Bollywood Masala Mix
Nasir Hussain was the producer as well as the director of some of the most popular romantic musicals of the 1960s and 1970s. He was born on 3rd February, 1931 in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). He started his career as an assistant to A.R. Kardar and then joined "Filmistan" as a screenplay writer. His major credits as a writer include the Dev Anand’s hits Munimji and Paying Guest.
Nasir Hussain entertained the audiences with his genre of light romantic music in his films. He never boasted about it but he helped launch the careers of a number of Bollywood's brightest stars, like Asha Parekh, R.D. Burman, Shammi Kapoor, Mansoor Khan, Aamir Khan, Usha Khanna and others.
As a director, Nasir Hussain's first film, Tumsa Nahin Dekha, starring Shammi Kapoor, heralded a new youthful musical genre. The film also proved to be Shammi Kapoor's first hit. Nasir Hussain also produced films such as Teesri Manzil under the banner of Nasir Hussain Films, a film production company that was formed in 1960.
With an amazing sense of the viewers' pulse, Nasir Hussain worked on Yaadon Ki Baraat which became a smash hit in the 1970’s. Its rock-inspired musical score and the lost-and-found theme spawned countless imitations during the decade. Then he directed the film Hum Kisise Kum Nahin. This was another youthful film with extravagant musical numbers. He also acted in some famous Bollywood films like Ayee Milan Ki Bela (1964), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Devdas (1955).
In 1987, Nassir Hussain produced his son Mansoor Khan's maiden directorial venture, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, as well as the subsequent Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Akele Hum Akele Tum. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, incidentally, was the debut film of Hussain's nephew, Aamir Khan.
Nassir Hussain directed such super hit films as Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Caravan, Yaadon Ki Baarat, and Hum Kisise Kam Nahin. He also produced such blockbusters as Teesri Manzil, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, which launched the careers of his son and nephew, Mansoon and Aamir Khan respectively.
Nasir Hussain had an ear for good melodies. Most of the films he directed or produced had really good music. Songs such as Tum sa Nahin Dekha, Aaja aaja main hoon pyaar tera, Piya tu ab to aaja, Churaliya Hai Tumne jo Dil ko, Chand Mera Dil and many others are still well liked among Hindi music lovers and would always be. What is particularly interesting to the audience about Hussain’s films is that he almost re-made the same film over and over again. But the new product always found a new flavour with the audience. In fact he even had a set of 'items' that were repeated in film after film although in different combinations and permutations. The clash in the train sequence between Shammi Kapoor and Ameeta in Tumsa Nahin Dekha was repeated in Teesri Manzil with Shammi Kapooragain and Asha Parekh. Beating up the drummer Rocky from Dil Deke Dekho was repeated in Teesri Manzil. The Bhang song from Jab Pyar Kisi se Hota Hai was repeated in Hum Kissi se Kam Nahin and Manzil Manzil, even while maintaining the lost and found track throughout.
Perhaps this was the reason that Hussain was never taken seriously by film critics as a director of quality. But Nasir Hussain always held that it was more interesting to show the process of the hero and heroine falling in love running through the film rather than just showing the hero and heroine in love. It was what made his films special and appealing to the audience.
His films made the process of boy wooing girl and winning her over more absorbing. Hussain’s films, in fact, were a major influence on the films of Manmohan Desai, another filmmaker who thrived on the lost and found formula. With such a strong constituent of romance in his films it is only natural that his productions were known for their excellent music. Each and every composer did some of their best work for him be it O.P. Nayyar (Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon), Shankar-Jaikishen (Jab Pyaar Kisi se Hota Hai), Usha Khanna (Dil Deke Dekho) and of course R.D. Burman who did all of Hussain's films following Teesri Manzil (1966).
In fact the Nasir Hussain-R.D. Burman-Majrooh Sultanpuri team produced a musical history in Indian cinema together through Teesri Manzil, Baharon ke Sapne, Pyaar ka Mausam, Caravan, Yaadon ki Baraat (1973), Hum Kisi se Kum Nahin and Zamane ko Dikhane Hai.
Nasir Hussain has received several awards in recognition for his contribution to the film industry, among them – * Filmfare Award Best Screenplay for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988);
* Filmfare Award for Best Movie, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) * Special Filmfare Award (1996).
He left the world on March 13, 2002 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India at the age of 75.
A list of Nasir Hussain's films includes the following:
Year Film Year Film
1957 Tumsa Nahin Dekha 1971 Caravan
1959 Dil Deke Dekho 1973 Aangan, Yaa- don Ki Baraat
1961 Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai 1977 Hum Kisise Kum Nahin
1963 Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon 1981 Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai
1967 Baharon Ke Sapne 1984 Manzil Manzil
1969 Pyar Ka Mausam 1985 Zabardast
It was a ‘love triangle’, starring unknown faces, and it was truly different. Directed by Basu Chatterjee, it had an actual plot, depth, and real characters. Deepa and Sanjay are in a steady relationship, in itself a radical thing for a Bollywood besotted by love-at-first-glance callow couples who sang a few songs, bickered over a few more, and then rode into the sunset, happily ever after.
