Behind the Curtains

Padam Shri music director Anandji Virji Shah of Kalyanji Anandji fame, stays with us at USI Premises ,Rao Tula Ram Marg New Delhi , whenever he is in Delhi . Music lovers like me , Sudhir, Sujoy Mukerji,Kiran kapoor , Suresh Raheja, Dr Gulati , Gen Goswami and others have long sessions of music and discussions on film industry with him .  They are  so interesting that at times one doesn’t realise that the clock has struck two am and it’s time to allow the Maestro some rest. In one of his visits ,  he told us about certain interesting incidents with respect to a national award winning film produced and directed by Manoj Kumar “Upkar” which was released on 11 th August. 1967. Most of the shooting of the film was done at the sprawling ten acres farm house of the thespian Dilip Kumar at Mehrauli New Delhi.

Rajesh khanna , who became the first Super star ever , had been initially singed to do the role of the villain which was eventually played by Prem Chopra. Rajesh khanna was advised to not to play a villain as he would get ‘typed’ and  will never be able to become a hero. The songs of the film were composed by Kalyanji Anandji and written by  lyricist Indeevar. 

One day Indeevar  and Anandji bhai were attending a funeral of an actor when the lyricist  stated regrettably “this is what is called destiny. This man used to receive accolades and hundreds of Bouquets for his superhit films and look at the quirk of fate, I had to pay for his hospital bills . There  is hardly anyone here to pay respects to the departed soul , who was once a matinee idol. ‘. Indeevar the lyricist , was deeply moved by the plight of the bygone era of the one time famous star who had been forced to do roles of an Extra later in life in order to survive in this big, bad ,cruel world . While the pyre was being lit he uttered the words ‘ kasme , Vad’e , pyar , vafa sab baatein hain , baaton ka kya , koi kissi ka nahi ye jhoothe naate hain , Naaton ka kya’ . Anandji mesmerised at the couplet just spoken , memorised it and later told Indeevar that he had got the ‘Mukhda’ for a song to be filmed on Actor Pran in the forthcoming film ‘Upkar’. The  entire song was  written  by the lyricist and Kalyanji Anandji composed the music . They went several times along with Manoj Kumar to Kishore Kumar’s house and coaxed him to sing this song as it suited his vocal chords. But Kishore being Kishore refused to sing by  saying no through an imaginary ‘Kishoria’ character that he had created and would often talk to in his inimitable style. According to Anandji bhai the conversation went like  this ‘ Anand ji “ please say yes and record this  beautiful song  in your  sonorous voice for us ‘ Kishore Kumar feigning and looking at an imaginary figure of Kishoria would reply ‘what do you say , Kishoria , should I sing this song , oh , you are saying no. Why Kishoria it’s a good song ,Oh so your preemptive condition is that the song should be filmed on the hero and not a character artist. ‘. Then he would turn around to the aghast music director duo  and say ‘Sorry Anand ji bhai Kishoria is not agreeing to the proposal. I will do it only if Manoj Bhai would do the lip sync 

The song was eventually given to Manna Dey who did a splendid job and it became an all time hit song. Later Kishore kumar called Anandji bhai and regretted having said no for such a song. Not many people know that Kishore Kumar and Ashok Kumar were the real brothers of Mr Joy Mukerji’s mother. Upkar went on to win several awards including for the best song ,  music and lyrics.