Prakash Mehra - an entertaining filmmaker

Yeh police station hai,tumhare baap ka ghar nahin..isliye jab tak baithne ko na kaha jaye sidhi tarah sharafat se khade raho... ...

With this dialogue of Zanjeer, Amitabh truly arrived at Bollywood. I remember reading Prakash Mehra's interview where he mentioned of Raj Kapoor calling upstairs in his room at RK studio ' Are Prakash ko upar bulaoo - Call Prakash upstairs'. It seems Raj Kapoor from his room would often listen and watch the scenes enacted below in his studio. He told Prakash Mehra 'Prakash, I watched this dialogue and this new man , yah ladka boht aage jayega- this man will race ahead '. There was nothing unique about the prophecy of Kapoor, this was felt by every cine viewer who watched Zanjeer. However, what interested me was the manner in which Prakash Mehra narrated this incident. This ability of narrate a story or incident is also been complimented by Amitabh himself.

With Prakash Mehra's passing away, two decades of my entertainment era slipped away.

Its difficult to say which of his four movies Zanjeer, Namak Halal, Lawaris and Sharabi entertained and captivated me the most. Amitabh remained an iconic character, suppressing anger, love and loneliness and yet demonstrating loyalty, friendship and generosity in all his movies. Nevertheless, he also portrayed Sher Khan in Zanjeer (Pran), Daddu in Namak Halal, and Munshi Ji in Sharabi (Om Prakash) as vividly and elegantly as pet central character.

Amitabh is in his blog and obituary in Times, very touchingly narrates his association with Prakash Mehra and talks of his multifaceted skills. "Aur is dil mein kya rakha hai, Tera hi dard chhupa rakha hai" is a lovely song written by him reflects his one more such skill apart from sheer entertainment presentation.

But for Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai and Yash Chopra, Amitabh wouldn't have been the phenomenon in the Hindi movie industry.

May his soul rest in peace.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Absolutely; Amitabh Bachchan has lived every moment of the character he is playing.

Best Wishes
Sanjay Sharma
Delhi
6:13 PM
Victoria said…
Your writing skills are superb. I enjoyed reading this. You have a very nice blog. I really enjoyed to sidebar.
11:56 PM

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