Pehla Nasha, Pehla Khumaar (bhaag ek)
Anand Tiwari
Hi everybody,
Of late most Hindi films have been boosting the morale,
sales and expectations of the analgin/novalgin/amrutanjan makers in
India and their respective counterparts in the U.S. The more we look
at the current scenario the gloomier it appears. Of late there has
been some discussion on RMIM regarding the calibre and perfomance
of contemporary artistes (singers, MDs , lyricists and film makers).
While the overwhelming majority of people have concluded that most
of our present day artistes are not of the calibre of the yesteryear
greats ,they certainly have some amount of talent in them which can be
honed to make them capable of delivering better perfomances in the
future.
Comparisons fair and unfair have always remained a part of our
discussions. These comparisons become more marked when we have a
young man stepping into his worthy and illustrious father's shoes,
to try and keep the name of his banner flying high and to make a
name for himself in the business where you are as good as your last
film/perfomance/song. When it comes to the success rate of our film
makers, Nasir Hussain had no parallel till the early '80s. All the
films he made till then were successful. He produced his own brand of
entertainment which was characterised by scenes of kashmir, romance,
and always a foot tapping soundtrack by RDB. However after "Hum Kisi
Se Kum Nahin" he lost his magic touch. Three films "Zamaane Ko Dikhana
Hai" (which has Shailendra Singh singing Hoga tumse pyaara kaun ,
picturised weirdly (though i liked it) on Rishi and Padmini on top
of a train and Asha ji's seductive number Bolo Bolo punctuated with
Haiyya Haiyya), Manzil Manzil (which has the beautiful Dimple singing
O Meri Jaan ) and Zabardast (which has jab chaha yaara tumne and Bhool
Ho gayi jaane de sajna) bombed at the box office and gave a clear
indication to Nasir Hussain that something was wrong.
The flopping of the three films had a positive fall out. Nasir Husain
brought in his son who had a degree from the U.S in CS and had earlier
made a video film for Nari Hira to direct a film which had a safe,
conventional storyline. Mansoor Khan made his debut with the February
release of
QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK (1988)
-----------------------------
1988 was a good year for the movie goers. They were treated to good
unacknowledged remakes of 3 English/Australian films. Khoon Bhari
Maang (Return to Eden), Tezaab (Streets of fire) and Hatya (Witness).
In addition they were also treated to a film which fetaured newcomers,
had an hackneyed story line but excellent repeat excellent music.
Mansoor Khan was quick to realize that he had to build a fresh team to
revive the fortune of Nasir Husain films. So R.D Burman was given the boot
and the sons of yesteryears maestro Chitragupta were brought in to compose
the music. They in turn recruited a guy Udit Narayan Jha who hailed from
Madhubani (Bihar) and who had spent considerable time singing in Nepal
to sing for Aamir Khan in the film. However Majrooh saab was retained and
so the music of QSQT was designed.
QSQT is a love story with just 4 songs (compare that to Maine pyaar kiya
or Aashiqui etc etc) but Anand Milinds soft music (essentially inspired
from the rock 'n roll style) has QUALITY to it which has lacked in most
of their later work (remember the music of Vansh where the entire soundtrack
"Aake tei baahon mein", "Main to deewaani hui" "Raja Raj karen" have
been COPIED note for note from the original Ilaiyaraja compositions for
the Mani Ratnam movie "Agni Nakshatram"). IMHO QSQT is perhaps A & M's
finest hour.
