Jhankar Beats on the Birthday of ‘Boss’
First things first. Today is Pancham Da’s 70th Birth Anniversary. Despite my limited knowledge of his spellbinding music, I still am a fan in my own humble way. So to not cause hurt to millions of real hardcore fans of His, I refrain from writing about the musical genius – RDB aka Pancham Da aka Boss. I thought I would rather write about something that actually introduced me to the His genius. A film very close to my heart, a film that I wanted to blog about eversince I chanced upon PFC. Jhankaar Beats. The reason (almost) why I gave up BPO to join advertising. Thank you Sujoy!
It was long back, when I was a BPO staffer, I used to work nights & watch films during the day, till my eyes gave up fighting the sleep & fatigue. That was in the pre-recession era, when BPO was at its peak, business per se. We used to get home drops and home pick-ups & on Fridays I preferred to be dropped at the CineMandir. First Day First Show. Aah. So it was one of those Fridays. I am standing outside, my fone switched off, all set to watch this wierd sounding movie called Jhankaar Beats. I am one of those who used to cringe at the T Series Jhankaar Beats added remix scams. So I was wondering what is in store for me…
Flashback jump-cut to even few more years back, when I was a Press Reporter at a small-time newspaper called the Garha Chronicle, back in Indore. I was supposed to interview Raza Murad at a star hotel and that itself was reason enough to excite the middle-class me & not who I was supposed to interview. Anyways I was sitting there waiting for him to turn up while I see a sea of young boys & girls queued up for I didn’t know what. The journalist in me was curious to know, so I walked up to one of those guys & asked what’s going on. The guy told me “Yaar graduates are getting jobs with salaries more than 10,000 bucks. I was stunned. I could smell a scam. I was grinning at this prospective scam that I could uncover and save the youth of my beloved City.
So I got into my Press Reporter character, finsihed the Raza Murad interview in a jiffy, dug out my small tape recorder & joined the guys who were queued up for the interview. I was recording the whole process of interview on my recorder, oblivious to the fact that there is something actually called BPO where they pay such obscene amounts to not-so-educated kids. I played on & by the end of it, landed a job at Spectramind, now Wipro BPO. My folks were stunned as they had given up on me almost completely. And there I was feeling too bloody goofy at my utmost idioticity. But that was then & things haven’t changed yet. ;-) OK, nobody else knows about this & I think it won’t offend anyone anymore, so I thought I would share it with my EF (Extended Family, for those who don’t follow AB Sir’s blog).
Cut back to that fateful Friday, where I would witness something that would open up the mad world of advertising to me. At that stage in my life I never knew of anything or anyone remotely related to ads. So the “Father of Multiplex Films” movie begins and I like the vibe. Positive, bubbly and all that. Now those days I was in love, and used to spend quiet some time, thinking what would my life be after marriage and 15 mins into JB, I knew I wanted a wife & life like that of Rishi, played amiably by Sanjay Suri. And then enters Rahul Bose. In that rickety cracker vintage car of his & that pigeon shitting on it had me rolling in the isles, probably for the first time ever.
Then the bond with JB was cemented forever as the Sholay connection came in. Basanti didn’t dance for Veeru, she was just saving her life. Holy fucking shit! That is something I never thought about, despite having watched Sholay so many times. So I was thoroughly enjoying myself and for the first time in those days, didn’t miss having my girl around. The joy ride continued, even after the entry of Rahul’s nasty monster-in-law. I was totally in the world of Rishi & Deep & their journey. Today when I watch the film, I can understand their situation better and empathise with them when they encounter the nose-digger. Watch the movie pronto, if you are still trying to make sense out of this post. It will help. :-)
Then the song ‘Suno Na’ maine pehli baar suna. I was totally bowled over by the sheer melody. The Hopeless Romantik in me pined for my girl & how! I mentally aborted from the scene and was in my imagination mode, singing it for my beloved. The song ends abruptly & am back with Rishi & Deep. Shit happens in Deep’s life & the scene with the divorce lawyers… priceless. My client wants his cello tape back! Another whammy! My stomach gets cramps laughing, even today, when I watch it. I mean what was that cello tape shit?
