Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker had bombed miserably and Manoj Kumar was confused how a gifted filmmaker like Kapoor can go wrong. So, he watched the film in back-to-back shows in the theatre to analyse why. When he finally got to the crux of the problem, he phoned RK to send him the footage and re-edited part 3 and sent it to Kapoor. Kapoor agreed with his minor changes but the die was cast and it was too late to turn the wheel!
But it was a learning lesson. Interestingly, all Manoj Kumar’s directors and heroines agreed that Kumar had a super story sense and whenever he recommended a change in the climax it was always for the betterment of the film. In the seventies Manoj Kumar was in demand both as an actor and as a filmmaker. He was working with all generations of heroines like Nutan, Babita and Hema Malini in Sanyasi, Dus Numbari, Yaadgar, Pehchaan, Beimaan and Shirdi Ke Sai Baba.
By now he had expanded into production and directed three films Roti Kapda aur Makan, Shor and Purab aur Paschim. The eighties were a time of the multi-starrers and Kumar released his ambitious Kranti with his idol Dilip Kumar, a dream come true for the actor-filmmaker. It is the law of nature that the best and the biggest success stories have to fade eventually and so, Kalyug Ki Ramayan, Clerk, Bharat Ka Beta and later, Deshwasi, Maidan- E- Jung in the nineties finally put a lid on the actor’s glorious career.
Concluded