The movie itself has a couple of surprises. The story is cliche ridden but
the treatment (the way in which the events unfold) has a certain amount of
freshness to it. The movie gains from the presence of Aamir Khan and Juhi
Chawla who both were 'introduced' in the movie. However Aamir had already
acted in Ketan Mehta's "Holi" (1985) and Juhi in Mukul Anand's damp squib
"Sultanat" (1987). The best perfomance in the movie however IMHO comes from
Dalip Tahil's potrayal of Dhanraj. There are two distinctive scenes where
his character is defined completely. The first one is when he picks the
phone to tell his bete noire Goga Kapoor "Main aaj bhi wahi Dhanraj hoon
jo chaudah saal pehle tha". The second one is probably the best scene of
the film where he is waiting for Raj to return so that he can beat the
pulp out of him. A lengthy monolouge by Alok Nath has left no impression
on him and when Raj enters the house he simply looks at his father, breaks
down and embraces him. His father pats him and tells him to go to sleep.
The scene expresses the beauty of the father-son relationship and leaves
the audience with a dried tear on the cheek. The point which i want to
make is that Mansoor Khan has very successfully developed not only the
love affair between the teen agers but also given a complete definition
to each and every important relationship between the characters in the film.
Another example is the scene where Zutshi, Raj's cousin in the film tells
him that he (Raj) has to flee. While Raj packs his bag he takes out money
from his drawer and says "Raj tumhe iski zaroorat padegi". There is no
dialouge and they both embrace each other. I found it very poignant and
touching.
Back to the musical aspect QSQT has perhaps the best Alka Yagnik and
Udit Narayan duets. The first song in the movie is "Papa kehte hain"
and was perhaps the most popular. The light yellow background and the
presence of a very youthful and charming Aamir must have set quite a few
hearts beat faster. Also note the way the camera pans on Aamir during
the opening interlude of the song but does not bring his face on the
screen and then he comes in front of the audience with "Doston Aaj
college ka aakhri din hai". Good intoduction!
Interestingly you can have a glimpse of his wife and sister
during the antra of the song. Udit Narayan in a interview remarked that
the song had been given too him 15 days in advance and they had proper
rehersals before he finally sang for the movie. He won the FF award for
the song and had to wait till DDLJ before he won it again. The second
song and my favourite is Ghazab ka hai din. This song has the actual
romantic touch to it. The half an hour of the movie from the point
the two families come to Mt Abu/Sitanagar to this song is extremely
appealing. I especailly liked the lyrics
Kya karoon mera jo haal hai
raat din tumhara khayaal hai
The second half of the movie has 2 more gems "Ae mere humsafar" (which
is great especially for the way it starts with the ticking of the clock)
and "Akele hain" which i feel has Udit and alka in perfect harmony).
In addition there is a sad version of Papa Kehte hain which goes
"Papa Kehte the" effectively picturised on the dead couple with the
setting sun in the background. Also there are a couple of beautiful
lines sung by Alka when Juhi is rescued by Aamir and they spend the
night in the jungle. It goes "Kahe sataaye Kahe ko rulaye..."
The other significant fact about the music was that the rights
were sold to Gulshan Kumar who was in the process of stabilizing the
music industry. He brought down the cassette price to a fixed low
and really gave a big boost to the audio industry. Suprisingly he
did not get Alka's voice dubbed by Anuradha paudwal (like he did
for the "mujhe neend na aaye" song in Dil with the same MD. BTW the
Priya Priya song in Dil was lifted from another Ilaiyaraaja song
from Mani Ratnam's "Geetanjali").
Anand Milind seem to have been making a living out of copying
Ilaiyaraaja's compositions. Another famous one is Tu Tutu tutu tara
from Bol Radha Bol which is uncanningly similar to the" O Jaaneman
Aaja Aaja song from Dalpati" (Picturised on Rajnikant and Sonu walia
, do not know the original Tamil lyrics). That is why i rate QSQT to
be their best album because they at least made a sincere effort.
QSQT is a definite feather in the cap for Mansoor. He makes his cast
and appear the way their characters are. Thus you find Juhi simple
and vulnerable, Dalip Tahil ruthless but a loving father. This is precisely
the high point of his direction with able support in all the technical
departments. His song picturisation style is distinct frm his father
who put more energy into his depiction. Each song is given the correct
mood and ambience. He even takes cares of small details (Notice the
way he shows the goon assembling and loading the gun just to drive
home the fact that the guy is a real professional killer). The fights
are realistic and the hero does not go beyond his physical limits.
