There was a time in the 1970s when some cinema buffs faced a strange situation. The magical spell of the first superstar of the Indian Film industry—the versatile Rajesh Khanna—seemed to be weakening and suddenly, his films and his presence did not seem to have a great impact.
Things were changing after his five years of successive box office hits that made him acquire the status of a living legend. His was a stardom nobody could have imagined earlier. The entire country was in the grip of his charm and talent. He just had to lower his eyelids softly, slant his head and give that brilliant gentle smile. And the ladies would swoon!
He was the uncrowned king of the film industry and it was difficult for people to believe that this superstar (this term came to be used only with the advent of Rajesh Khanna) could ever fade away. However, all good things must come to an end and this great actor had to face a time when his Midas touch did not work any longer.
The film Namak Haraam after Anand was the one which decided that the audiences were now getting more interested in the actor who played Khanna’s friend in the film and who had earlier played the young, Bengali doctor in Anand.
Times were changing and the romantic persona of Khanna suddenly seemed out of sync with the changing times. With Zanjeer, the actor who was to go on to become the star of the millennium –Amitabh Bachchan- announced his arrival with a bang and lo and behold!
It was now the era of the “angry young man”. There was no longer any place for the soft and sweet emotions portrayed so beautifully by “Kaka” (as Khanna was lovingly called). The social environment looked for a change and issues like labour problems, political trends and serious social themes were taken up by film makers for which Bachchanji became the spokesperson as the protagonist.
Meanwhile, there was a tug of war between the people who refused to give up on their beloved superstar and those who were now the fans of the “angry young man”. The matter would be debated and each side would give arguments to prove that it was their star who was brighter and more beautiful.
In our lane, I can recall, there were two friends who were in college. They had been the best of friends since their kindergarten days, we were told. However it was on this issue that they turned into strangers. One of them was a diehard Khanna fan while the other could not see beyond the aura of Bachchanji. Nobody could reconcile the differences between the two friends.
Now that it has been so many years since that time one would have expected that these two men would have become friends again. However, it was shocking for me to know that even today, they are not on talking terms! The superstar has left the world.
Bachchanji has shown everyone that he is indeed the star of the millennium. People have forgotten the days when the angry young man took over from where the romantic hero left. The world is a different place now. But so strong was the love these two friends had for their respective idols that they could never forgive each other for loving the other one.
This always reminds me of the two friends portrayed by Khanna and Bachchan in the film Namak Haraam. They too were shown to be so close to each other and then get estranged. The affection that these two friends in Dehradun had for each other proved far weaker than their admiration for the stars they worshipped. People around them stopped trying long ago to bring them together . They just could not go back to being friends.
Strong loyalty on the part of fans has been witnessed all over the world. And in this case, the two personalities who were the idols were so powerful and magnetic that one can perhaps not blame these two people.
However, I am sure that had these two great actors known about this episode of real life, they would have not felt good about it. Their larger than life personalities are surely worth loving and admiring. But people will agree with me when I say that friendship is precious and should not be broken so easily.