Ganpati festival is a busy time for the film fraternity because a lot of them bring the deity home. Salman Khan, Rishi and Ranbir Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Shilpa shetty, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Anil Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Padmini Kolhapure, Sonu Nigam, as long as Rajesh Khanna and Sunil Dutt lived they never missed bringing Ganesha home.
At public pandals decorated all over the city singers like Shankar Mahadevan, Sukhwinder Singh and Anup Jalota are invited to perform live before the deity and celebrities from all walks of life are invited for a special darshan of Lalbaug ka Raja. For all the attention film folk’s shower on the Elephant God, the deity has limited presence in our movies and it is difficult to think of ten memorable scenes projecting the God of wisdom on the big screen.
I will try and recap some moments and on top my mind is Humse Badhkar Kaun/ 1980 that told the story of families living in a colony and collectively celebrating the festival. The haunting number ‘Devaa ho devaa…’ singing paeans to the Lord proved a chartbuster and is even today chanted at all the pandals.
To be continued…
@bhawanasomaaya