It is said that legendary music composer OP Nayyar, one day, walked out of his palatial home in Churchgate, promising to never come back and he didn’t. For the first five years, Nayyar lived in obscurity, shifting from one poor suburb of Mumbai to another. He had stopped composing music in films and the film fraternity had also forgotten him. Then one day, an ardent fan recognized him and took him to his home in Thane. He stayed there for a few weeks or months but slowly, the neighbours began recognizing him and he shifted to Virar.
Nayyar regularly visited a retail shop and made his phone calls from an adjoining phone booth and it was at this booth, that he met his future soul mate, Rani Nakhwa. The two got talking and Nayyar requested Rani to put an advertisement for him in the newspaper for a paying-guest accommodation. Rani obliged unaware that the distinguished stranger was a superstar.
Back home, Rani shared the encounter with the stranger to her mother. Her mother, asked the daughter to invite the stranger home for a meal and the classic Indian hospitality played a part in defining destiny because the guest who came for dinner, stayed back to become the Babuji of the Nakhwa family forever.
OP Nayyar kept his word and never returned to his biological family and the family kept its promise and never searched for him. Nayyar’s last rites, as per his will, were performed by the Nakhwa family.
But life goes on and Mubarak’s destiny was marked with multiple tragedies, deserted by her husband and without a career, she had no source of livelihood and was forever dependent on the mercy of her well-wishers. What made it worse was that her only daughter Shafaq Banu, was bedridden with advanced stage of Parkinson. She had contacted me and pleaded me to visit her. When I did, breathed her last, she confessed that survival was difficult.
I had come home extremely depressed that evening and thought how ironical is life. She was the same singer, who in her better days sang ‘Kabhi tanhaiyon mein yun hamari yaad aayegi…’ Today, she waits for somebody, somewhere to remember her!
Showbusiness is full of stories where veteran artistes have withered away, either unable to cope with their failure or out of neglect from families. It makes one wonder what is it about the dream merchants that they often fail to evoke empathy from their loved ones. Is it that they are self-obsessed or does it say something about the family not wanting to support in bad times?
To be continued
A few days ago, was International Human Solidarity Day and it is observed globally to highlight the importance of unity in diversity. The film industry, in my opinion, is a perfect example of both secularism and unity in art that often includes strangers in life-long bonds. My mind wanders to a voice that mesmerised an entire generation of music lovers, ‘Mujhko apne gale lagaa lo, o mere humrahi…’ from Humrahi and and ‘Bemurrawwat bewafa begana dil…’ from Susheela are songs that are going to haunt us forever.
Yesteryear singer, Mubarak Begum with her trademark style left an indelible mark on her audience, who in her last years lived in penury in a small by-lane of Mumbai’s Western suburbs.
Though widely appreciated in the ’50s and the ’60s, the songstress never made it as a frontrunner because her voice did not suit the image of a leading lady, the way Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle did and as a result she got very few opportunities to showcase her talent. The non-acceptance hurt and with time, Mubarak Begum faded out of public memory.
To be continued
Chaand Mubarak steals the show
Film: Un-paused
Date: 18.12.2020
Amazon Original Film Un-paused is an anthology of five Hindi short movies filmed during the pandemic and featuring stories about New Beginnings. The five short films include Glitch, Apartment, Rat-A-Tat, Vishaanu, Chand Mubarak. All these films are about the pandemic and more important, shot during the pandemic, which explains why all the stories are about two or maximum three characters.
One has always debated if cinema reflects society or the other way round and never arrived at a conclusion, probably because both reflect each other. In my opinion however, it is always cinema that reflects society and which is why our films before independence were so revolutionary. Post-independence, our cinema addressed recession and unemployment and our writers conceived the angry young hero who was anti-establishment.
Every time we have been hit by a tragedy, be it the Mumbai bomb blast or the terrorist attack on Taj Mahal Hotel, a series of films have been made on the subject. Today, we are all struggling with the pandemic and Un-paused is a reflection of our fears, anxieties and the loneliness associated with the lockdown.