Entry of Niel, played by Shayan Munshi, another cracker, he plays the slow-poke, tubelight dude to perfection. He asks Rishi “Aap jaante hain mere papa kaun hain?” To which Rishi asks “Aap nahin jaante aapke papa kaun hain?” Chance pe dance. The actual un-acknowledged inspiration for Jaideep Sahni’s song for SRK’s RNBDJ track. Anyways, getting back to JB, I started enjoying the fun that they were having at their workplace. Though teeny-weeny compared to my then sprawling BPO office, I fell in love with the warmth & wit at the ad agency. And how can any talk about JB be comlpete without the mention of MUNDU? It’s a term that found its way into my vocab ever since.
So I decided that some day I will work for an ad agency. Even today, after about 5 years neck-deep in advertising, I am waiting for that elusive ‘condom campaign’ that I will get to work on. But alas, the wait is still on. Am struggling trying to sell bikes & cars & postpaid fone connections. But heck, am still having a ball, cuz I have created my own mad space alike Rishi, Neel & Deep. We have fun, we laugh at each other, at ourselves, have burger for breakfast & chill out with ‘BOSS’ on some weekends.
I guess, it has turned out to be a very long post & I can go on & on for a 10,000 more words about this movie, but work beckons. I request you all to pull out the DVD of JB one of these days & re-visit it, like I will, again, tomorrow. And yes, I send up a silent prayer to Pancham Da & Michael Jackson, that their blessed souls rest in peace & they come back to earth again and re-create the magik of their music. All over again. Here I quote Arfeen Khan, a facebook acquaintance: “A music icon has died, and the world remembers, yet, when he was in trouble the world disowned and distanced themselves from him. How sad. Im sure Micheal would have loved this kind of kindness when he was alive.”
Tags: Boss, Jhankar Beats, Juhi Chawla, r d burman, Rahul Bose, sanjay suri, sholay, Sujoy Ghosh, vishal-shekhar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Haha, Ekdum dil se…
And yeah, I too feel the same about MJ. He was used as punching bag by the media and now same folks are shedding tears. I feel sorry for his last days. The end came too soon. RIP MJ.
Magik Bhai…Its all about control
I too like this movie..good post
breath in
breath out
dear Magik.. your post has been the single most humbling experience for me since JB opened 20.06.03. And to date i maintain that.. what JB achieved was because of people like yourself who saw and said good things about the film. Thank you so much for this kind post because not only me.. lot f my colleagues ran on faith to make JB happen. Vishal and Shekhar specifically who stood from day zero till date by the film. From all of us.. and i am sure they will voice the same.. thank you and continue to love movies.
i think if you take out the music that he has composed for gulzarsaab, rd burman was all hype!!
he was a pretty good musician but not even close to the likes of naushad, hemant kumar, madan mohan and even his dad!!and he’s made out to be some kind of magician (that indian cinema hadn’t seen)…quite akin to the case of Raj Kapoor…
Lovely post, Magik! JB has some distinctive hues that one can never forget – Amazing songs(Suno Na esp.!), some real mad jokes( You forgot this one – Tu itni subah Burger kaise kha sakta? and, when Shayan Munhsi is all nervous each time he bumps into Riya Sen, hehe), sex obsessed neighbours, and everything else you covered in your post. Climax was rather hurried, but, even then an awesome movie. Glad that a movie can make you carve your own personal space. Felt nice, reading that.
- Thank you Sujoy. It clearly looked you had a ball making JB. Best with Aladin!
Magik biraather :P,You seriously brought back some awesome memories. I gotta admit, This movie is one of the very few good memories of 10th standard i’ve got,what with suffering through the board exams and shit :D….And yeah,this was one of the best Urban movies i’ve seen,considering the only one i’d seen at that time being Bas Yun Hi(if anybody remembers that),Anyways..Fantastic article :D
And yeah,plz do post the transcript of the Raza Murad interview if u can ;)
This is why i love your posts Magik. i have been a silent stalker of your posts for quite sometime..and now voicing my love. You bring that personality in every post of yours..with a nice dose of comic. Keep writing..keep making me smile :-).
JB had become my daily dose..used to watch atleast 30 mins everyday while having dinner :-) For almost 4-5 months
JB became my instant favorite. We were at a friend’s house and my friend didn’t let us watch it completely once the “Breathe in, breathe out” started!
It still give me giggles…
Another ad campaign scene that I was absolutely hilarious was Sanjay Dutt’s idea of an underwear ad in Khubsoorat (I think)….
‘Suno na’, just wah! The best part of your posts have always been the way you blend your experiences with the actual premise of the post. Its a damn cool experience for the readers. Wonderful post bro!
