Ajay
Kumar Sharma
The sad news of death of Rajesh Khanna on July 18th
,2012 attract attention of leading national news dailies and TV channels. The
newspaper carried short stories of his heydays as first Indian Superstar and TV
channels beamed programmes about his success and failures. The actor undoubtly
hailed as India’s first superstar after 15 consecutives solo suprehits between
1969 and 1972.
His demise brought back memories of the charmer,
lover and hero to his fans and well-wishers.for,them his magic will remain forever.
For new generation Rajesh Khanna may be a forgotten name, as 21st
century film stars success is usually judged by much more hyped 100 crore club.
Even popular Khan trilogy of Bollywood cant be matched to mass- hysteria once
generated by this forgotten star. At a time when film stars were truly larger
than life, Khanna was even more, the one for whom the term SUPER-STAR was coined. It is even said that during his glorious days,
every thing he touched turned to gold, his popularity rarely seen before or since,
the world was at his feet, even it is reported that people bringing sick
children for his healing touch after his blockbuster HAATHI MERE SAATHI in 1971,his stature was like a god, he was the
rage of nation, even foreign tourist were amazed at his success, it is stated that,
once a team of US dignitary visited Delhi in 1971 and stayed at hotel nearby
Connaught Place, when they stroll out for evening walk, they were taken aback
that every cinema theatre of CP had board of Full House running the films of
actor Rajesh Khanna. His success was unparalleled, even mega star of our time
Amitabh- Bachhan was revived under his shadow, the films like Anand and Namak –haram gave him recognition and confidence, this fact even
accepted by him.
Is It fable or truth that hysteria he generated- women
visited beauty parlors before his films
as if they were going on date with Khanna,writing him letters in blood,
marrying his photograph and donning white when he married Dimple Kapadia. Khanna’s
famous co-actor Mumtaz recalled one such incident of his frenzy, one, day after
shooting, Khanna and she visited a famous hotel of Bombay .After some time news
was leaked more than 200 young girls reached at hotel when they were refused
entry by security staff all of them in frenzied mood kissed the parked car of
Khanna in such a manner that it was painted in color of their lipsticks.Mumtaz
was stunned by such sight she called on Khanna, who then waved towards them
from gallery of upper story of hotel and promised the girls fans that next day
he would meet them at the same spot, then all of girls departed peacefully.
Such was the phenomenon of Khanna.
Then, in a matter of months, it all changed.
Khanna’s career hit a downward trend as his meteoric rise just three years
after Aradhana(1969) and never really
recovered. It is said that like a shooting star doomed to darkness after a
glorious run. Later years of his career were spent in shadow of his stardom. In
one of his interview in late 1980’s Khanna exclaimed ‘True I have fallen down
and that hurts, if I would enjoyed moderate success, it would have been easier
to adjust to, but falling from that height has bruised me and left me
internally bleeding. The hurt is much more because I fell from Mount Everest.”
It is very strange fact that Khanna’s success in beginning
was the result of his failure of three years from 1966 to 1969,the year 1969
saw the modest success with Bandhan. The actress of his films were senior to him such as Sharmila, Mumtaz,Babita
,Asha parkeh and Waheeda rehman but it was the young romantic image of Khanna,
his mannerism, blinking of eyes, swinging neck and a enthralling smile make him
the romantic icon of nation, all this was beautifully crept into next release Aradhna ,a women oriented movie with
unfamiliar role for glamorous Sharmila,but it was the Khanna who was noticed
particularly for his double role,intial
response for 2 weeks was slow but film picked up for its solo and duet songs
sung by Kishore , Rafi and Lata composed by maestro, Burmanda a very big name
of Hindi cinema. In next few weeks Aradhana
was the rage of nation and Khanna became talk of the town as next door boy.
The film’s success was unparallel in those days, it celebrated Silver Jubilee
in cities like Bombay,Delhi,Madras
and Calcutta, surprisingly southern cities like Banglore,hydreabad and Trivandrum run to packed houses. The
smaller cities like Jammu,Benaras Luck now and Allahabad having very few Cinema
houses have witness same enthusiasm. The film magazine like SUN,STAR&DUST and FIIMFARE declared Khanna as new SUPER- STAR and many rave reviews were
published for this new star. The film critics were also fazed at such response
as Khanna has generated, he was considered as dark horse ,at that time when
larger than life stars like Dev Anand,Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapur ,Shammi Kapur
Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar,Manoj Kumar and Sunil Dutt were still round the
corner and others like Shashi Kapur,jeetandra and Dharmendra ,Sanjeev Kumar
were very active in industry.
The success of Khanna attributed to many reasons, as
sociological analysis of this period bring out some answers, younger generation
of this period questioned the good old Nehruvian idea of India, after debacle
of Sino –India war, food crisis ,Indo –Pak war of 1965 generate hope for new change.
So Hindi cinema also longed for change, this generation was looking for a new
star who be like them, not much sophisticated like old stars and Khanna
happened to be at right place at right time. He was not very glamorous like
previous star, not very good looking but smart, his image of boy next door
click with this new generation very well, women of this age too charmed by his mannerism and simplicity,
however society of those days was not very open as compared to ours, but Khanna
struck a cordial bond with women trough his lover boy image in such way that
every women seek a boyfriend or husband like Khanna. The young boys of that
phase emulate all traits of Khanna, like donning short beard, Guru Kurta and
close collar shirts to impress their women. So Khanna was a very fresh face of
industry to whom young generation desired as their typical idol.