Glitch directed by Raj & DK with Gulshan Deviah and Saiyami Kher is about a blind date where the couple even though they have nothing in common, get attached to each other because both are extremely lonely. Apartment directed by Nikkhil Advani delves on the rising social pressures and the diminishing moral fabric, where in the protagonist Richa Chaddha, a working wife has to make a crucial decision.
Rat-A- Tat featuring directed by Tannishtha Chatterji is about loneliness, for Rinku Rajguru of Sairat fame, staying away from family is a choice while for Lillete Dubey, it is a compulsion, a way of life. Vishaanu directed by Avinash Arun is about the migrant workers, not those who walked miles to reach home but those who stayed back in search of shelter. And finally, the best of the five series, Chaand Mubarak directed by Nitya Mehra of Made in Heaven fame and featuring the ever dependable Ratna Pathak Shah, resident of an affluent building and her unusual bond with a rickshaw driver, Shardul Bharadwaj.
All the stories address isolation and depression and yet all the characters reflect a glimmer of courage and adaption, of positivity and trust. So, must you watch Un-paused, my answer is yes, not because all the stories and the performances are engaging, they are not but so that we realize that when the world was falling apart, we were not the only ones crying into our pillows, so were many others and they were battling worse demons.
Bhawana Somaaya
Meghna Gulzar had arrived, her friends and family were euphoric with her success. I remember a picture where Mahesh Bhatt and Gulzar embraced each other for a long time after the screening of Raazi, both proud fathers of proud daughters. While in Goa for the international film festival Meghna told me that Raazi almost didn’t happen and when it was about to happen, two producers she had approached at different times were fighting for the rights. But when something wonderful has to happen everything falls into place. It did this time too and smoothly.
Showbusiness is a slippery place where nobody, even those on the top are never secure, ask the superstars who go through recurrent pressures of delivering superhits. Everyone is seeking a mirage here and and the strongest are threatened by the smallest pebble that can damage a dream and ravage the efforts of a long time. In 2018 just as Meghna Gulzar was gearing for the release of Chhapaak based on the acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, the JNU controversy erupted and like a sudden eclipse overshadowed everything.
The incident is a learning experience for every artiste and filmmaker and it took a lot of effort for Meghna Gulzar to distract her mind to her next script, on the life of Field Marshal F J Manekshaw.
Post college Meghna Gulzar was freelancing for leading publications and her poems were published as part of anthologies in the Poetry Societyof India.She began in her career in films by Saeed Akhtar Mirza on Naseem and her father Gulzar onMaachis and Hu Tu Tu, simultaneouslyscripting her own films, both feature and documentaries. Taking her father’s advice, she juggled with everything- music albums, corporate ads, even anchoring.
Come year 2002 and Meghna was ready to debut as director, Filhaal on the subject of surrogacy was a sensitive film with marvellous performances from Sushmita Sen and Tabu but mysteriously went unsung. Her second feature Just Married in 2007 addressed arranged marriage but did not appeal to the audience. It was her short film Pooranmaashi part of Dus Kahaaniyaan in the same year that got her eyeballs, however it was the Noida Double-Murder case Talvar in 2015 that the critics noticed her and it was Raazi in 2018 that the box-office celebrated her.
To be continued
When I met Gulzarin the eighties he was cordially separated with Raakhee and Meghana was used to scuttling between the neighbourhood bungalows of both her parents on Pali Hill, Mumbai. I remember that afternoon vividly, when I was in the middle of an interview with Gulzar and Meghana, aged 7 probably in braids and band on her head, bounced into the room and demanded money out of her father. She wanted to buy Smash Tee Shirt and Gulzar wasn’t giving into her demand, so she disappeared in his study for a while and then stomped out of her room in a huff!
It was after she had left that Gulzar discovered a poem on his writing desk where she complained about her miserly father. Gulzar was amused with the poem and happy that she chose to channelize her anger through poetry. I remember it because I featured Meghana’s poem in her writing as part of my feature on Gulzar. Perhaps, the seed for writing in her was sown that early.
To be continued
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