Wonderful post, Magik. These would have been my thoughts exactly, perhaps not expressed as eloquently. For a great film junkie, Jhankaar Beats is one of my most favorite movies of all time. I also went to see the movie with no background knowledge and a lot of trepidation that someone was perhaps trying to cash in on this whole jhankar music novelty. But the movie is a profound tribute to RD Burman’s music and the way his fans idolize him. The cello tape episode is just priceless and as a person who took more than 15 years, collecting those obscured tapes from every nook and corner in the country, I can vouch for that feeling. The collection is the most prized possession. It would be oh so natural to worry about those “cello” tapes first and foremost under such circumstances. Equally conceivable and hilarious is the reaction of people such as the lawyer and the wife around you who get frustrated and bewildered at your possessiveness of the treasure.
– finally, I was able to crack the movie title connection – I believe the title is a take off on RD Burman’s bengali album – Jhonkaar, right?
@ Sujoy: OMG! am freaking elated, glad, mad with joy having read ur comment here! At this state of overwhelming ecstasy wutever I say would amount to MUNDU, so all i say is that i would for sure be privileged to work with you sometime soon. Yay!!!
@ Vee: thanks a bunch bro.
@ Rohit: better safe than worry ;-)
@ Tanul: thanks yaar! as i said in my post, there are 10000 more words that i would like to add but…
@ Vikram: bro, a separate post for my other interviews that i covered! :-)
@ Salik: am wid u on the khoobsurat ad!
Sridhar: thanks for the encouragement! really appreciate it!
Ashok Sharma: may be sujoy wud be the best person to explain the connection. thanks.
@ OM Bhai: i was trying to txt dis to oz bhai last night but it dint get thru. so here: “PFC makes my zindagi rawk. countless thanks to you and the team that holds PFC together. Am indebted forever. magik ki jhappi aap sob ko! am so overwhelmed! Yay!”
@ magik: hey, my comment disappeared twice, gotta check my net-connection! anyways…
JB is an eternal fav, n thanks for reminding us all over all agn abt the magik of JB..
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btw, i was expecting abt your mentioning the BJ in JB, that was one hilarious moment.
@ Jha saab: thanks for the encouragement. this post was supposed to be a family entertainer, so no BJs. hahahaha. see u in b’lore! frozen wid excitement! :-)
@Sujoy – you have created a magic and magik has created another by reminding us of JB. It was not just a 3 hours’ movie…it was an experience of three hours..which you can cherish for a lifetime. I owe you my career…its only cos of JB, i got into advertising.
@ Magik – Thanks dude for reminding and rewinding the memories…I have always loved this movie…and much before ROCK ON rocked the youth to persue their dreams…JB has given me enough goose bumps to foray into the world of advertising. Everything was so gud..tht i still remember it frame by frame. MAy be its archana puran singh’s sexy entry and the irritated neighbour who spills tea every morning on hearing Rishi’s car starting sound, another neighbour of his MIND-CONTROL ideas…the chance pe dance dialogues..the condom campaign, the mumdu, the great comic timing by RAHUL BOSE. Above all the nose digger client…it remind me of my ex VP (you know wut i am talking abt). The movie made me a die hard fan of Rahul…and knowing tht he quit his job as a Creative Director of leading ad agency inspire me more to get into movies. I owe to PFC as well, to give me a chance to speak to the people whom I always admired (Anurag Kashyap, Pankaj Advani, Sujoy, Anupam, KK, etc etc)
Thanks again for the nice article…keep it up dude !!
Cheers !
Ashu Bhai
@ ashu: oye senti! filmi oye! thanks amillion for mentioning archana puran singh, jo kuchh bhi kar sakti hai… kuchh bhi. hahaha. this was an eye-opener. never knew u also got into advtg thanks to JB. i guess tera mujh se hai pehle ka naata koi… :-) magik ki jhappi!
summer of 2003 …. a boy was in his 12th standard …. with the pressure of boards and entrance exams the boy hardly got time to watch movies all alone by himself ….. 1 day on cable TV he saw the beginning of this new movie “jhankar beats” ….. he had not heard many of pancham da’s songs and wasnt a great fan but still he kinda started falling for the movie ….. anti-climax — boy calls his mom and asks her to watch this new movie ….. she sits and stays with him till the movie finishes. The boy belches when his mom leaves the room. And since that day all his hesitations and inhibitions etc etc all long lost and he merrily enjoys watching the-so-called-double-meaning-movies with his parents. Thanks sujoy and thanx magik bhaiya …. yaadein taaza karn eke liye.
