Indian cinema legend and yesteryears’ superstar Manoj Kumar passed away here early Friday morning. He was 87. The veteran actor had gone out of commercial circulation for almost 45 years, although at the peak of his popularity – which spanned over two decades starting with Haryali Aur Raasta (1962) to Kranti (1981) – he ruled the Hindi film industry as a bankable actor and a creative director.
Unfortunately, for Gen Zee and the Millennials, he is known more due to a lawsuit he filed against Shahrukh Khan for imitating him in his 2007-starrer Om Shanti Om.
Manoj Kumar can be said to have preceded Rajesh Khanna as the romantic hero, who debuted in 1966 and went on to become the first superstar. Kumar, by the time Khanna arrived, had started to wield the megaphone and emerged as a movie director of substance with the release of Shaheed (a biopic on revolutionary Bhagat Singh) and Upkaar (1967). Shaheed established Manoj Kumar as India’s patriotic hero, winning him the sobriquet of ‘Bharat Kumar’. He would go on to work in films such as Upkar, Purab Aur Paschim, Shor, Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and Kranti.
But it was the director behind Bharat Kumar the character that made Manoj Kumar stand apart from his contemporaries. Although senior to him by many years, only Raj Kapoor can be said to have graduated to the higher echelons of film direction beyond in-camera appearances on the celluloid.
For my late editor Chandan Mitra, himself a great connoisseur of Indian cinema, Manoj Kumar’s films tasted success riding on the shoulders of his music directors, especially Chandan’s favourite LP (Laxmikant-Pyarelal). Laxmikant-Pyarelal indeed provided a certain heft to the film’s storyline, be it Ik pyar ka naghma hai (Shor), Main na bhulunga (Roti Kapda Aur Makaan) or Zindagi ki na toote laadi (Kranti). Pyarelal, in fact, gave millions of Hindi movie buffs the goosebumps when he played Ik pyar ka naghma hain on violin while judging a popular music show Indian Idol on Sony TV in the recent past.
Kumar was always good with the selection of music directors. The producer of very his first venture Shaheed was Kewal Kashyap, the public relations manager of the then music lords OP Nayyar and Ravi. Kumar, however, convinced Kashyap to hire a newcomer, Prem Dhawan, and as they say rest is history.
Shaheed, despite being a serious patriotic production, can also be categorised as a musical due to iconic songs like ‘Mera rang de basanti chola’, ‘Pagadi sambhaal jatta’ and ‘Jogi hum to lut gaye tere pyaar mein’, which were trendsetters of the time. Then there were heart-wrenching numbers ‘Ay vatan ay vatan hum ko teri kasam’ sung by Mohammad Rafi, ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna’ sung by Manna Dey, Mohammad Rafi and Rajendra Mehta, and finally ‘Watan pe marne wale zinda rahega tera naam’.
For Upkar, he paired with music maestro Kalyanji-Anandji duo, which saw legendary Mukesh belting out ‘Deewanon se yeh matt poocho’, Manna Dey ‘Kasme wade pyar wafa sabb’, Mahendra Kapoor ‘Mere Desh ki dDharti’ and Lata Mangeshkar ‘Har khushi ho wahan’, which undoubtedly were their respective lifetime performances. Kalyanji-Anandji also cut a mesmerizing music disc with his next production Purab Aur Paschim. This blockbuster had chartbusting songs like ‘Koi jab tumhara hriday tod de’ by Mukesh and ‘Bharat ka rehne waala hoon’ by Mahendra Kapoor.
The master actor-director, however, unveiled his real genius in getting the music directors to compose traditional aarti (hymn) ‘Om jai Jagdish hare’, Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan ‘Raghupati Raghav raja ram,’ and the nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle twinkle little star.’ By this time, Santosh Anand too had joined Manoj Kumar’s team as a lyricist. He was to hold sway with songs written by him in Shor, Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and Kranti.
Talking of his directional genius, Kumar through his films proved himself to be master of contrasts. Though some film scholars find his contrast of cultures – from village versus city to East versus West – simplistic, but in the late 60s and early 70s when Hindi cinema was more about romance and less about social issues, he sold patriotism at the Box Office in a poetic fashion. The issues of unemployment, inflation and youth unrest have not been better told through Hindi movies than what Kumar conveyed in ‘Roti Kapda Aur Makaan’.
His virtuoso direction was again showcased in taking risk of creating unusual characters and getting established actors to play them, contrary to their screen images. This was best illustrated in celebrated screen villain Pran playing a saintly but straightforward Malang Baba in Upkar. This was a powerhouse performance by Pran, which changed his screen track from villainy to good-hearted character roles. Similar was the case with Madan Puri in ‘Purab Aur Paschim’ and Prem Nath in ‘Roti Kapada Aur Makan’.
Many may not be able to recall, but Kumar was also feted for his writing and film-editing skills. He wrote the story, screenplay and dialogues for several of his home productions, winning Filmfare awards in these categories for Upkar and getting nominated for several others. He also won the award for film-editing for Shor. He won the best director award for Upkar and Roti Kapda Aur Makaan.
In Manoj Kumar’s demise, Bollywood buffs have probably seen the last of veteran filmmakers who excelled in several departments of filmmaking. He was not just Bharat Kumar the character, but also a creator par excellence.
(Sidharth Mishra is author, film scholar and former journalist with The Pioneer)
