Setting the frame for 1970s Hindi cinema with 'Shaheed' and 'Waqt'

Tradition and genealogy is important while doing any study on Hindi cinema. If one considers a film like Gumnaam, a mystery thriller which released in 1965, then one will take note of the film’s haunting track, ‘Gumnaam hai koi’, sung in a female voice. Such compositions were integral to earlier suspense thrillers such as Mahal  in 1949 (‘Aayega aane waala’), Bees Saal Baad in 1962 (‘Kahin deep jaley kahin dil’) and Woh Kaun Thi in 1964 (‘Naina barse rim jhim, rim jhim’). Gumnaam, which was an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None, followed in the tradition of these earlier thrillers with its haunting female title track.

Similarly, a lot of the films from the 1960s set the frame for films that followed in later decades. Manoj Kumar, who acted in Gumnaam, and had earned a lot of recognition following Hariyaali Aur Rasta (1962), also acted in Shaheed (1965). Kumar played the character of Bhagat Singh in the film, which also saw Prem Chopra play a rare positive role as he essayed the character of Sukhdev. Shaheed had a memorable soundtrack, with songs like ‘Aye watan, aye watan’, ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna’ and ‘Mera rang de basanti chola’ suitably bringing out the patriotic theme of the film.

However, the more important takeaway from this film was that it set the trend for Manoj Kumar’s subsequent nationalistic films, which made him earn the moniker ‘Bharat Kumar’. In the recent episode of The Golden Years: 1950-1975 A Musical Journey, which aired this last Sunday evening and featured Hindi film songs from 1965, Javed Akhtar commented that “Shaheed was a turning point in Manoj Kumar’s career…  It was from this film that he established an identity for himself and the films that he made thereafter be it Upkaar (1967), Purab Aur Pachhim(1970) or Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan (1974), the very foundation of all these films was laid with Shaheed. It was from here [Shaheed] that this thought [patriotic] took genesis and his priorities changed as an actor. There is no doubt about this.”Akhtar’s very own Kranti (1981), which he co-wrote with Salim Khan, and which was produced and directed by Kumar, was also an outcome of Shaheed’s success.

Another film that refashioned many of the lost-and-found multi-starrer films of the 1970s was the Yash Chopra-directed Waqt. It is said that Yash Chopra had earlier envisaged the three Kapoor siblings — Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor — to play the three brothers who are separated in the film. But on filmmaker Bimal Roy’s advice, Chopra abandoned the idea. According to Roy, the Kapoor siblings could find each other even in the dark and so how could an audience be led to believe that they don’t recognise each other through the course of a film. Consequently, Chopra retained Shashi Kapoor in the cast since he had earlier made Dharamputra (1961) with the actor and cast Sunil Dutt and Raaj Kumar as his older siblings in the film.

The earliest film which featured the lost-and-found element was Kismet (1943), which was produced by Bombay Talkies and had Ashok Kumar playing the character who is separated from his parents as a child. Subsequently, a number of Hindi film directors such as Nasir Husain, Shakti Samanta and Manmohan Desai consistently based their works on the lost-and-found plot as seen in films such as Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), China Town (1962) and Dharam-Veer (1977). All these films involved reunion between siblings and family members, with familiarity between the protagonists established through some insignia such as a ring or necklace or even a letter. The 1973 film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) brought out reunion between the three separated brothers through a song (‘Yaadon ki baaraat niklee hai aaj’).

A year before Waqt’s release, the LV Prasad-directed Beti Bete (1964) involved a story of three children (two brothers and a sister) being separated from each other in childhood. However, it is only with Waqt (1965) that the theme of three brothers getting separated became popular and the norm for later efforts such as Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977). It is in this context that Akhtar called Waqt, “a pioneering film… Waqt was indeed a beautiful film, with fine songs. Ravi sa’ab (the composer) did good work in it and Sahir (Ludhianvi) sa’ab also wrote some very good songs for the film.”

Catch the next episode of The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey with Javed Akhtar on Zee Classic everySunday at 8 pm.