@ Shatik: thanks oye! JB seems to hv connected dftly for dft ppl. am not alone! yay!
Having watched the movie a number of times, and having forced all friends, sex no-bar, to watch it – my favorite scene remains when Rahul Bose slams his car in the ‘heat of the moment’ ;)
Two years ago, I witnessed similar accident when a couple I know slammed their car on a rock. Despite the gravity of the incident, we were all rolling on the floor laughing, remembering the scene from the movie. :D
Magik, great post!You know when I went to see JB, my film trip was planned with a late lateef friend. Tab movies 3 ghante ki hua karti thi. And she was late. By a whole hour. She said she thought we’d enter half hour before interval. Like that would be ok! Really !!!
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We entered in the interval! Can you bloody believe it??!! So I will never forget JB. I first saw the second half. Then I went again and saw the entire film! :D
@ Tejas: that was a funny anecdote!
@ Arati: thanks buddy! but i cant bloody believe it!
Magik, even i couldnt!!
hey bro.. Really nice post!! My dad worked for Garha Gears , the same group that published that news paper
, and even ad agency is one of my dream jobs , you are so lucky that at least you can do something creative over there … and Jhankaar Beats is the father of multiplex films 4 sure 
@ saurabh: mere indori bhai! tera mujhse hai pehle ka naata koi! ;-) glad u liked the post. damn i miss indore so much… can’t wait to hv johnny hot dog @ chhappan! Insha Allah whenever am in indr, we should catch up for sure! and yes, if u wanna do anything in advtg in indr, its purlpe focus all the way. the best place to learn and a work-place like the one we saw in jhankaar beats. all the very best. gawd bless.
Magik.. the best part of your posts is they are always wrapped heavily with nostalgia … they drag u in a world and comfort u and sooth you.. by the time posts end.. u feel… WTF… real life is so bad !!
Though this year we are loosing one Magician after another…Keep creating the small small Magik we all can in our own small small ways…
@ ScrapManic: bro u made my day! can’t tell u how much n why i was mindfcuked, but now me shall sleep a happy man. this encouragement will help me write much better. thanks a million! :-)
Maamu!! You just triggered a chain reaction through a billion neurons!! Cut to 2003, watching this movie at your ghar in Lokhandwala that you rented to rise closer to your then love of life “woh rehne wali worli seaface apartment ki”!! Little did you know that you would rise way beyond just the sea facing apartment! I still remember that flat where we watched this on cable tv. And the laughter sort of bound us together like curd and rice in curdrice!
Rahul Bose is what I always thought you were while you constantly tried to convince yourself that you were sanjay suri…And henpecked is not the only adjective that you would be attracting here! But sadly those lovely days are gone but your FANTABULOUS post brought back all the beautiful memories of “Boss kaun hai malum hai kya?” days…
I think the movie above all was about chasing your dream that “Rock on” relived in a fresh way! The other moral of the story was about the promise to myself that no matter what I will not get into a relationship with anyone who’s gonna henpeck me instead of just pecking! ;)
Although my favourite director is Boss’s baap in reel life and real life, my admiration of his ultra original music will never fade!!
Thanks a razmatazillion for such a cooooool post!! Wakaaw!!! Wakaaw!!! Wakaaw!!!
@ veejay: mere praa, “curd and rice in curdrice” ROFLMAO! hahaha, good ol’ days… senti kar diya faale kaminey… dhan ta daan!!!
Was this movie a first in showing or rather implying a blow job!
Magik ekdum dil se kaam leta hai! Nice!
BTW I just dont understand everyone’s obsession with RD Burman. He was very good, but certainly not the best. He also copied and could not compose symphonies. His music was much of the time unnecessarily loud. In fact if there’s someone who’s a great Indian musician, its AR Rahman. It was plain ridiculous to see Rahman get a RD Burman award for music. SHould have been rather the opposite.
Magik…
Bro dont call me bro.. can call sis though
Cheers,
Amrita
The movie had a line by the mother in law (Shashikala), when she shouts “What is that”"What is that” to a cricket appeal and Sanjay corrects her “Its howzzat”! It got me thinking that the cricket appeal itself is all wrong and Shashikala was right. You dont ask the umpire how good or bad the delivery was. You ask the umpire, “Whazzat” Is it out or no? not Howzzat!
