OFF THE CUFF….

 Little known facts about the legendary Chetan Anand from son Ketan…

 

He sits contemplating the sky and the ocean in his home, known affectionately as `The Shack’, on Juhu Beach; rum glass in hand. This is Ketan Anand, son of the legendary film maker Chetan Anand, a film director himself  (Toote Khilone, Hum Rahe Na Hum, Shart, Aaja Meri Jaan, Chetan Anand: The Poetics of Film, TV serials Vijay & Paramveer Chakra)  and my cousin! Popular as `Kunkie’ and `Kunks’ in the family and the film fraternity,  he is also my brother Shekhar’s best friend and confidant. Whenever Shekhar is low, he “toodles across”  to share a rum and complain about the nasty world to him, he tells me. Kunkie is without doubt a hot favourite with the family.  Oh, and he’s an actor too, having made appearances in Dev Anand’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Chetan Anand’s Heer Ranjha, Johnny Bakshi’s Raavan, Amit Khanna’s Sheeshay Ka Ghar and an Indo-French film,  Hexing, which has been released on Amazon Prime in the U.S. and U.K. and is awaiting release on an Indian OTT platform.

       

So when I approach him for some unknown facts about his illustrious father, he raises his glass and cheers us with his customary “Habba, Dabba Doo” greeting.  He does look somewhat of a magician, with his white beard and hair, dark glasses and hat. 

 

I want to know about the little known facts about uncle Chetan, I repeat. “Well, he was an innovative film maker and nobody knew that better than his contemporaries”, replies Kunkie, swirling his drink around in an absent- minded fashion. That’s an Anand trademark. The eyes and mind are elsewhere even if one is talking to them. Some find it endearing while others get upset.  But I am family so I have learnt to put up with it. By being annoyingly persistent.   

 

“And….?”

 

“Satyajit Ray, for example, he was a young copywriter in an ad agency then. And he saw dad’s first film, Neecha Nagar, which was made in 1945. He said the film had such an impact on him that he decided to switch professions after that and become a film maker. It was a big compliment to dad. Ray also liked the idea of the film’s music being composed by classical musicians like Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. Thereafter,  Ray made Pather Panchali and got them to compose the music for his Apu Trilogy. Also not known is that the heroine’s role was offered to my ma, Uma Anand, who was also Neecha Nagar’s heroine. She politely declined saying she didn’t want to pursue a solo profession since she had a young family to look after and that she was very happy with her job as a newsreader with AIR. Ray and dad shared a warm friendship and mutual admiration”.

 

“ In another incident, while he was attending an international film festival (he attended many of those) the famous Hollywood director Vittorio de Sica  (Bicycle Thieves, Marriage Italian Style, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow) came up to dad and pointed out a montage in Neecha Nagar that he wanted to copy.  The sequence was a brilliant series of images juxtaposed with each other with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan’s music in the background. The film is about how the poor people of Neecha Nagar (Lower City) are deprived of water by the upper classes of Ooncha Nagar (Upper City), by diverting its sources to their own colonies. An impoverished child is futilely sucking the end of a dry tap, while people rise in rebellion, chanting `Pani, Pani!’ Ravi Shankar’s sitar picks up the human note and fans it out into a symphony, leading to the grand finale of the film. Well, Sica loved it and dad, happy with the compliment, gave him permission to use the technique in one of his films, I forget which.”

 

 

Vittorio de Sica

Neecha Nagar was a landmark film.

 “ It was the only Indian entry at Cannes in 1946. Those days they did not have the Palme d’Or , but  it’s predecessor, The Grand Prix. And Neecha Nagar won it along with some top ranking films, including Brief Encounter by David Lean. “

 

 

   

 

The rum has done its work. Kunkie is out of his reverie and eloquent now.

 

“My dad, along with K.A.  Abbas, who wrote the dialogues for Neecha Nagar,  paved the way for realistic cinema. At that time mythologies were popular in India. I would love to remake Neecha Nagar. It’s a universal theme that can work in any era. In fact the Korean film Parasite, that won the Oscar last year, has the same story. Upper house, lower house, deprivation of water. (Speculatively)… Wonder where he got the story from….? And Shekhar’s Paani, which never got made,  was based on Neecha Nagar but was futuristic. His idea was that the fight over land today will turn into the fight for water in the future, as sources dry up.

 

 

 

The print of Neecha Nagar was lost and was discovered by chance, right? A very lucky discovery for our film archives!

 

“Yes, yes. The lab where this print was, caught fire. I think it was a Tardeo lab. Subsequently, Satyajit Ray’s cameraman was rummaging through a kabadi wala’s stuff and saw negatives of a film in the rubbish. When he checked it,  it turned out to be Neecha Nagar’s print! He thought, good god, this is an award winning film! So he bought that film for 100 rupees from the kabadi wala and presented it to the Poona Archives. The Archives made subtitled prints of it and got in touch with dad. They gave him a print too.  So now we have DVDs of it. Whenever there is a festival anywhere in the world, the Archives ask our permission and send it directly to the festival. Or, if someone asks me, I forward a letter to the Archives and they send it.

