News was delayed by 14 minutes when Mahesh Bhatt's movie Janam was shown on Doordarshan channel.
Mumbai:
Remember an incident in the 1980swhen the news on Doordarshan was deferred by a few minutes sothat a film that was telecast was over?
Or do you know that the song Sham-e-gham Ki Kasam fromFootpath was put together from slices of differentrecordings by composer Khayyam, when such practices werefrowned upon in the early 1950s?
These and several other titbits related to Hindi filmsfind mention in a new book titled '40 Retakes: BollywoodClassics You May Have Missed' by Avijit Ghosh.
According to the author, the book, published byTranquebar, is an attempt to revisit a "bunch of special filmsthat either did not get their due or have been largelyforgotten".
While working on the book, Ghosh stumbled upon someinteresting sidelights like Majboor has shots inserted from(not inspired by) Charles Bronson's film Cold Sweat andMahesh Bhatt was dead drunk when he first saw Shernaz Patel,the heroine of his film Janam in a video.
Recalling the Doordarshan incident involving his film,director Bhatt says, "For the first time in popular memory thenews was delayed by 14 minutes till the film was over."
Janam, a 16-mm telefilm shot on a shoestring budgetwith Kumar Gaurav and debutante Shernaz Patel in the lead, wasjust an hour and 45 minutes long, but the "advertisements inbetween stretched it past the sacrosanct newshour in thepre-satellite era. Then the unthinkable happened: rather thanstopping the movie, the news was deferred".
But Janam didn't just create a furore; it also made animpact. The story of an 'illegitimate' son trying to beacknowledged by his father had something raw and real.
"I was going through it. It was the unfolding of my life.I wrote it as I lived it," says Bhatt.
According to the author, Janam is an autobiographicalmovie told from the guts.
How Bhatt spotted Shernaz is also an interesting story.
He recalls, "I had gone to a party with Soni Razdan (nowwife). We ran into Simi Garewal there. She took us home. Ikept drinking there till 3 am. Some time that night sheshowed me some video footage. And despite the drunken haze, Iremembered that a girl was brilliant in the video. She wasShernaz Patel. What Bhatt saw was actually an episode fromGarewal's own television show It's a Woman's World.
Ghosh says his book's objective is to bring somedeserving films back to popular notice.
"In these times of too much information, it is easy toforget without even trying to know. This book is about givingthem a second chance," he says.
Interestingly, quite a few of these films were financedby the state-owned Film Finance Corporation (now National FilmDevelopment Corporation), which only underlines how the stateplayed a vital role in supporting and promoting good cinema,especially in the 1970s and 1980s.
Even Doordarshan produced some fine movies during thisperiod. One of them, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jayen, is includedin this book.
The author says most of these films "suffered from poormarketing for which their producers must take a major portionof the blame. Indeed, many producers and directors felt thatwith better marketing these films would have enjoyed ahealthier life at the box office".
Another interesting anecdote is that actress Simi Garewalwas dating cricketer Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi during the makingof Dev Anand-starrer Teen Devian.
"When we were shooting, I was dating Mansur Ali Khan. Atthat time, he was India's cricket captain. He came on the setto see me. When the crowd saw him, they just leapt up to meethim. And this was in the middle of a shot," Garewal recalls.
Among the films mentioned in the book are: Footpath(1953), a Left-leaning film in which Dilip Kumar gave one ofhis most nuanced performances; director-actor ChandraShekhar's Cha Cha Cha (1964), a fascinating musical wherethe 'Harijan' hero becomes a fabulous pop dancer; Sehar(2005), one of the most under-feted gangster movies byBollywood; and Antardwand (2010), a movie on shotgunweddings that gobsmacks one with its authentic portrayal ofmofussil Bihar.
Or do you know that the song Sham-e-gham Ki Kasam fromFootpath was put together from slices of differentrecordings by composer Khayyam, when such practices werefrowned upon in the early 1950s?
These and several other titbits related to Hindi filmsfind mention in a new book titled '40 Retakes: BollywoodClassics You May Have Missed' by Avijit Ghosh.
According to the author, the book, published byTranquebar, is an attempt to revisit a "bunch of special filmsthat either did not get their due or have been largelyforgotten".
While working on the book, Ghosh stumbled upon someinteresting sidelights like Majboor has shots inserted from(not inspired by) Charles Bronson's film Cold Sweat andMahesh Bhatt was dead drunk when he first saw Shernaz Patel,the heroine of his film Janam in a video.
Recalling the Doordarshan incident involving his film,director Bhatt says, "For the first time in popular memory thenews was delayed by 14 minutes till the film was over."
Janam, a 16-mm telefilm shot on a shoestring budgetwith Kumar Gaurav and debutante Shernaz Patel in the lead, wasjust an hour and 45 minutes long, but the "advertisements inbetween stretched it past the sacrosanct newshour in thepre-satellite era. Then the unthinkable happened: rather thanstopping the movie, the news was deferred".
But Janam didn't just create a furore; it also made animpact. The story of an 'illegitimate' son trying to beacknowledged by his father had something raw and real.
"I was going through it. It was the unfolding of my life.I wrote it as I lived it," says Bhatt.
According to the author, Janam is an autobiographicalmovie told from the guts.
How Bhatt spotted Shernaz is also an interesting story.
He recalls, "I had gone to a party with Soni Razdan (nowwife). We ran into Simi Garewal there. She took us home. Ikept drinking there till 3 am. Some time that night sheshowed me some video footage. And despite the drunken haze, Iremembered that a girl was brilliant in the video. She wasShernaz Patel. What Bhatt saw was actually an episode fromGarewal's own television show It's a Woman's World.
Ghosh says his book's objective is to bring somedeserving films back to popular notice.
"In these times of too much information, it is easy toforget without even trying to know. This book is about givingthem a second chance," he says.
Interestingly, quite a few of these films were financedby the state-owned Film Finance Corporation (now National FilmDevelopment Corporation), which only underlines how the stateplayed a vital role in supporting and promoting good cinema,especially in the 1970s and 1980s.
Even Doordarshan produced some fine movies during thisperiod. One of them, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jayen, is includedin this book.
The author says most of these films "suffered from poormarketing for which their producers must take a major portionof the blame. Indeed, many producers and directors felt thatwith better marketing these films would have enjoyed ahealthier life at the box office".
Another interesting anecdote is that actress Simi Garewalwas dating cricketer Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi during the makingof Dev Anand-starrer Teen Devian.
"When we were shooting, I was dating Mansur Ali Khan. Atthat time, he was India's cricket captain. He came on the setto see me. When the crowd saw him, they just leapt up to meethim. And this was in the middle of a shot," Garewal recalls.
Among the films mentioned in the book are: Footpath(1953), a Left-leaning film in which Dilip Kumar gave one ofhis most nuanced performances; director-actor ChandraShekhar's Cha Cha Cha (1964), a fascinating musical wherethe 'Harijan' hero becomes a fabulous pop dancer; Sehar(2005), one of the most under-feted gangster movies byBollywood; and Antardwand (2010), a movie on shotgunweddings that gobsmacks one with its authentic portrayal ofmofussil Bihar.
