Prakash Mehra – Rote Huye Aate Hain Sab, Hasta Hua Jo Jayega
Location – Railway Station
Scene-1, Take-1:
A disappointed youngman, totally down and out, failed in his endeavours and wishing to return home, is about to board a train. That’s when a small time director, with a bit of success, appraoches the youngman and advices him to stay on; asks him to be positive and not just that, he also offers him a role in his next upcoming movie. The youngman shows faith in the director and decides to give it one last shot. The movie is made, goes on to become a super-duper hit, the youngman eventually carves a place for himself in the annals of history; and as usual, the director who gave the country an angry-youngman, dies in oldage with lot less than deserved or credited for.
The scene may not have played out as was written above, but that’s how the legend has it. The youngman was none other than Amitabh Bachchan, the one-man-industry; the movie was Zanjeer and the director was Prakash Mehra. Prakash Mehra passed away today in illness, and its a big loss to the film industry.
Let’s just re-play his life, his achievments, his dreams, his movies and his success story. Mehra started out as a production controller, in the late 1950’s, with movies like Ujala which came in 1959 and Professor in 1962. He graduated to become the assisstant director of Majboor in 1964, starring Biswajeet and Waheeda Rehman. His moment finally arrived in 1968, when he turned director with Haseena Maan Jayegi which starred Babita and Shashi Kapoor in a double role. The movie had a decent story with war as a dropback, where one look-alike replaces another, in an inconvenient manner. It has a murder suspense, an emotional drama with Babita playing the wife who is faced with the dilemma of probably living with a man who may not ber her husband, but a look-alike. The movie had two lovely songs, Kabhi Raat Din Hum Door The and Bekhudi Mei Sanam. The film was a good directorial debut and it did very well at the BO, giving much confidence to Mehra.
His next movie as a director came 3 years later, in 1971. Mehra got an opportunity to direct both the Khan brothers together, Feroz and Sanjay, in Mela which released in 1971. The movie was set in a village and we see here the seeds of a typical masala potboiler, which later became his forte, where 3 men revolt against the current panchayat setup of the village. All the characters in the movie were diverse – a man from a lower caste wishing to marry a brahmin girl, an orphan who is brought up by a muslim woman, a daaku who will not allow any women from the village to tie the nuptial knots because the thakurs had raped and killed his sweetheart. The orphan was played by Sanjay and Feroz played the disgruntled daaku, and added to this is the twist of the lost-and-found saga where 20 years back Feroz had lost his sibling in a fair. Mehra probably hit the winning formula with this movie, with a great mix of characters, secular touch, cast/class barriers and the lost-found story. The movie was well received at the BO.
Before Mehra turned producer with Zanjeer in 1973, he directed a few other movies like Samadhi and Ek Kunwari Ek Kunwara. Neither of the movies did very well, but Samadhi did have one zingy number which later became popular after being remixed, Kanta Laga.
Finally Mehra decided to produce movies and Zanjeer was his first venture. This movie catapulted Amitabh Bachchan to stardom and gave us the man who would go onto become the superstar of the millenium. There is so much to write about this movie, but it may not be possible right here. All I would like to say is that Mehra directed this movie with utmost honesty and it showed. He portrayed actual anger and not just undertones of it, as was seen in movies of 1960’s and 70’s. The manner in which BigB does not let a criminal occupy a seat in the police station, the way in which he displayed smouldering anger when he was jailed on false charges and the way BigB interacted with the anti-elements of the society was brilliant. He did it, without playing to the gallery; he later lost this art.
After the unpredicted success of Zanjeer, Mehra directed Haath Ki Safai in 1974. This was another lost-and-found story where a young Raju is orphaned and separated from his elder brother Shankar. Raju becomes a small time pickpocket while Shankar becomes a don. In what circumstance they meet again, how a stolen necklace brings them together forms the rest of the movie. Randhir Kapoor played Raju and Shankar was played by Vinod Khanna. Mehra, by now, had mastered the art of making such masala movies and as was expected this movie also went on to become a big hit. The song Waada Karle Saajna, from the movie, remains one of the most romantic songs.
Two years later, in 1976, came Hera Pheri starring Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna; the movie was produced by Mehra himself. This was the second time that Mehra directed BigB and Vinod Khanna, but the first time he was directing them together. The movie had a convoluted storyline about two friends who are petty thiefs who have a secret past which leads to familial revenge drama. Although the movie was not good, it rode on the waves of BigB and VK. The movie had lots of comical moments, silly laughs and gags and a few funny songs as well. Mehra handled his stars well, but went over-the-top in all departments.
