anand. Sen said she is glad that these classic films are being reintroduced and thanked the FHF for taking the initiative to commemorate Khosla's work. "I am excited to introduce this film, which is my favourite film. For her (Suchitra Sen), to take up this subject was a very bold move because it was not conventional and she was a star. "So to do an unusual film story of a brother and a sister, who till the end do not know that they are brother and sister, and the romance between the two, I think the film was way ahead of its time," Sen said.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Hindustan Times
He gave magic, mystery, great music to cinema
The year was 1964 and in that one year, I literally swallowed a lot of Hindi films into my heart and soul. Those were cinema times and my brother would make it a point to take us for every new release in Patna town and on Saturdays we would see old films screened in the open for the other ranks. My brother, who headed the family after my father's passing away, was a handsome and a strict disciplinary at times but no restriction did he put on us watching cinema. Those were cinema and radio times and my favourite was of course Dev Anand. Some of my friends had switched their loyalties to Joy Mukherjee, who danced around Asha Parekh with a guitar in his arms singing 'Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon'. Surprisingly, I had no favourite heroine, although my mother was very appreciative of Nutan. But that year I found my role model in Sadhna and guess how and in which film? It was a Raj Khosla film with haunting music and mystery and even before I got to see the film, I would be glued to the radio listening to the promo I still recall like a nursery rhyme. It went thus: 'Andheri raat, sansanati dastan, kabristan ka darwaza apne aap khula aur woh dekhate hi dekhate gum ho gayi. Woh kaun thi?' (A dark night, a scary story, the door of the graveyard opened, and she was lost forever. Who was she?). Well she was to become my role model and I wept before my mother that she give me a fringe cut. Now hair cuts for girls was a no-no in our male-dominated family and my mother was afraid of the response of her haughty Major son. So a story by my mother and bhabhi was made that I burnt my hair while lighting a lamp in my mother's little temple and there was no choice but to give me a fringe cut. This earned me the nickname of Sadhna in my peer group, to my great joy! The Raj Khosla times All this comes to the mind as I have in hand a mint-fresh authorised biography of Raj Khosla by Amborish Roychoudhury with passion and deep research, including long interviews with his friends, colleagues and associates. The book comes from Hatchette when he is all but forgotten, not because of his merit, but owing to the fact that he was not party savvy or publicity conscious. Yet Khosla was always a lover, always a poet with a singing soul and the great urge to be a singer like his ideal Kundan Lal Saigal. He was a great 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 but 'Bambai Meri Jaan' had other things in store for him. Dev Anand, in his early days of struggle, became a friend of Khosla in the Bombay Coffee House and later referred him to Guru Dutt when the Navketan cinema took root. Dev Anand always referred to him as a friend of the Coffee House days. The story of the Anand-Dutt camaraderie is well known. The two loved in the same building while they were trying to find a foothold in the Bombay Island as they called it. Once the press wala exchanged their shirts by mistake. So the two faced each other in the lobby in the exchanged shirts. They became such good friends that when they got a chance they would work together and the words came true. The book recounts that when Khosla was trying hard to get a break as a singer, Dev Anand told him, 'My friend Guru Dutt is directing my next film. Why don't you become his assistant. Come on Raj, we'll work together,soon you will be able to sing too.' The singing never came but much else came and Khosla was to become a great director with his films having some of great songs which are sung till date. If he reinvented Sadhna as a ghost singing 'Naina barsein rim-jhim', he also gave the feisty Mumtaz alluring song 'Bindia chamkegi' to lure Rajesh Khanna in one of the great breaks for the star. Biographer Choudhury writes; 'When I told my friends that I was writing a book on Raj Khosla, only the hardened film buffs among them showed any comprehension. Later, when I posted a collage from his films, my inbox was overflowing with messages of the following nature, 'Wow! All these songs are from his films? 'He needs to be celebrated'. Indeed, he is celebrated in this biography with aplomb and it is a book one find hard to put 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 era, Bhatt writes: 'Raj Sahab's story is larger than my memories, larger than my single telling. He was a magician, a creator of light and shadow, a man no biography could fully capture. But I salute the audacity of Amborish who has dared to do that'. Well said. nirudutt@
