Manoj Kumar -- woh kaun tha?
When Harikrishan Giri Goswami decided to join films as an actor, he set his sights high. His idol was Dilip Kumar, and hoping to find his place as the actor's successor, he adopted the screen name of his idol's character in the film Shabnam.
Through the early years of his career, even as he played the lead in hits like Haryali aur Raasta and Dr Vidya, followed by the cult film, Woh Kaun Thi in 1964, Manoj Kumar remained a chocolate-boy hero. His good looks won female hearts, on and off the screen; so what if no one was standing up to applaud his acting skills.
He might have gone on playing the passive, pliant hero against the top heroines of the era had Shaheed not happened.
Perhaps taking on the role of Bhagat Singh in Shaheed and suffering the indignities heaped on the revolutionary and his friends by the British led to Manoj Kumar responding to the intense sense of patriotism and Indianness that the film essayed. For the first time, one could see the actor immersing himself in his role, losing the self-consciousness that otherwise ran like an undercurrent through his romantic portrayals.
Shaheed would be the turning point that would also, serendipitously, lead Manoj Kumar to his metier. This despite the films following it with him in the lead being boy-meets-girl romances like Himalay ki Godmen, Do Badan and the off-beat Gumnaam, based on the Agatha Christie thriller And Then There Were None, in which Mehmood walked away with all the accolades.
Shaheed would lead to Manoj Kumar donning the director's mantle. At the behest of the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had been impressed with Shaheed and suggested that Manoj Kumar make a film to take his slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan forward, the actor directed Upkar (1967).
His response to Shastri’s idea may not have had the packed intensity of Shaheed, but it told a story that celebrated the soldier and the farmer, and through a mix of songs, high-tension drama, and the stoking of pride in being Indian. Upkar went on to touch the hearts of its viewers much in the way Shaheed had done.
Using Shaheed as a prototype, Manoj Kumar had worked on creating the same emotions that the earlier film, set in the pre-independence era, had created, in a film with the Indo-Pak war as the background.
Like many creators of hit films, Manoj Kumar had a keen ear for good music, and Upkar was embellished by stirring songs that could cross social and emotional barriers to reach even those who did not venture into the cinema halls. The stirrings of patriotic pride that the paean to Bharat Mata, Mere desh ki dharti sona ugle, ugle heere moti evoked went a long way in making the film a super hit.
To give him credit, Manoj Kumar the director brought conviction in his delineation of patriotic themes, perhaps because he was invested in them himself. The ten-year-old who had crossed the newly drawn border into India soon after the Partition, knew how he owed India in all aspects of his life.
The fact that he was better behind the camera than in front of it came through strongly when Upkar won the Filmfare Award for Best Director and the National Award for being the second best film that year.
Then calamity stood waiting. The 1970s could have sealed his fate as a hero. The emergence of the phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna with his high-voltage energy, his enigmatic smile and his huge dollop of charisma and irresistible screen presence would have taken the wind out of Manoj Kumar's sails and the hero who had delivered hit after hit might have found himself yesterday's phenomenon.
But Manoj rallied, falling back on the theme that had lifted him to a new high.
Patriotism on screen never fails to arouse passions, even if only for the space of a few hours, and starting with his next directorial venture, Purab aur Paschim, Manoj Kumar set out to add to the series of films that beat the patriotism drum and earned for him the title of Mr Bharat.
Viewers of Purab aur Paschim today may be aghast at the politically incorrect stances and scenes that dot the film. In evoking mass pride in India's rich heritage and culture, and decrying the 'shallow' ways of the West, Mr Bharat, as hero and director, left no slur untouched. And ensured a hit when the very westernised heroine played by Saira Banu donned a sari and bindi and bowed in deference to Indian culture and her male soul mate.
The film, set in London, also pointed a finger at the Indians who forget their motherland while searching for success and acceptance in the West, making the cash registers ring loudly in the UK cinema halls where the film was screened too.
Mr Bharat, alias Manoj Kumar, had come to stay.
Roti, Kapada aur Makaan followed; again on a theme close to identifiable situations in the country. If his films can be said to be guilty of drum beating and over dramatising situations, perhaps one can forgive the director because he felt it to be the only way to awaken the public consciousness. And to keep the film from slipping into a preaching or fault finding mode, and to ensure he walked clear of political censure, there were enough elements of fun, and romance added in. The perfect blend of opiate and spices.
Kranti would place Mr Bharat securely on the pedestal of being India's most patriotic director. Full of brawn and passion, the multi-starrer film also helped its director realise his dream of sharing the screen with his idol, Dilip Kumar. Kranti would be yet another hit, surpassing many of his earlier hits.
As an actor too, Manoj Kumar would finally come into his own. Once he shed the chocolate-boy romantic hero image, and unlike other heroes who romanced heroines half their age, decided to play more mature roles, the actor emerged. In films like Sanyaasi and Be-Imaan, Manoj Kumar allowed himself to be more the character and less the hero.
The country he deified on film then recognised him not just as Mr Bharat, but also as Manoj Kumar, the actor, awarding him the Best Actor award for Be-Imaan.
For some decades now, Manoj Kumar and his work have been forgotten (except for the song from Upkar that is played twice a year on January 26 and August 15).
Now that the country has a new story to hang on to, the Bharat films might get dusted and enjoy a few reruns.
If so, and if one looks beyond the tendency towards hyperbole, and the black versus white portrayals, one may see enough relevance to spur a conscientious film maker to pick up the genre and take it forward to make films that speak of real issues and highlight problems and solutions.
And audiences may wake up to the fact that films can highlight issues they are struggling with as citizens, and not all social and political stories have to be cloaked in propaganda.
If that happens, Bharat, alias Manoj Kumar, would have done us, and his memory, a great service indeed.
(Sathya Saran is the author of a variety of books, a columnist and currently Consulting Editor with Penguin Random House.)
