Of moustaches and music

Gulzar’s Parichay is a guaranteed joyride. The film is the first of the Gulzar- Jeetendra combination (Khushboo and Kinara followed). Similarities with The Sound of Music abound. It’s a cross Parichay will always have to bear. Gulzar says,“They say there is an influence of The Sound of Music in this film. If it reminds you of the English film,then it does. There is a superficial resemblance but for me Parichay began with Rajkumar Mitra’s Bengali story,Rangeen Uttarain. Rakhee ji read it and said let’s buy the rights. I had not yet turned a director and we didn’t have enough money to buy the rights so we requested Hemant da (Hemant Kumar) to put in a word for us to Mitra,” says Gulzar.

Gulzar eventually made his directorial debut with Mere Apne. Parichay was revived when Jeetendra’s brother-in-law VK Sobti told Gulzar that the actor was keen to work with him. “Jeetu was my neighbour. When I met him he said to me,‘Pados mein rehta hoon,tumhe meri yaad nahin aayi jab tum Mere Apne bana rahe they’. I told him that I had approached him for Mere Apne but he had rejected me. So Jeetu retorted,‘Then you must learn how to narrate a story,’” says Gulzar. Sobti and Jeetendra went on to produce Parichay.

The toughest job of Parichay was convincing Jeetendra to sport a moustache. “Jeetu used to grumble that the glue irritated him and that he couldn’t smile properly. I told him ki sach poocho toh kuch character hi nahin hai tumhari shakal mein,mooch lagane se tumhare chehre mein character aa jaata hai,” says Gulzar.

In Parichay,Jeetendra gives his most effortless performance. While watching it I also noticed his unhurried laughter. Gulzar has fond memories of working with him. “His energy was infectious. Hema (Malini) used to call him a generator. He submitted to the director totally. In Khushboo,I made him wear a chashma and a kurta. He was quite upset and said,‘Yaar,this is too much. Pehle moochein aur ab chashma and kurta. What’s next,’” says Gulzar.

Amongst the children,Master Raju as Sanju and Baby Pinky as Neeta are cute enough to be kidnapped,if it was lawful,of course. Sanjeev Kumar as Jaya’s father was an inspired casting and once again a testament to Gulzar’s faith in his favourite actor. Koshish in which Jaya and Sanjeev were paired as a deaf-mute couple released a month after Parichay. Both films were well-received and Sanjeev even got a National Award for Koshish. Later,he would also play Jaya’s father-in-law in Sholay.

Parichay is also noteworthy for its music,especially the sublime Lata Mangeshkar- Bhupinder song,Beeti na bitai raina. Amitabh Bachchan had a big part to play in the song’s destiny. The story goes that Jeetendra didn’t like the song at all when it was recorded. When Bachchan came to the sets to meet Jaya,Jeetendra played the song for him on his car’s music system hoping to get him to convince Gulzar to nix the song. “Once Amit heard the song,he was quite moved. Jeetu came to me with a stupefied expression and told me,‘Yeh toh ro pada gaana sun ke.’” Gulzar was vindicated and Lata Mangeshkar and Bhupinder went on to win the National Award for the song.

About the other song,Sa re ke saare which is undoubtedly inspired by Do re mi of The Sound of Music,Gulzar says,“You can only teach sargam on sa re ga ma. That was the situation in the film. I don’t think of it as plagiarism. I’m not justifying myself. This is it and this is what I did. Creativity takes mysterious turns and it’s all a part of a process. It’s fun when you refer to something which is a known inspiration and give it your touch.” There’s a moment in the song,when Gulzar gives a cute nod to his dear friend,RD Burman. As Jeetendra asks mid-song,“Kahan tak pahunche they hum,” Jaya replies,“Pancham tak.”

harneet.singh@expressindia.com