This beautiful song from Anand was sung by Manna De, composed by Salil Da, and written by Yogesh is now 50 years old. This song was included in the film to compensate Yogesh, the lyricist for a song he wrote earlier for this film but not recorded. The Director Hrishikesh Mukharjee thought of obliging Yogesh to write a Title song.
It being the title song so Salil Da recorded this song in the voice of Manna Dey. When Rajesh Khanna, the hero of the film heard the recorded version of this song, he said that such a lovely composition should not be wasted on the title. He insisted the song be shot on him. It became the first solo song of Manna Dey for Rajesh Khanna. Interestingly all the other songs in this film were sung by Mukesh for Rajesh Khanna.
The song was shot in three hours and only two antaras were kept in the film. As per Yogesh, he wrote 5 antaras, and three antara were recorded but only two were shot. Manna De used to sing the third antara on many stage shows in those days.
According to Bimal Roy's daughter Rinki Bhattacharya, this melody was originally written for a film Anand Mahal which was delayed so Sali Da used this melody here in this movie. Salil Da in an interview once said that arrangement is not a part of Indian music. It is a western concept but he felt it is also essential for a film song else there would be nothing to hold the edifice. For my compositions, I normally use an Indian melody and flavor it with something western.
In this song too Salil created a unique concoction of eastern and East Europian melody.
Haathi Mere Saathi was the highest-grossing Indian film of 1971. It was released on 1st May 1971 and became an instant hit all over India. It was not a children's film but became a craze among children. Children's cinema was a rarity in the 70's decade which was dominated by action dramas. But one big exception was "Haathi Mere Saathi"(1971), directed by M.A.Thirumugham which was inspired by his own Tamil hit, "Vettaikkaaran"(1964).
This was the first film of Salim Javed as an independent script & screenplay writer. it was the biggest hit in the career of Rajesh Khanna as a hero. This movie is about the relationship/bondage between man and animal. Elephants play an equally important role with Rajesh Khanna in the movie and the movie revolves around them. Tanuja playing the heroine also contributes.
In an interview, Tanuja said, "I showed them the film when Kajol was six and Tanishaa around three years old, and for two weeks Kajol did not speak to me!! "Mummy, you killed the elephant! Because of you, he had to die!" screamed Kajol! "And Tanishaa was annoyed too!"
Another highlight of the film was its music by Laxmikant Pyarelal who have composed some great hits for this movie sung by Kishore Kumar. One song by Mohammad Rafi is a class.
The film ranks as a classic because it is still unequaled as the complete family fare in its genre for kids of all ages!. If you have not seen this film, you must see this film with your children.
This Superhit film was released on 30th April 1971. It was the last movie of Shammi Kapoor as a romantic hero. It was the last movie of the great Shankar-Jaikishan duo. Soon after Jaikishan died of liver cirrhosis, he was only 42.It was the first movie of Ramesh Sippy as Director and also the first script of Salim Javed,
The film is about a widower(Shammi Kapoor) who has a kid from his now-dead wife(Simi Grewal) and a young widow(Hema Malini) who has a young son from her now-dead lover(Rajesh Khanna) and how their lives meet and end up in romance.
This was the golden age of Rajesh Khanna, whatever the superstar touched it turned into gold. Here also in 15 minutes guest appearances stole the show. He appears on screen for only a few minutes with the famous Kishore Kumar yodel “Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana” and a couple of other scenes.
The story is a formula-based one but the skilfully written screenplay is able to entertain the viewers throughout. This was the first signal of a great script and screenplay writer of Bollywood in making. Their first film as an independent screenplay writer was to release soon and to be the top-grossing film of 1971.
It was the last movie of Shammi Kapoor as a romantic hero and his role demanded maturity not only on the face but also in performance. And Shammi Kapoor has done it perfectly. Nowhere is he over the top and portrayed the widower and an affectionate father on the screen with finesse, bringing all his experience as a hero over the previous 18 years into his performance.
The film features "Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana", one of the best known Bollywood yodels This song was nominated in the best singer category for Kishore Kumar. Hasrat Jaipuri was awarded the best lyricist for this song.
This is an entertaining family drama If you have not seen it earlier, you must see it now.
The characteristic of a great film is a story well presented on screen so as to grab the attention as well as the emotion of the audience. Anand had all the ingredients of a great film. Produced and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee,, co-written and dialogue by Gulzar starring Rajesh Khanna in the lead role, with a supporting cast including Amitabh Bachchan.
The film has everything excellent. Acting, direction, story, music, dialogues etc... everything is fabulous. It has drama, humour, emotions in dollops. It is a story of a dying man who looks at life with a positive attitude and enjoys his time knowing fully well his disease is incurable and that he is going to die soon.