The year 1970 saw Johhny Mera Naam of Dev Anand as
highest grosser of the year, but Khanna was not far behind with four releases Khamoshi,The Train having modest success, but with Safar and Sacha Jhoota
he archived great success, even got best actor film fare award for role in Sacha-Jhoota even surpassing veteran
actors like Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor which heralded the new age in Hindi cinema.
The songs of all these films were a plus point for success, magic of Khanna,RD
Burman,Kishor Kumar and Anand Bakshi were at peak.
The year 1971 was highest watermark in Khanna’s
career no other actor before him and since have enjoyed such success Kati Patang,Anand,Aan Milo Sajana and Hathi
Mere Saathi were the major hits,Hathi mere Sathi was the highest grosser
of the year. The famous radio show of the period Binaca Geet Mala under the greatest radio announcer Ameen Sayani
spoke joyously ‘’Bhaio aur bheno is saal 10 me se 6 gaane jo top per hai who
Rajesh Khanna ke filmo se hai”(dear brothers and sisters out of top 10 songs of
this year 6 are from the Rajesh Khanna’s movies) this was the culmination
of Khhanna’s career, he himself at the
one point of time stated’’Whenever I close eyes, my fans are thronging me, when I saw
them with open eyes I felt like a king, even when they try to come near me and
try to touch and jeer at me ,I felt like a God, sitting atop at pedestal and
devotee come to have my blessings”‘. Such was a madness for Khanna, no other
star in modern times come near the popularity like Khanna. The BBC also made a
documentary on the superstardom of Khanna, titled BOMBAY SUPERSTAR which was
released in 1973.
The year 1971 had other significance for Khanna’s career,
it is well told story that when Rmaesh Sippy launched his Shammi Kapoor starrer
Andaz with young Hema- Malini as new
actress he requested KAKA a popular
nickname of Khanna to have guest appearance in film, Khanna accept the role,
however his role run till few reels but beautiful picturisation of song‘Zindagi
ek safar hai suhana’’ on Khanna ‘resulted in great success of film and it run
to packed houses for many weeks this was the charm of Khanna in those days.
The year 1972 starts with three big hits Dushman,Amar Prem and Apna Desh
,Amar Prem was critically acclaimed film after Anand according to one story, producer want to shoot the sequence
of song “Chingari koi Bhadke”near Howrah bridge in Calcutta, as theme of film
was based on popular Bengali novel. The film unit decide to move Calcutta but
on reaching Airport entire unit was mobbed by the fans of Khanna, that
situation turn so ugly , it was feared that if shooting to be held at Howrah
bridge, it may collapse under the weight of Khanna’s fans, however story seem
to be exaggerated but it was the fact
that the song was later picturise under the model of Howrah bridge in one of
the Bombay studio .
After such stupendous success in 1972,come the doom,
next few movies crashed at the box office Dil
Daulat Duniya,Maalik and Sehjade could not keep the magic of Khanna, the
other films of 1972 ,Bawarchi,Joru Ka
Gulamm ,Mere Jeevan Saathi and Anuraag were average hits.In 1973 only Daag and Nmak Haram could do expected business.
In 1974 two more movies Roti and Aap ki
Kasam did well at box-office while Prem
Nagar did average business others
movies in post 1974 phase were not hits like that of super star quality. So
film magazine of post 1974 era declared Khanna had been de-throne from his
superstar status, the place of him definitely overtaken by new Angry Young Man Amitabh Bacchan the BIGB of
future years.
However, downfall of Khanna was the mysterious as
his success ,it is well known fact that during heights of superstardom of
Khanna film industry used this phrase ‘’Upar Aka neeche Kaka’’(God above, Below
KAKA) it was never used for any actor before or after, but his bewildering
success make him prone to failure it is wellsaid in context of Khanna ,success
has destroyed more people than failure will ever do.In later years Khanna lived
on with his lost superstardom, as he never realized in success there is no
looking back and no analysis, because whatever he do he was liked by the people
,when his film career start with flop he could not cope with his failures,
,sadly he blamed others for his failures. If one believe the sociological
analysis of Khanna’s failure, one will
find the fact that, generation of post- 1971 was effected by the success of
India in Indo –Pak war of 1971,Khanna represented the last stage of romantic
era of mid-60”s,the new generation liked a new theme of one superman who could fight
against the evils of the system. Society now need a new star who could raise
new hope for the future ,atrocities of Emergency -Era, raise delusion of people
against corrupt political system,incidently Amitabh fitted into this mould,
with his films like Zanzeer and Namak Haram ,he was represented in the
new role model of Angry Young Man, it was liked by the audiences, after Deewar and Sholay in 1975 it was clear that era of Romantic films over,
audiences now connected more with action oriented films rather to heavy laden
romantic stories of yesteryears.
But in the end ,I may say Charismatic era of Khanna
can not be forgettable for any writer who want to pen down the history of Hindi
Cinema, this period can not be ignored at any cost,I myself wish if, I had
witness the super-stardom of Khanna I may be bemused by his charisma and charm.
I may sum up my article by famous lines of Khanna’s best movie Anand’Babu
Moshiye Zindgi Badi honi Chayyie Lambi nahi ‘’and ‘’Anand Kabhi Mara nahi karte,
Anand kabhie marte nahin hai’’.May God give Peace to His Soul
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