Friday (July 18) is the second death anniversary of the first and sole Superstar of the Indian film industry. A sad day for all those who admired him and love the films he worked in,leaving a grand legacy for Indian cinema. These films have made him immortal and he will live in the hearts of people forever.
Giving 18 back-to-back hits after the grand success of Aradhana, he wrote an unforgettable chapter in the history of our cinema. The adoration that he received from the nation and people all around the world has never been experienced by any actor before or after him.
It would not be wrong to call him a living legend. People of Dehradun and Mussoorie who have vivid memories of the actor as he shot for three of his films in Doon and Mussoorie - two of them in the seventies and one in the eighties. In fact, Rishikesh featured predominantly in his film Karm. Whenever he came to Doon or Mussoorie, he was at the peak of his career and people of the two towns exhibited the craze for him which was prevalent throughout the country.
The great actor’s interaction with students and staff of two of Mussoorie’s well-known schools, namely Hampton Court and Wynberg Allen, during the making of Karm in the seventies and Ghar ka Chirag in the eighties respectively endeared him to them. In Karm, the principal of the school was actress Sudha Shivpuri who later appeared as “Ba” in Ekta Kapoor’s soap titled “Kyunki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu thhi.” There are a number of scenes in Karm which show us the lovely campus of Hampton Court School (CJM). The Mohkampur area of the Doon valley (The railway crossing) is also quite recognizable. A considerable part of the film has been shot in Rishikesh which appears pristine and serene in the film-as it must have been in the seventies.
Schools of Doon valley, Mussoorie and Nainital have featured in many other Hindi films as they are in scenic locales and have beautiful buildings and infrastructure. Wynberg Allen school, one of the oldest institutions in the region, appeared in Rajesh Khanna’s 1989 film Ghar Ka Chiraag which was based on the older film Ek Phool, Do Maali where Balraj Sahni plays the role which Khanna plays in Ghar Ka Chiraag. Rajesh Khanna’s film Kati Patang shows us Nainital in all its glory and at length. And for once, Nainital has been called Nainital and not by some other name! The song “Jis Gali Mein Tera Ghar na ho Baalma” has Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh boating on the Nainital lake which looks absolutely heavenly in the film. There are many other movies which have a song or two shot at the Nainital Boat Club or the lake. One was the 1960s classic Waqt which shows Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore and their group of college friends on a college trip to Nainital. The song “Dinn hain bahaar ke,tere mere ikraar ke” was shot on the lake.People of Doon and Mussoorie will always get nostalgic when they will watch the films of their favourite superstar showing their cities in the background. His memories will linger on the in the hill station of Mussoorie and the valley of Doon.