Rajesh Khanna as Anand was absolutely brilliant, Amitabh Bachchan was fantastic as Babumoshai. Another highlight was its music by Salil Chowdurywho comes up with an absolutely fantastic score and singers Mukhesh and Manna Dey do complete justice to his tunes.
Kati Patang was released on 29th Jan 1951.By that time Rajesh Khanna was the Super Star of Bollywood. All of his films were making Jubilees The Rajesh Khanna phenomenon was at its peak. This was the third picture of Shakti Samanta and Rajesh Khanna together and the second film of the trio of Shakti Samanta, Rajesh Khanna and R D Burman.
The film was tragic in nature with a non-glamorous heroine role but became hit because of its music. The film gave us evergreen hits like Yeh Shaam Mastani, Pyar Diwana Hota Hai and Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai. all sung by Kishore Kumar. One song 'Jis Gali Me Tera Ghar Na Ho Sajna' was sung by Mukesh.
The film was based on the novel by Gulshan Nanda, the 1971 film features the story of the double life of Madhavi, played by Asha Parekh, who got her first Filmfare Award of the Best Heroine for this role.
Sharmila Tagore who was a favourite heroine of Shakti Samanta did not get this role because she was pregnant at that time. Asha Parekh who had earlier worked with Samanta was the natural choice for this film. He had cast her in his earlier film, Pagla Kahin Ka.
Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh had already been paired in a few films like Aan Milo Sajna, their pairing was also acceptable to the audience. This film too was a hit and was the sixth highest-earning Bollywood film of 1971
Shakti Samanta (13 January 1926 – 9 April 2009) gave us the great films such as Howrah Bridge, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, An Evening in Paris, Aradhana, Kati Patang, and Amar Prem. He directed 43 feature films, including 37 Hindi, and 6 Bengali films.
Amar Prem was his 3rd film with Rajesh Khanna. Initially, Rajkumar was the original choice to play the lead hero. When Rajesh Khanna heard it he went to Shakti Samantha's office and asked him how can he cast another actor in this film, this was because they had already given a classic hit like Aradhana 1969 and Kati Patang 1970 was almost ready for release and they both had bonded a good relationship between them.
Another interesting fact of this film is that the immortal song 'Chingari Koi Bhadke' was not shot on the Hooghly river with the Howrah Bridge on the background was shot in a studio in Mumbai. Shakti Samanta in an interview said that the entire film was shot in Bombay and its suburbs, in fact, he told that a great length of shooting happened in a village at Nala Supara, the suburb of Bombay. The song was an additional song, it was added in the film when the film was complete.
The film's story is based on a Bengali short story Nishi Padma by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. , A Bengali film with the same name got released in 1970 starring Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterjee. Bengali writer-director Arvinda Mukherjee wasn't familiar with Hindi so he wrote the script of Amar Prem 1972 in English, writer Ramesh Pant then translated the whole script in Hindi.
Rajesh Khanna reportedly saw Nishipadma 24 times. He suggested changing the character's name from Ananta to Anand to draw a connection to his character in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's critically acclaimed Anand (1971).
One of the highlights of this film was its music composed by R D Burman, the soundtrack was melody-based, which gave Lata Mangeshkar her finest classical solo of the decade, Raina Beti Jaaye, set in an unusual blend of two Ragas, he had heard his father, music composer S. D. Burman sing, Bela Boye Jaye, which he said was on his mind while composing the song. Bakshi's lyrics, created a Meera bhajan-like idiom for the song, employing the Krishna-Radha motif.
Another memorable song 'Yeh Kya Hua Kaise Hua' by Kishore Kumar was a true copy of the Bengali version of Kishore from the film 'Rajkumari' This song was too composed by R D Burman earlier. Another song "Bada Natkhat hai Re Krishna Kanhaiyya" sung by Lata Mangeshkar is another masterpiece from Burmans.It happened when Sachin Da heard the tune of this song, he asked Pancham to redo the tune as per the situation of the song.Thus R.D. Burman made a tune in Raga Khamaj, which Lata Mangeshkar too sang with marked emotional clarity.
Rajesh Khanna's dialogue "Pushpa, I hate tears", which appeared five times in the film has become the most popular dialogue of Rajesh Khanna. He was nominated as the Best Actor for this film but couldn't get.Anand Bakshi, the lyricist and Kishore Kumar were also nominated for their respective fields.
Though 1972 was a year of the big films Pakeezah, Dushman and Beimaan,Amar Prem was eighth amongst Khanna's top releases in the year.The film became a classic and became the most memorable film of Shakti Samanta, R D Burman,Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna.
