John is heartbroken, and only music can provide him solace but not for long and John disappears one day. Twelve years pass by… Kris returns as a young dancer, with a burning need to reconnect with his father, and to heal himself of a deep trauma. Valli, his childhood companion, is now a beautiful woman and Parvathi still paints and dances. It is an unusual story of rather unusual people in unusual circumstances. Directed by Kaarthikeyan Kirubhakara who is a multifaceted artiste himself has put his heart and soul in the making of His Father’s Voice more like an offering to a deity.

Kirubhakara is of the firm belief that problems come into our lives to provide opportunities so that we evolve and find ways to heal ourselves. It prepares us to deal with separation from our loved ones, fuels our own growth, and brings us gifts, that only we can give ourselves.

@bhawanasomaaya

Some films are meant to not just be watched but experienced and His Father’s Voie by A Kaavaadi Production is among them.  Combining all art forms and shot in the picturesque location of Pondicherry it tells the story of an American family, Jon, Clara, and their son Kris, live with Parvathi, Nagarajan and their daughter Valli, inside a Music and Dance School in Tamilnadu, India. Jon is a Musician, deeply inspired by Indian Classical Music.

It is not as if we have not seen films made on artistes but this is a film made with love and it transcends to the audience, it is not possible to remain unaffected by the film. Every frame, every taking is mesmerising!

There is reverence for nature, for art and in a simple story of two families, the writer weaves the nav rasas. You empathize with Clara when she gets jealous of Parvathi’s influence over Jon and Kris and arrives at the decision to leave Kaavadi.  Sounds like a regular story? Trust me it isn’t, more tomorrow…

@bhawanasomaaya

There were some rumors in the papers at that time that Nutan was offered the role of Waheeda Rehman but Nutan denied it, she had never worked with Chopra in her entire career while Rehman did a number of films with Chopra before and after Kabhi Kabhie. The distributors were skeptical about the film even though the media was giving it a lot of attention. They thought Amitabh Bachchan in a moustache and in a romantic role in first half and negative role in the second half was a 100 percent failure but Yash Chopra was confident it would work and it did.

@bhawanasomaaya

Rishi Kapoor had initially refused the film and even though Yash Chopra spent a lot of time explaining the importance of the project Kapoor remained stubborn. Chopra had no appropriate option for Rishi and went to Shashi Kapoor to help him. Shashi Kapoor asked Chopra to plan his schedule and promised to bring Rishi Kapoor to the sets, he did and Chopra for the first few days only shot with Rishi Kapoor so that incase Rishi changed his mind again he could not leave the film.

To be continued

@bhawanasomaaya

Raakhee’s confusion led to a lot of misunderstanding but eventually she was part of the cast and the large unit with the actors and their spouses left for a month-long shooting to Kashmir. The media called Chopra’s outdoor stint honeymoon holidays because all the actors were newly wedded be it Waheeda Rehman, Amitabh Bachchan, Raakhee even though she was not accompanied to the shoot by her writer husband. Only Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh were single, not yet in love with each other but all the time surrounded by love both on and off screen.

Neetu Singh was not the first choice for the role and Tine Munim was auditioned for the part because Rishi Kapoor had seen her somewhere and was very keen on working her. Yash Chopra screen tested her but preferred Punjabi kudi Singh for Waheeda Rehman’s love child in the film. He was keen on Bindiya Goswami for the third role of the triangle but when Mumtaz called Yash Chopra and requested him to cast her niece Naseem for the part he agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

Yash Chopra loved the script and Bachchan insisted that he start the second film before the first since the project was taking long in any case. Yash Chopra agreed and work began on Deewar the very next day. Deewar proved a super hit and Amitabh Bachchan became a superstar. Yash Chopra’s banner was a front runner and actors went out of their way to block dates for his films.

Raakhee is the focus of Kabhi Kabhie and she was promised the role when Yash Chopra was shooting Daag with her. She had agreed to the project and Chopra had begun his preproduction but post Daag and pre Kabhi Kabhie Raakhee got married and her husband writer Gulzar it seems had a precondition that his wife will not work in films. Raakhee was in love with Gulzar and had agreed to it. She had agreed to Yash Chopra as well because it was a role of a lifetime and unable to say no to either of them.

To be continued

@bhawanasomaaya