Deepa and Sanjay are, refreshingly, adults, inhabiting a world of middle-class concerns – jobs, incomes, ambitions, life goals. And then one day Deepa bumps into old flame Naveen, and things get complicated. Who is it to be? Sanjay, a happy-go-lucky careless, feckless fellow, or the organised, disciplined Naveen?
Deepa was played by newcomer Vidya Sinha, who typified a new kind of heroine in Hindi cinema: a working woman. Like her compatriot Jaya Bhaduri who had entered the film industry almost at the same time (Guddi, 1971, Uphaar, 1971, Abhimaan, 1973), as well as Moshumi Chatterjee and Rakhee, Sinha was your regular girl-next-door, but one who also goes daily to work, cleans up after herself, and is thrilled when the love of her life gets her flowers, a fragrant bunch of rajnigandha.
Instead of the skin-tight churidar-kurtas worn by the popular leading ladies of the time, Sinha, like Bhaduri, favoured cotton saris, and bindis. Instead of sharp fringes and tremblingly tall up-dos, she wore her hair in a single plait, and yes, in the movie, she tucked a white rajnigandha blossom in it. The inevitable happened: the song, rajnigandha phool tumhare…, acquired a permanent slot on every single radio network. And white tuberoses started being seen in every corner flowershop.
We were witnessing something big in Bollywood: a leading lady who has a chance to exercise a choice. Sinha got a great partner in Amol Palekar, another debutant who made as much a mark: so good was Palekar in his average Joe role which he made his own, that he got to play it over and over in his career, post-Rajnigandha. And the intense, bearded Dinesh Thakur as Naveen added a layer of welcome unpredictability.
Rajnigandha’s box-office success gave a fillip to the ‘middle-of-the-road’ cinema being made by Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Two years later, in 1976, Chatterjee made another winsome romance, Chhoti Si Baat, in which Palekar plays a hesitant lover who needs a bolt of courage to confess all to Sinha, and finds an avuncular godfather in Ashok Kumar. The film had, like its precursor, lovely, foot-tapping music, and cemented the reputation of its director and actors.
The 70s was a very eventful decade, full of memorable Hindi cinema. Rajesh Khanna fell. Amitabh Bachchan rose and rose. Multi-starrer films became all the rage. Masala-laden escapist fare reigned. It was the time of Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai. Raj Kapoor made a come-back with a sixteen year old Dimple Kapadia playing Bobby, and every single young girl began dreaming of the baby-faced Rishi Kapoor. Yash Chopra and Salim-Javed created Bachchan’s furious young man persona, and the star became the face of the decade, whose blockbusters were wrought in larger-than-life 70 mm cinemascope.
But when we yearned for something real, for something we could relate to, and characters that would let us breathe, we fell back upon the worlds created by Chatterjee and Mukherjee. (Occasionally, when we felt up to a more nuanced palate, we could reach out for the mature relationship dramas (Anubhav, 1971, Avishkar, 1974), directed by Basu Bhattacharya. But there was really nothing to beat the pleasures of being in the company of men and women who felt familiar, who had weaknesses and warts, just like us: when we loved, all we wanted was to be loved back. And give us a bunch of rajnigandhas while they were at it.
Sinha had come to the movies from modelling, but unlike so many other young women who followed the same route only to never really shed the ramp (both Zeenat Aman, Praveen Babi, were guilty of that stiffness even though they loosened up as they went along), Sinha turned out to be a consummate actress. And continued to fill up the screen, till she left. It wasn’t a Bollywood that had anything for her anymore.
She did return, decades later, and was seen in Salman Khan’s Bodyguard (2011). But this was not a good time for an older actress who needed real stories. And flowers with a lingering, heady fragrance.
of Indian films
"We have banned Indian advertisements and launched a crackdown on CD shops to confiscate Indian movies," Firdous Ashiq Awan, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information, told Dawn news.
She said the Interior Ministry had already started a crackdown on Indian movies in Islamabad and it would be expanded to other parts of the country soon in collaboration with the provincial governments.
"Today the Interior Ministry raided some shops in Islamabad and confiscated Indian movies," Awan told Dawn.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has prohibited airing of advertisements for India-made products on television and radio networks.
In a letter circulated to all its television and radio licencees last Wednesday, the authority recalled that it had withdrawn permission for airing Indian channels and content on the Supreme Court's directive in October 2018.
"However, it has been observed that advertisements of various products of multi-nationals, which are either produced in India or carry Indian characters, are being aired on electronic media," said the letter posted on Pemra's Twitter account.
However, the airing at the same time of advertisements, produced in India, and carrying Indian celebrities, on Pakistani media was tantamount to "negating the state policy", the authority added.
Tensions have been simmering between India and Pakistan ever since New Delhi on August 5 revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.