The success of Hera Pheri prompted Mehra to bring the two stars together again, this time in a new-age Devdas version. The movie was Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, produced and directed by him. The movie was mediocre at best, but no one notices the flaw when the package is this good. Mehra roped in Amjad Khan, Rekha and Rakhi; and added his twists to the story. Rekha played out Chandramukhi while Rakhi was happy playing Paro; the twist was that both of them had admirers. Vinod Khanna was the love interest of Paro, who pulls her out of BigB’s space of affection and love. Amjad Khan was the local goon who likes Chandramukhi, so you must have understood that BigB was the sulking Devdas. The movie had some beautiful songs like O Saathi Re, Salaam-e-Ishq and the title song; all set to tunes by Kalyanji-Anandji. The movie did whopping business, cemented BigB’s position in the industry and turned Mehra into a director with golden touch.
Mehra and BigB went on to give 3 more blockbusters to the industry; Laawaris in 1981, Namak Halaal in 1982 and Sharaabi in 1984. Although, all these movies did wonderfully well at BO, they lacked a sense of script and drama. Namak Halaal had a myraid of comical scenes scattered throughout the movie – the party scene [totally inspired by Peter Seller's movie The Party], the interview scene about cricket commentary, the dinner table scene with the fly and of course the drunk scene. It was BigB’s performance that pulled in the crowds, enthused the movie-goers. Mehra should be given the credit for taking the best out of BigB, tapping his emotional and comical talent to great effect.
Sharaabi was a movie inspired by Arthur, but the movie succeeded due to BigB’s brilliant portrayal of a drunk yet happy and graceful man who is out to help the needy. His emotional detachment with his father, how he drowns himself in alcohol and desires no part of his father’s wealth went very well with the audience. They laughed, they cried, they sympathised with him and loved him so much that they made the movie a huge success by watching it again and again. Similarly, in Laawaris too, the audience sympathised with BigB and totally understood his angst. Mehra could literally feel the pulse of the fans and the normal movie watchers, and showed Amitabh Bachchan in all those roles which would appeal to them. All three movies lacked a sense of purpose, was not good cinema but just entertainers which went on to do well only because BigB starred in them. Mehra directed these movies which were totally over-the-top, but credit must go to BigB for carrying-off these mediocre roles with such panache.
Another thing that went in Mehra’s favour was the music of the movies. All the movies had songs that are sung to this day – Pag Ghungroo Baandh, Raat Baaki, Aaj Rapat Jaye, Jahan Char Yaar, De De Pyar De, Inteha Ho Gayi Intezar Ki, Kabke Bichhde, Mere Angne Mei and many more. All these songs were picturized well and BigB came to the forefront as a true entertainer.
In 1989, Mehra directed BigB for the last time in Jaadugar. The movie was weak in all departments, the script was bad, the dialogues were plain, setup was horrible and everything about it had ‘flop’ written all over it. But BigB did the movie in good faith, never ever questioning his directors. The movie tried to portray him as a messiah of sorts, and BigB’s get-up was matched up to resemble Jesus and so were the long drawn sermons. Only a die-hard fan of Amitabh can sit through the movie, and I have not just sat through it but have watched it quite a few times.
The last directorial venture of Mehra came in 1996, Bal Bramhachari which was the debut movie of Rajkumar’s son Puru Rajkumar and co-starring Karishma Kapoor. The movie was a non-starter at the BO, and Puru could never really recover from his bad debut.
Nevertheless, Mehra’s contribution in the industry is immense. He will be remembered for the great association he had with Amitabh Bachchan and the way they enthralled the audience for a decade. He will be remembered for giving Alka Yagnik her singing debut in Mere Angne Mei and for the fantastic antics of BigB in that song penned by his father, Harivansh Rai Bachchan. He will be remembered as a man with a big heart, who made movies king-size, conjured up images that audience would not just relate to but also lap it up. He will be remembered everytime we play out those funny sequences from Namak Halaal and Sharaabi, everytime BigB delivers the emotional lines from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and everytime a police station scene is shot. He will be remembered as a great entertainer who gave us BigB.
zindagi to bewafa hai, ek din thukrayegi
maut mehbooba hai apne saath lekar jayegi
mar ke jeene ki ada jo duniya ko dikhlayega
wo muqaddar ka sikandar jaaneman kehlayega
May his soul rest in peace.
Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, bigb, haath ki safai, Hera Pheri, jaadugar, laawaris, mela, namak halaal, Prakash Mehra, sharaabi, vinod khanna, Zanjeer
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I think he was best when it came to portray pathos on celluloid. Amazing undertsanding of human emotions, sentiments.
BTW,MKS–mediocre at best!!??
Prakash Mehra RIP. Am not one to give glowing tributes about people I don’t know, cause screen/media persona means nothing to me it is all make believe, but my mom is a couple of degrees of sep from their family–the way he cared for,stuck by and looked after his once lively, then comatose wife after her accident in Delhi airport—hat’s off to you. Rest in peace Sir. I never say “Ji” to anyone in Bollywood, RIP Prakash Mehraji.
And also for taking a chance, and giving a relative newcomer/till then flop actor, Amitabh Bachchan to the Indian and global cinema.
May his soul rest in peace….
~Ashish
RIP Mehra saab!
@Vivek Kumar: thanx for the personal inputs, adds value to the post and our readers.
i totally agree with u when u say that he cared and stuck by people who were close to him. in fact, his friendship with BigB is legendary, both hailed from UP and that struck a chord. he was instrumental in tunring amitabh into BigB.
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he may not have made movies of class and finesse, but he provided wholesome entertainment in all his films. thats just a reflection of who he really was, a fine man in deed.
Prakash Mehra was certainly instrumental in bringing out the ‘angry young man’ persona of Amitabh Bachchan & the combination gave us wonderful movies, high on the entertainment quotient.The industry has truly lost an old guard and somebody of immense repute.Wish his soul RIP.
Making such movies is truly challenging cause you are not making it out of any best selling novels, you haven’t appointed great screenplay writers. You are just trying to guess ‘what will work for audience’. Apart from its an mammoth task to convince actors like Amitabh do such silly and mediocre acts with little sense in it.
Mehra – The entertainer – RIP
To me he was not in the league of the greatest directors yet one of the most significant in the era I grew up watching films (the 70s and 80s).
Pre Jadugar era, Each and every venture of his with Amitabh Bachchan was a Super Hit, still Post MKS He always tried to create an alternative to Bachchan and this was a significant era in his career as every such moved flopped.. He turned Shatrughan Sinha in Jwalamukhi. but when it failed, came back with Lawaris, Namak Halal and Sharabi with Big B.. then again he moved away from Big B (as some of the high profile projects with Big B got stuck like Kaayar, Aalishan and Chanakya).. Tried Raj Kumar in Muqaddar ka Faisla and Mohabbat ke Dushman and both bombed and got back to Amitabh for Jaadugar (final fall out as he felt betrayed with Big B doing Toofan on similar lines at the same time with rival Manmohan desai).. Tried to create BigB Magic with Anil Kapoor for a script written for Big B in Zindagi ek Zua.. and that bombed too.. I think the problem with his non-bachchan films were that he always wrote script with Amitabh in mind and when replaced other actor, couldn’t create that magic.
Still most of his films from Haseena Maan Jaayegi to Sharabi are real good entertainers.. One can watch them again and again.. We are not going to miss you Mr. Mehra as you are going to live thru your films.. RIP!
-Pavan
I truly feel bad the way the veteran filmmaker called his pack up. His films, especially with the Big B are legendary. I’d like to recall one of his most memorable films, which unfortunately does not get enough mention. The film is Khoon Pasina. The film’s humor was tremendous, not to mention genuine. And it had some of the most memorable characters one has seen in Hindi Cinema. Veteran actors Asrani and Aruna Irani may have worked in more than 300 films, but if you ask them even today I am sure their characters of the husband wife duo are the ones they’d be most proud of. Other noteworthy performances from the film besides of course Mr. Bachchan are Vinod Khanna’s and Kadar Khan’s. A truly great film. Watch it if you haven’t yet.
RIP Mr. Mehra.
Yes,
Khoon Paseena was a good entertainer.. be it the tension between the protagonists (Bachchan-Khanna) or the fight with Tiger.. really loved Bachchan’s comic act in “Bani rahe jodi raja rani ki jodi” (which eventually was repeated in Bhootni ke recently)
Hera Pheri was another good entertainer and the way Mehra saab had incorporated Asrani’s character in the film made it really interesting.
@Amir R Jaffar: i did not mention ‘khoon pasina’ because prakash mehra is neither credited for having produced nor directed the movie. it was produced by babboo mehra, some relative of his; not sure. hope someone can throw some light on this.
