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That same night,Kumar took a train to Mumbai. He had the story ready by the time he reached. The screenplay and dialogues took another 10 days and Upkar was ready to be shot. The film is dedicated to Shastri and the rifle and plough symbolism is a part of the movie.

With Upkar,director-actor Manoj Kumar earned the reputation of Mr Bharat. As Bharat,he is the generous,self-sacrificing elder brother who sends money to his younger step- brother Pooran (Prem Chopra) studying in the city. Bharat is the ideal son,the ideal friend,a proud farmer and a nationalist (he even has a bust of Nehru in his khet). The local Majorsaab (David Abraham) keeps urging Bharat to join the army. Meanwhile Bharat falls in love with a doctor,Kavita (Asha Parekh),who has come to his village to spread the message of family planning. “Zyaada aulaad maa baap pe bhaari aur desh par bhoj,” says Parkeh’s character.

Meanwhile,Pooran gets swayed by the evil intentions of his uncle Charan Das (Madan Puri) — who incidentally is the one who has killed Bharat and Pooran’s father— and the scheming moneylender (Kanhaiya Lal). The brothers part ways. Bharat joins the army,fights the war,loses both his arms and returns to the village. This is when wisdom dawns on Pooran and he returns back to his roots — his khet — to the tune of that evergreen Mahendra Kapoor melody Mere desh ki dharti.

Upkar shows Kumar’s unabashed love for mitti,as suggested by the muted brown- gold palette of the film. The soul of the movie is Malang Chacha,the character who sings: Kasme vaade pyaar wafaa sab,baatein hain baaton ka kya,koi kisi ka nahin ye jhoothe,naate hain naaton ka kya. Pran portrayed Malang Chacha,the disabled farmer,a world weary cynic. “Gandhi topi badnaam ho gayi thi. Mehangayi was hitting the roof. So I wanted to create a character who could comment on the India that was at that time,” says Kumar about the character.

The choice of Pran in this role was a surprise,as he was famous for his roles as a villain. “Raj Kapoor tried to give Pran a positive image in Aah and he failed. But I was adamant to have him play this role because he was a true artist,” says Kumar.

Asha Parekh also had to shake off her “dancing heroine image”,when Kumar cast her as the no-nonsense doctor. He made sure Parekh had only two dance moves throughout the film. “She also used to get a crinkle on her forehead during emotional scenes. I didn’t allow her to do that even once,” he says. In Upkar the romantic leads don’t even hold hands. Kumar wanted to portray a noble romance. He says,“When you talk of idealism,you can’t be holding the girl’s hand or running around trees. Who’ll take you seriously then?” Kumar says that acting out the love scenes was a big “headache” for him throughout his career. “I had to find a way of doing it gracefully,without all the touchy stuff,” he says.

There was a cold war between Parekh and Kumar while filming this movie. For the last scene,Kumar was eager to get an early morning shot that would translate to a new beginning. The scene was shot over six days and Parekh would turn up late every day. Kumar also heard her say,“Kya roz roz subah subah jaldi aana padhta hai. Sunlight se kya shot achcha hota hai?” Kumar told her to shush. “She stopped talking to me but still I directed her. There was no talk,only dialogue. She didn’t even turn up for the premiere.” Two years later,they were shooting for Saajan,“There was a scene where Asha had to ask for two bottles of Coca Cola. Suddenly,she broke a bottle and shouted,‘Why is this man not talking to me?’” All was well after that.

harneet.singh@expressindia.com