@ Vinay: glad u liked the post. though i disagree upon ur views abt ‘BOSS’ but thats alrite… u r but entitled to ur opinion. :-)
@ ScrapManic urf Amrita: thanks to PFC now i hv a sister that i never had. cheerz!
Magik congrats on getting a sister!! That’s one relationship sorely missing from your life!! LOL!! ROFL!! Hope you get the hint!! How about now getting me a bhabhi through PFC as well! ;)
Anyways, I agree with Vinay that RDB wasn’t the greatest! He was outstanding nevertheless! In fact, it is sad that when the RJs on umpteen radio channels claim they are gonna have a retro or an oldies show, all they end up playing is RDB. That’s such a sad generalisation of the great oldies era.
I think the true test of who’s the greatest musician is simple – someone who single mindedly and confidently disapproves of being catergorised to a certain genre or style of music. SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Naushad, Salil Chaudhary and Shankar Jaikishan were equally or more versatile in their creations.
Consider Salil da’s Madhumati – from “Suhana safar aur ye mausam hasin’ to “Aaja re pardesi” to the crazy crazy crazy “chadh gayo paapi bichhua” the variety is limitless in the same movie.
However, I could (I swear) identify any song from RDB even when I haven’t heard it before. The congos, guitars, bengali touch is a complete giveaway…Is that bad!! Not at all…RDB is a maestro and his stories of dreaming up tunes and calling over Asha tai to get her to hear the new tune he just dreamt of are not uncommon. But RDB is a pioneer in his own regard. He’s the bridge between the Indian folk, semi classical and the western music scene! Maestro he is! God? Perhaps not!
@ veejay: u dawg u. LOL. bhabi thru pfc? ROFLMAO. :-D ok abt ur stand on Boss, here is the corniest quote ever, by any person dead or alive, exclusive only on pfc:
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Old is gold. Older is golder.
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my apologies. ;-)
Hey Magik, thanks for reminding me about JB. Your post actually made me revisit not only the DVD of the film but it also made me pull out the dusty soundtrack that had been sitting in the bookshelf of my room for years. JB is truly a highly underrated film with a lot of wit and great performances by Juhi, Sanjay and Rahul. Very nice tribute to the boss.
@ Daljeet: mere praa, am glad u did! thanks for the encouragement.
@ Magik-
Well finally I’ve managed to read the post ( its unlike me to be so late but you do know that things have been hectic of late for me right? ) and I must say its blown me yaar.A great post on an amazing movie.Thanks Sujoy and team for moving us so deeply with JB.I still remember watching the
movie with my brother @ Chitra Cinema,Dadar-Mumbai and had one helluva time.Keep watching the movie again & again whenever I can.The Sholay jokes really added spice to the movie.And the songs- OMG- awesome,no doubt.Suno Na is my favorite too.
@ Sethu: bro i did wonder wether u got kidnapped or something… :-) u have been off radar for a few days now. thanks bro. thodi pagalpanti zaroori hai. LOL!
Sethu Sethu Sethu….enna pa enga irke? Good to see you…..Hyd kab ara baap? Magik tho Mumbai plans banara…
Sridhar- I’m moving back to Chennai on a new assignment.kandippa hyd visit will happen soon officially itself.aur us din zaroor dhoom macha denge right?
Great!!!…Haan pakka milenge…Lets get the monk with the wings into the act….
Magik any chance you can make it to Hyd to visit family and friends? ;)
@ Sridhar: family nahin hai. friend tum ho. :-) insha allah if work permits, will plan a trip to hyd. char minar ki biryani savor kiye hue zamana ho gaya. cheerz!
Sure ana bro. Mehman nawazi hum karenge…Bawarchi ki biryani, Madina ke kabab, Parwaan ke paya, Alpha ki sharbat, Hum jaise doston ki sohbat aur shaam me jaam ;)
Hope the timing would be the same when Sethu is here….sala mazaa a jayega….
JB, this was one of the reason i choose advertising as my specialisation.
Sorry to post a irrelevant comment here.
I need your mail ID/ number to coordinate with you for tonight’s SS premiere.
PS smsed me that he’ll give my pass to you.
Sorry to post a irrelevant comment here.
I need your mail ID/ number to coordinate with you for tonight’s SS premiere.
PA smsed me that he’ll give my pass to you.