 

Oh and uncle also worked as an actor…

 

“Yes, in Anjali, which he directed and Kala Bazaar which younger brother Goldie (Vijay Anand) directed. In fact , Kala Bazaar is perhaps the only film in which all three brothers acted. Aha, but he also got a juicy offer from a Hollywood biggie, Walter Lang (The King & I, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Can Can)! who was preparing for his opus The King & I. He had met dad before and offered him the lead role! Dad, by then, had decided to be a director so he declined the offer. Lang was persistent. He said dad had the face that he wanted for the role, but dad was adamant. And so Yul Brynner, a theatre actor, got the role and thereby hangs a tale! He became a huge star after that blockbuster…what a film!”

Walter Lang

 

 

Wow. So how did the two uncles, Dev & Chetan start Navketan together? ( Incidentally, Navketan was named after Ketan).

 

“Well, Dev, who was already a star, having delivered hits with the reigning queen, Suraiya. Dad was negotiating with some people to start a film company, when uncle Dev came along and said “Bhaiji, why do you want to leave the family? We’ll start our own banner and promote ourselves.” And so the initial funding was done by Mr. Dev Anand and Navketan Films was born.  Dad put in the content and creative work. They had a good run together and then Goldie grew up and took over. Navketan became a platform for new talent. Whether actors, writers, or cameramen. Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, Kamini Kaushal, Kalpana Kartik, Johnny Walker, Manmohan Krishan, Mundi Burman, were all Navketan products. Poets, composers and lyricists flocked there too. Dada (S.D. Burman) composed for most of their films.  Fali and Jal Mistry shot a number of their films. Although Binder Ratra was initially their chief cameraman and was like family to them. Navketan went on to discover Zeent Aman & Tina Munim too, but that was much after dad had left the company. They were Dev Anand discoveries.

 

 “Afsar, in 1949,  was the first Navketan’s film. It was based on the Russian playwright, Gogol’s play, The Inspector General. It was translated into Hindi by dad. Dev saab, who was also the producer, was a little upset because he wanted it to be an epic, but dad shot it like the play it was.

 

“ Dev saab was Gurudutt’s best friend and told dad that he had promised to give him a break as a  director. And so, Navketan’s next film was Baazi (1951). It was Guru Dutt’s first film as director. The film set the tone for Dev saab’s future style. That devil- may- care, romantic hero, with his caps, jackets and scarves. They took that character out of one of Marlon Brando’s films, maybe The Wild Ones. Guru Dutt liked that cocky look and it became Dev Anand’s trademark style. After Baazi became a hit, mum got after dad asking him to lay off his heavy subjects and “make one for Dev, who was cut out for this kind of a character”. Dad agreed. She wrote the script, dad directed, Goldie wrote the dialogues and out popped Taxi Driver in 1954… starring the newly married couple, Dev Anand and Kalpana Kartik. In fact the two got married on the sets, in Mehboob Studios. A true family enterprise! It was a big hit. Then the two brothers made  the comedy Funtoosh, which my mother wrote and it did fairly well. After that, the two started falling apart because Dev saab’s style and stardom were taking off and dad wanted to return to his issue based subjects.  

 

    

  

“Dad left Navketan to make Haqueeqat in 1962, under his new banner, Himalaya Films. He was funded for the film by the Punjab government. Subsequently he made Aakhri Khat, Rajesh Khanna’s first release. He made his mark as an actor in this film, before he made his mark as a star. Again, the storyline was unusual. A man goes in search of his little son who is missing and after the entire nerve wracking search, finds him walking into his house! The role was played by the adorable three- year -old Bunty. Dad just let him loose on the streets of Mumbai and followed him around with a camera! The result was heart warming shots of the toddler. But the one who stood out was the new hero, Rajesh Khanna. The climax that he has performed for 700 feet of film without a dialogue, is almost unique in the world! He had to display multiple emotions when he sees the little fellow walk up to him in his own house, after he has searched the entire city for him. Dad really ragdoed Kaka (Rajesh Khanna) for that. He did not allow him to sleep for three nights, didn’t allow him to shave and made him booze so much that he had a perpetual hangover! That is what the scene demanded. Dad kept rolling the camera…and wow! What a shot Kaka gave!! Amazing!

 

 Kaka picked up a lot of his acting skills  from Chetan Saab, which he used in his later films. He copied Dev and Dilip in some mannerisms, but in the dramatic scenes he emulated dad, because dad was a dramatic film director. Then he developed his own style because Kaka was Kaka. He was very innovative.

   

 

What he didn’t mention and what I found on the net was something the entire family can be proud of. The Government of India issued a stamp on Chetan Anand in 2013, when they were celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema.

 

Kunkie, the blue blood, now wants to retire for the evening. Soaking in nostalgia has taken its toll and he `toodles off’  happily in the direction of his room.

 

Ketan has paid his tribute to his dad by writing a book on him with his mum, Uma, appropriately titled,  Chetan Anand: The Poetics of Film. He also made a film based on the book, anchored by the late Tom Alter .