In short i find the movie to be head and shoulder's above the stuff
we generally see nowadays.
QSQT swept 6 FF awards including the male playback and best MD award.
The female playback award was won by Alka Yagnik for Ek Do teen from
Tezaab and the lyricist award was notched up by Gulzar saab for
Mera Kuchch Samaan (Ijaazat). Nasir Hussain films were back in business.
Mansoor Khan was the new whiz kid and he proved it with "Jo Jeeta Wohi
Sikandar" that QSQT was no flash in the pan.
The most important fall out of the movie was that people realized
in the post Bachchan scenario that Romance was never out of season and
it still sold. Mansoor on the other hand went on to make JJWS which is
IMHO an even better film than QSQT. He stands for the new talent in
Hindi films which hopefully shall take a floundering industry in the
proper direction.
regards
Anand
bu...@ccs.vnet.net
Hi,
Thanks for posting the interesting article. I too like, Mansoor Khan
but I don't like his views that coping is OK...manily because he is so
talented. AHAT, is copied as everyone knows, and his next movie is also
going to be copied after an old American movie. I am sure it will be
good, but thats not the point.
And on the subject on Anand-Miland...they are almost as bad as Anu
Malik (who is doing M. Khan's next movie *ing Salman Khan). The Dil
songs, as you mentioned, were copied. Also you mentioned something
about Bol Radha Bol. To begin with, Jatin-Lalit were assigned for the
movie. But Sameer, the lyricist, played dirty policits and forced them
out and A-M in. What was even worse is that J-L wasn't notified and
they recored the title track and other songs. The title song got
recycled later and then was in Aziz Mizra's, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman.
The song was Lovaria.
The same thing happened to J-L when Adesh Srivastav pushed them out from
Shastra (Who is their sister's husband).
Mansoor should have repeated them, after Pela Nasha...instead of Anu.
But again thanks for the article...
bunty
Email bu...@juno.com if needed.
Kuntal Shah
>>>>> "Anand" == Anand Tiwari <an...@cegt201.bradley.edu> writes:
Anand> sleep. The scene expresses the beauty of the father-son
Anand> relationship and leaves the audience with a dried tear on
Anand> the cheek. The point which i want to make is that Mansoor
Anand> Khan has very successfully developed not only the love
Anand> affair between the teen agers but also given a complete
Anand> definition to each and every important relationship between
Anand> the characters in the film. Another example is the scene
Anand> where Zutshi, Raj's cousin in the film tells him that he
Anand> (Raj) has to flee. While Raj packs his bag he takes out
Anand> money from his drawer and says "Raj tumhe iski zaroorat
Anand> padegi". There is no dialouge and they both embrace each
Anand> other. I found it very poignant and touching.
Similiar examples are found in JJWS in relationship between Aamir
and his father and Aamir and his brother. It was really refreshing
portrayal.
I remember following small but significant details from the movie :
tell me if you feel the same way about them :
1. Juhi always calls herself "hum". This is not very uncommon, but
it really feels different when it comes from Juhi.
2. Juhi's friend who keeps saying "wo to hai" while talking to elder
ladies of the house on the day Juhi is supposed to run away with
Aamir. What is that girl's name ? If my memory serves right, her
name is Shehnaz.
3. When lost in jungle, during "gazab ka hai din", the way Juhi tries
to make sure that they loose the track... that was really cute.
4. Juhi's dresses are well-chosen. She looks extremely "indian", as
opposed to her looks in "Sultanat". That's why I don't mind the
word "introducing" for her. Mansoor really introduced her in a
fresh way.
5. The scene on Juhi's birthday ( in the village ) was a bit dragging.
That comedy scene could have used some editing.
--
-Kuntal.
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