Joy Mukherjee’s dream project, a film made in 1972, will finally see the light of the day and will be released by PVR Director’s Rare. His wife, Neelam Mukherjee, tells Divya Kaushik that the actor was a sensitive director and a producer who often crossed his budget while making a movie
Boyish looks and chocolaty charm were not expected to be the traits of a quintessential Bollywood hero in 1960s. But Joy Mukherjee was an exception. Those boyish looks and perfect physique made him the sure shot pick of the directors for the romantic roles. He stood true to the romantic titles entrusted to him and justified through his work the title, king of love stories. He was addressed with this title soon after the release of his first film love in Shimla with Sadhna. While the actress was referred to as the Bollywood’s Audrey Hepburn of that era, thanks to her fringes, Joy made the women swoon.
After love in Shimla, the film produced by Joy’s father Sashadhar Mukherjee, came the golden jubilee hit love in Tokyo and the actor wanted to complete his ‘love in’ series with the third one, love in Bombay. The film that also directed by the actor and featured stars like Waheeda Rehman, Kishore Kumar and Ashok Kumar was completed in 1972, but could not see the light of the day. Reportedly the film faced hurdles at the distribution front. “The distributors listed the legalities to be completed for the release of the film and there were other problems as well, that is why Joy had to take this tough decision to not release the film at all. But the film was close to his heart and during the family discussions he often mentioned how much he awaited the release of the film,” shared Joy’s wife Neelam Mukherjee about love in Bombay and added that like his other popular films, music is the high point of this film. It was composed by Shankar Jaikishan and lyrics were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Neelam and her children decided to fulfill the dearest wish of Joy Mukherjee and digitally restored love in Bombay. The film will be finally releasing after over 40 years by PVR Director’s Rare. “After the death of my husband last year, my elder son was going through his personal papers and he found about the cold storage in Worli. When he visited the cold storage he found the negatives of love in Bombay and was surprised that even after over 40 years they were not in a very bad state. The guard who was working at the cold storage saw him in shock and revealed that Joy would often visit the cold storage with his assistant and devote an entire day to manually clean the negatives. So you can make out how dear this film was to him. When my son told this to us, we were sure we wanted to make this film happen. I am thankful to Director’s Rare to take up the film and it is the right platform. They keep doing such work, they also released Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. And even after they took up the film there was a slew of distributors who wanted to release the film. What an irony! When Joy expected and wanted the release of the film, it could not happen because of problems with distributors and now when he is not there to see the release of the film, there are so many takers for it,” added Neelam.
The film is an adventurous romantic tale about an innocent, young man Badal (Joy) who meets an arrogant city girl Preeti (Waheeda Rehman) on a ship. When the ship gets caught up in the storm, Badal saves Preeti’s life and they along with a few others are stuck on an island. Neelam informed that it is very much like an Australian film Crocodile Dundee and unlike his other films, Joy is not a smart, city boy in the film.
Unfortunately, most of the cast of love in Bombay are not here to see the release of the film. Neelam said that along with Joy “this release is the tribute to all those brilliant people from the film industry.” Waheeda Rehman was informed about its release and she was pleasantly surprised. “Of course it’s been over 40 years so she didn’t remember everything, she asked if she dubbed and we reminded her that the film was even censored and complete. She is very happy that the film is releasing now,” said Neelam and shared that Joy was not a very good producer as “he was a simple, gentle soul and very sensitive who often went overboard with the budget. But he never owed any money to anyone. As a producer he was not good at keeping up with the finances. But he was definitely a very good director and most of his films came from his heart.”
Neelam was brought up in Delhi in a traditional Sikh family and met Joy at The Oberoi hotel. “We both loved to read and good music. I went to The Oberoi to look out for good books and even he was there. I knew him as an actor and when I met him I had only watched love in Shimla, I watched it when I was in fourth or fifth standard, and could not place him at once. It started from that one meeting at a book store and I watched most of his films after marriage,” she shared.
Neelam revealed that in those times Joy was the only actor to have a personal trainer. “While women loved him for his boyish looks and addressed him as ‘Hi handsome’ men loved him for his physique. His father had built an akhada in the bungalow and had a pehalwan to train them. So since childhood Joy was into fitness and his trainer was a weight lifter who also participated in Tokyo Olympics. Not many would know that Joy took off his shirt during a romantic song sequence with Helen in Hum Hindustani. I often tell Salman Khan he is not the first one to take off his shirt on screen. My husband started the trend,” shared Neelam.
