Thank you for our obsessions
It was the parky mist in a field of Dutch tulips that made Bollywood's most discussed romance between Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha, as they sang Yeh Kahaa Aa Gaye Hum, a national obsession.
But Yash Chopra gave us other national obsessions too: our insatiable hunger for vilayat, epitomized by desis hanging out in the Swiss Alps; Punjabi chic; French chiffon; Shah Rukh Khan, to name a few.
And yet the man whose films defined flamboyance and romance was also one for ruthless stocktaking when the time came, making his eponymous studio a powerhouse over the years. When Yashraj beckoned, actors trotted obediently. Bollywood legend has it that Yash Chopra, eight days into filming Silsila with Praveen Babi and Shabana Azmi, realised that the casting was not working. He went up to Amitabh Bachchan and saidas much, asking the lead actor's consent to cast Jaya Bachchan and Rekha instead. A consevative nation was so aghast at this act of derring-do that Silsila failed to work at the box office.A rare failure for the producer-director whose career was dotted with spectacular hits like Waqt, Deewar, Trishul, Daag, Dil To Pagal Hai, Dilwale Dulhaniya, Chandni.
For a man whose films were all about mainstream Indian values, Yash Chopra was ahead of his times in depicting the nuances of man-woman relationships.From Parveen Babi sharing a post-coital cigarette with her lover in Deewar in 1975, Rakhi playing the cougar in Doosra Aadmi in 1977, way before Demi Moore became a familiar name or the smooch between Anil Kapoor and an un-characteristically bold Meenakshi Sheshadri in Vijay.
But with the advent of the 90's the director made way for his son, Aditya, and a star who would redraw the lines of sexual propriety, Shah Rukh Khan. He woos, but won't kiss. On screen ie. Between the three men they made some of Mumbai film industry's biggest blockbusters---Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Veera Zaara, Mohabbatein, Chak De India and fittingly Yash Chopra's last film was the still-to-released Jab Tak Hai Jaan with Khan.
Chopra to the end remained a quick-change artiste, ahead curve. When Saroj Khan was on the wane he replaced her with Shiamak Davar's aerobics, changing the way Bollywood, and by association, the country danced. When Salim-Javed split up and liberalization made India a country determined to be happy, he swapped his gritty films for candy floss romance, and when his heroines got older, he replaced them with younger ones.
But in the end, unlike the crisp mountain air of Switzerland, that he solved, unlike London, which was oddly the epicenter of many a YRF film, the reality of being the citizen of a tropical country was brought home tragically. Two days after his last appearance at Amitabh Bachchan's 70th birthday bash, he was admitted with a severe case of dengue caused by mosquitoes and dramatically succumbed within a fortnight. His death like a case of cinema verite, a style that the glossy filmmaker never quite favoured.
It was the parky mist in a field of Dutch tulips that made Bollywood's most discussed romance between Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha, as they sang Yeh Kahaa Aa Gaye Hum, a national obsession.
But Yash Chopra gave us other national obsessions too: our insatiable hunger for vilayat, epitomized by desis hanging out in the Swiss Alps; Punjabi chic; French chiffon; Shah Rukh Khan, to name a few.
For a man whose films were all about mainstream Indian values, Yash Chopra was ahead of his times in depicting the nuances of man-woman relationships.From Parveen Babi sharing a post-coital cigarette with her lover in Deewar in 1975, Rakhi playing the cougar in Doosra Aadmi in 1977, way before Demi Moore became a familiar name or the smooch between Anil Kapoor and an un-characteristically bold Meenakshi Sheshadri in Vijay.
But with the advent of the 90's the director made way for his son, Aditya, and a star who would redraw the lines of sexual propriety, Shah Rukh Khan. He woos, but won't kiss. On screen ie. Between the three men they made some of Mumbai film industry's biggest blockbusters---Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Veera Zaara, Mohabbatein, Chak De India and fittingly Yash Chopra's last film was the still-to-released Jab Tak Hai Jaan with Khan.
But in the end, unlike the crisp mountain air of Switzerland, that he solved, unlike London, which was oddly the epicenter of many a YRF film, the reality of being the citizen of a tropical country was brought home tragically. Two days after his last appearance at Amitabh Bachchan's 70th birthday bash, he was admitted with a severe case of dengue caused by mosquitoes and dramatically succumbed within a fortnight. His death like a case of cinema verite, a style that the glossy filmmaker never quite favoured.
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