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khoon pasina was quite a laborious movie, really long winded. the characters were named ‘tiger’ and ’shera’, tat was nice
@pavan: that gambling scene in the casino was hilarious. the way he asks amitabh ‘bhai saheb, aapke saath kabhi aisa hua hai’ and once when he returns from the restroom he exclaims ‘what a relief’…that was awesome. even today i use that line
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one more thing i forgot to add about mehra saab was his writing capability. he has written quite a few songs here and there in namak halaal, sharaabi and chameli ki shadi. he always wrote funny stuff…jahan char yaar, pag ghunghroo, log kehte hain mai sharaabi hoon etc…
here’s a video tribute to this master entertainer
Even though its true that the association of Prakash Mehra with Big B worked wonders at the BO he also gave Vinod Khanna two huge hits.In fact before Qurbani,Vinod Khanna’s biggest hits were Haath Ki Safai and Hera Pheri.The best thing is that even today I enjoy Haath Ki Safai/Hera Pheri.These films gave Vinod Khanna star status and started he commanding the second highest fee among the male actors only after Amitabh.Prakash Mehra enjoyed making multistarrers.
@p1j I never knew Zindagi Ek Jua was directed by him!!It was fairly decent,in fact quite good by 80’s standard.Dont know why it flopped!!
Anindya- Zindagi Ek Jua was a 1992 release & not an 80’s movie.It had a great star cast but had nothing new in terms of story & the music was also a disappointment.
@Sethumadhavan: i disagree tat zindagi ek jua had nothing new in terms of story. i liked the movie and thought that it was quite bold in parts especially with the drug addiction scenes. madhuri playing a drug addict was done well.
i did not include this movie in my post because it was nowhere close to other movies of mehra saab, in terms of entertainment value.
@Rals(17),
Zindagi Ek Zua was one of the rare few films that I walked out of during Interval (Other one was Ina Meena Dika). The film could not hold me for entire length, believe me have seen worst films to entire length in expectation of something good in second half (not sure but at that time probably Bachchan (Sympathy) factor also played a big role as could not digest Anil Kapoor in his shoes.. Dont know but missed much acclaimed drug and death scene of Madhuri.. though didn’t care much about that.)
@Sethu(16),
Disagree on the music factor.. It was surely not a disappointment, specially what you can expect from BL (at that time), it was better.. The film had some reasonably OK numbers and I still play a lot of the in the inside built in player.. Title song (Asha’s version was ofc better than the one by Sanu ) was good.. but I liked Kabhi Kuchh Khoya and Dil to dil hai.. was much better than NS/AM stuff coming out those days..
Rals/Pavan- To each his/her own.I used to be a huge Madhuri fan & even thought Anil Kapoor was a having a great run in those days.So probably my expectation from the combination was very high.Compare the movies they’ve done together like Tezaab,Ram Lakhan,Parinda,Kishan Kanhaiya,Khel,Beta etc which were all released before ZEJ and I’m sure you’ll admit that the plot or the music wasnt all that great.I’m talking from a comparitive angle & not from a standalone view.
The most fitting tribute to the great man, that i have read. You capture his life and his works so well. Yes, he will be remembered as the man who gave us BigB. That is his curse and his legacy. As for me, I have watched Sharaabi over 50 times and counting….
Khoon Pasina is a Prakash Mehra production. The name given in the credits is a sort of way to play the Bollywood tax game in those years. He also made Inaamdaar (Sanjay Dutt was pretty decent in it).. again, different names in credit but a PMP (Prakash Mehra Production) work. He also produced Dalaal (Mithun Chakraborthy) in the 90s for the masses (he could not bring himself to direct such movies..watch it & you’ll see why), but he minted money off of that film. There are others.. Ghunghroo (Shashi Kapoor), Jwalamukhi (Shatrughan Sinha), etc etc. The guy just loved doing different works not all successful.. but look at his average in his career.. he was (will be remembered).. a legend. Rest in peace
the first time i saw Haath Ki Safaai, the thing that stuck me most was the song – oopar waale teri dunia mein… what amazing lyrics for a full-on masti song. and for that, i watched the movie a lot of times.
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didnt know for a long time that it was Prakash Mehra film, since i was too young to bother abt the directors. besides, for me, PM always stood for AB.
May his soul rest in peace…..
Am surprised nobody brought up Ghungroo, Jwalamukhi and MUqaddar Ka Faisla. Not that they were great movies, but they should figure in the discussion..
@sethu: Zindgi Ek Juaa music was not a disappointment at all. In fact BL surprised me big time. The strongest part of ZEJ music was its lyrics, again written by Mr. Mehra