Manju Desai's sister and Guru Dutt
naniwadekar
Manju, of Rattan fame, started her career with Prabhat Film Co in
Pune. So did Guru Dutt. A person who knew Manju Desai's family and
Guru Dutt introduced GD to Manju's sister and suggested they marry.
The young pair liked the idea. But later Guru Dutt had second
thoughts. A friend picked up this trivia from people in Pune who are
interested in the world of old films.
Manju, for her part, married Karan Diwan, her co-star in Rattan.
- dn
Afzal A. Khan
> Manju, for her part, married Karan Diwan, her co-star in Rattan.
>
>
> - dn
No nit-pick. But they were co-stars only in a technical
sense. His leading lady was Swaranlata, who died some time
back.
Afzal
surjit singh
Manju acted in some Panjabi movies and spoke it well. Also her brother
was named Balakram, which is not a typical Gujarati name, although
common in Panjab. So, my guess is that their mom was from Panjab.
naniwadekar
>
> Manju acted in some Panjabi movies and spoke it well. Also her brother
> was named Balakram, which is not a typical Gujarati name, although
> common in Panjab. So, my guess is that their mom was from Panjab.
>
I had always read about her as just Manju, and very occasionally
Manju Desai. But yesterday a researcher attached some other maiden
name to her. It is possible that 'Desai' bit is wrong. I see her roles
and her songs in Prabhat Films as fairly undemanding, and it is
a reasonable guess that she would not have got those roles if she
could not speak Marathi fluently. 'Desai' is not an atypical
Marathi surname. Hindi and Punjabi people were always part of Prabhat,
mostly as guests, to help the company with Hindi versions
of their films. But the contribution of non-Marathi contingent
to Prabhat's Marathi films was zero, or close to zero. Not that
it proves anything about whether Manju might have had strong
Punjabi connection.
She must have been terribly young to be Karan Dewan or Diwan's
leading lady at the time of Rattan, but she did go on to
become his lady in real life. I had a brief telephonic talk with
her 3-4 years ago to check whether she remembered hearing
Roshanara Begum's version of 'do dilon ko ye duniya'. She did
not. Manju's version has featured on an RMIM Commemorative.
She told me that she could hardly speak Marathi any more, which
I did not need to be told. I was about to switch to Hindi when
she made her confession. A bigger loss, in a way, was that she
wasn't even aware of the Roshanara version, which remains a
to-hear item very high up on my list. Not that our ability
to nail down the version depends in any way on whether she
remembered the presence of a version. But I was hoping to
hear interesting anecdote(s) about the version from her.
She did clarify that the sargam in 'neend hamaarii' was done
by her brother Balakram, not by her.
- dn