MUMBAI: He is a fit and brawny 80 this year — knock on wood. And she is a svelte and stylish 71. Both do not look their age, and, in their time, were known more for their physical assets (!) than for their undoubted talent. Their common birthday is today — Dec. 8.
We hope that Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore have taken the trouble to wish each other a happy birthday today after their long association. Amazingly, for someone who is termed the first ever sex symbol of Hindi cinema (he was the first to take off his shirt and display rippling muscles in “Phool Aur Patthar,” his true breakthrough) and the Ooh La La Diva Tagore who was glamour personified (in a bikini) in “An Evening In Paris” and in many more films, the two never got to co-star in a film that exposed these sides of their persona, though Dharmendra played the dual role of an Indian agent and an enemy officer in the 1969 “Yakeen.”
Their first film together was “Devar,” a 1964 melodrama that had some progressive elements. This was followed by the ethereal “Anupama” (1967), arguably Hrishikesh Mukerjee’s most sensitive film. For Hrishi-da, they were a favorite pair, co-starring in what he considered his life’s best film, “Satyakam” (1970) that was a Dharmendra home production, and the 1975 laugh-riot “Chupke Chupke.”
They also co-starred in the 1968 hit “Mere Humdum Mere Dost,” musically their best film together, the melodrama “Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka,” and in the 1982 weepie “Sunny,” in which Dharmendra only made a cameo. For the record, they were both guests in the 1981 Manmohan Desai film “Naseeb” in the song “John Jani Janardhan.”
Both had a life outside films as well — Dharmendra has been a BJP MP, while Tagore was censor chief. Their progeny also made their presence felt in films — Dharmendra’s Sunny and Bobby Deol and later Esha Deol, and Tagore’s Saif Ali Khan and now Soha Ali Khan. And 23 years after their last film together, Sunny Deol and Soha Ali Khan team up for the first time in “Ghayal Once Again,” produced and directed by the former.
Again for the record, Saif Ali Khan and Esha Deol have also co-starred in the 2002 film “Na Tum Jaane Na Hum.”