ज़िन्दगी लम्बा चक्कर है और मौत सीधा रास्ता है वहाँ पहुँचने का – अविनाश के घर

29Apr09

N.B: Couldn’t post it earlier for the lack of internet at home.

The first memory of Feroze Khan would be audio cassette of ‘Safar‘ that used to play at home when I was a kid. It was a ’song and dialogues’ cassette which the young testosterone brigade, addicted to hip-hop, might not know. An ‘S&D’ audio cassette would have the songs and famous dialogues from a movie.

There was this haunting conversation in the movie when Sharmila Tagore and Feroze Khan would be driving away at a furious pace [Screeching noise of tyres skidding etc. etc.]. The conversation would go somewhat like:

नीला:  क्या कर रहे हो? कहाँ जा रहे हो?
शेखर:  मैं कहाँ जा रहा हूँ? अविनाश के घर |
नीला: लेकिन ये रास्ता तो वहाँ नहीं जाता
शेखर: यही तो सीधा रास्ता है, तुम खामखा ग़लत रास्ते से जाती थीं |
नीला: शेखर, ये तुम क्या कर रहे हो?
शेखर: डर गयीं ! तुम्हें अभी मालूम होगा नीला कि ज़िन्दगी कितना लम्बा चक्कर है और मौत कितना सीधा रास्ता है वहाँ  पहुँचने  का – अविनाश के घर |

I was so intrigued by that voice that I would play the cassette on loop – Play_Rewind_Play, trying to guess what happened next. I am talking about the 80s when there were no VCDs or torrents. Even VCPs were late to come. I had to depend on DoorDarshan for my movie watching. Hence listening to that particular cassette of Safar was a regular activity. No matter how many times I would listen to it, I would always get goose bumps upon listening to ‘Avinash Ke Ghar‘. I would ask my Mom who that voice belonged to and she would reply Feroze Khan and then go on for half an hour drooling over him. I could never understand why she was so mad about him.

‘Sexy’ as a word was not discovered at least in Orissa and ‘animal magnetism’ and other such good words were not part of my lexicon, I was a young boy,  you see.

As I grew up, I came to know of good looking gentlemen like Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna and I would ask her who the best looking man in India was and every time an unflinching answer would be Feroze Khan.

Finally, the day came when I saw my first Feroze Khan movie. The movie was a B.R. Chopra classic ‘Aadmi Aur Insaan‘ starring both Dharmendra and Feroze Khan. The movie was good but I was devastated when he is shot dead at the end after he had just delivered a brilliant monologue ending with “हम सब को एक साथ गोली मार देनी चाहिए |”. The oozing sex appeal and magnetism were all there and I was rooting for him throughout the movie instead of the good guy played by Dharmendra. He was unbelievably good looking, almost a Greek God.

His greatest contribution to Indian cinema was the style quotient he introduced through his movies. Much later when I saw his uber cool Qurbani,   I was blown by his flamboyant acting and devil_may_care attitude – how can one forget the dialogue between him and Amrish Puri about driving a Mercedes and the madness that followed. Jaanbaaz – I remember more for him swinging to the tunes of ‘Har kisi ko nahin milta‘ along with Sridevi and Anil Kapoor’s Russian Roulette. The iconic western ‘Khotey Sikkey‘ through which I got the first taste of Ennio Morricone’s tunes. Dharmatma – After which I wanted to drive an open top Jeep and sing ‘Kya khoob lagti ho’ wearing only black, the way he would keep his shirt unbuttoned with a huge medallion like locket swinging across his chest.

During the later years of his life, his movie characters had become caricatures and like Dev Anand he refused to grow up and play his age. I saw the so_bad_that_its_good ‘Welcome’ and almost laughed at his sad attempt at cool. His characters in ‘Jaanasheen’, ‘Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena’ were almost terrible. I watched them more for the ’schlock factor’, more than anything else and his atrocious punch line dialogues. Sample this from Jaanasheen as Saba Kareem: “खून बहाना हमें पसंद तो नहीं आता, मगर क्या करें , कमबख्त हमारी  रगों  में  दौड़ता  है |” :)   I guess he wanted to be a style icon throughout his life and maintain that devil_may_care image of his.

I had a word with Mom today. She was very sad. Whenever someone from Bollywood dies I get a call from her, before I come to know of it. This time I didn’t get that call. I understood.

As for me, I am desperate to listen to that immortal voice of ‘Sekhar‘ and while writing this post I took a small break to buy the VCD of ‘Safar’. I will watch him drive Sharmila Tagore again – ‘Avinash ke Ghar‘. For me he would always be the enigmatic ‘Shekhar‘ from Safar.


Filed under: Bollywood, Cinema   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,