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Raj Khosla@100: Asha Parekh remembers director who helped her break 'glam girl' image with 'Do Badan'
Mumbai, Veteran actor Asha Parekh on Saturday credited the late writer-filmmaker, Raj Khosla, with recognising her potential beyond the "glam girl" image by offering her "Do Badan", a film that changed the trajectory of her career. At a retrospective event to mark Khosla's 100th birth anniversary, Parekh said the filmmaker's decision to cast her in the 1966 drama came as a surprise to her as it went against the industry's perception of her. "Everyone in the industry thought I was just a glam girl, a dancing girl and that I am not a good actress. I do not know what Raj ji had in mind when he came to me and offered me 'Do Badan'. The critics wrote good things about me and my work in the film. It gave me confidence to do more such films," Parekh said at a panel discussion. "Do Badan" tells the story of two lovers Asha , a wealthy young woman, and Vikas , an orphan whose romance takes a tragic turn due to a series of unforeseen events. The film, which became a box-office hit on its release, also featured Simi Garewal and Pran in pivotal roles. The Dadasaheb Phalke award winner revealed that initially, her contemporary, Rakhee, was supposed to star in the film. "I remember, Raj ji called me and said, 'I want to talk to you'. I said, 'okay'. He came home and narrated the story. After the narration, I told him to promise me to make the film as it is. It was a beautifully-written film. It was poetic. I remember, women would cry watching the film," Parekh said. The actor also shared that she had suggested a different climax to Khosla for "Do Badan", one where only her character would die. However, after further discussions, Kumar convinced the director to go with a more tragic ending in which both lovers meet their fate. "He would say what he wanted but leave the artists to emote the way they want," Parekh said about their collaborative process. After "Do Badan", the two also collaborated in "Chirag" , "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" and "Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki" . Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was also part of the panel discussion along with Amborish Roychoudhury, the author of "Raj Khosla: The Authorised Biography", and Khosla's daughter, Anita. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of the Film Heritage Foundation , moderated the panel discussion. Khosla gave Hindi cinema some of its most memorable songs like "Lag Jaa Gale", "Mera Saaya", "Jhumka Gira Re", "Kahin Pe Nigaahen Kahin Pe Nishaana", "Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan", "Nazar Lagi Raja Tore Bangle Par", "Hai Apna Dil To Awara" and many more. Parekh said she loved the way Khosla shot the song sequences in his movies. "When you work in four films, the whole unit becomes like a family.... Raj ji came from the Guru Dutt school, there was a little bit of Guru Dutt ji that he had while doing ," she said. The daylong retrospective, titled "Raj Khosla 100 Bambai Ka Babu", was curated by the FHF at the Regal Cinema in south Mumbai. As part of the celebrations, three of Khosla's acclaimed films "CID" , "Bambai Ka Babu" and "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" were screened. The first two films have been restored in 4K resolution by the National Film Development Corporation and National Film Archive of India under the National Film Heritage Mission, an initiative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Parekh said re-watching "Mera Gaon Mera Desh" brought back fresh memories. "It did bring back fresh memories. I had the most fun working with him. I wish I could see the entire film, but I had to leave," the veteran actor told PTI. "It was a film that was different from the films I was doing. It had beautiful songs. Laxmi Chayya had a better role than I, but despite that, I stood my ground," she added. Earlier in the day, actor Raima Sen introduced "Bambai Ka Babu", which featured her late grandmother, Suchitra Sen, opposite Dev Anand. Sen said she is glad that these classic films are being reintroduced and thanked the FHF for taking the initiative to commemorate Khosla's work. "I am excited to introduce this film, which is my favourite film. For her , to take up this subject was a very bold move because it was not conventional and she was a star. "So to do an unusual film story of a brother and a sister, who till the end do not know that they are brother and sister, and the romance between the two, I think the film was way ahead of its time," Sen said.
