Sab Se Aage Honge Hindustani…

September over the years has seen the birth and death of many known names. This week, we have a mix of a few – legends like Mehboob Khan (1907-1964), Bhupen Hazarika (1926-2011) and Mukul S Anand (1951-1997). Some of them were notorious too, not entirely their fault, like Jagmohan Mundhra (1948-2011) and BR Ishara, who was discussed at length in the first few columns.

Mundhra’s case is interesting, as his list of films is an eclectic mix of socio-political, erotic and horror thrillers, which he distributed in India. Famed for his trilogy of strong women-centric films like ‘Bhawander’, ‘Kamla’ and ‘Provoked’, it is reported that he was working on a film on Sonia Gandhi when death snatched him away on September 4, six years ago.

His films had known names like Nandita Das, Deepti Naval and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles, which gave him an A-grader status. More fascinating is the fact that he comes from a conservative Marwari background, which shunned cinema as he made a lifetime career out of it!

Babubhai Mistry (1918-2010) and Salil Chowdhury (1923-1995) were born and died on the same day – September 5. The former, who began with directing ‘Fearless Nadia’-Mary Ann Evans in the ‘40s, was known for his cinematography and co-directional efforts with Nanabhai Bhatt, the father of Mahesh Bhatt. His repertoire of films was a minuscule, 16 over four decades, largely confined to mythological films which gave him scope for special effects.

The lives of Mehboob Khan, of the ‘Mother India’ fame and Mukul S Anand, remembered for hits like ‘Hum’ and ‘Insaaf’ starring Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna respectively in his collection of directorial ventures are a contrast. As a film producer-cum-director, Mehboob Khan, born on September 9, was active between 1931-1962, during which he came up with an impressive collection of 20-odd movies, which included all-time hits with Dilip Kumar (Aan, Amar) and Raj Kapoor together (Andaz).

Mukul S Anand, who died on September 7, two decades ago, with a filmi background as his uncle (Inder Raj Anand) and cousin (Tinnu Anand) were in the industry, shone brightly with an interesting mix of films, inspirations from Western hits as also delectable commercial films with leading stars. His death at a very young age of 46 left his last film incomplete, titled ‘Dus’ which featured the two smart hunks – Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan in lead roles. One of the songs from that film, which never got made is the peppy Shankar Mahadevan number which is still heard all over – “Suno Gaur Se Duniya Walon…. Sabse Aage Honge Hindustani…”

Noted musician Salil Chowdhury, who died on September 5, 22 years ago and the relatively unheard Bhupen Hazarika, an icon of North East India feted for his music and songs in parallel Hindi cinema too was connected to the sultry September. While the former was a great success in Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam languages scoring hits by the dozen with Mukesh, Manna Dey, etc; the latter, born on September 8, owing to his association with MF Hussain, managed to stay in the mainstream for a while with the film ‘Gaja Gamini’. Fans, of course, will not fail to recollect the booming, haunting voice which belts out ‘Dil Hoon Hoon Kare’ from the film Rudaali, starring Dimple Kapadia released in the ‘90s.