Mumbai neighbourhoods: That Bollywood street in Khar

I was fielding at slip. Three wickets left, and twenty runs to score. Thirty five rupees at stake, that’s five rupees a piece if we won…or lost (that was my weekly pocket money at that time).

A white Fiat drove up and we politely requested the owner to park a few feet away — this was our ‘middle’ pitch. So what if it was the road and so what if the slips were three feet from his office gate. The two guys who popped out from the back seat hung around to have a smoke and watch us play. One of them asked us the score. I was bowling the next over. The first two balls were thumped for four (the ‘boundary’ was defined by the three bungalows down the road. We had two kids placed there to retrieve the ball, aged seven and nine. Their names were Anand and Milind. Later on they were introduced as music directors in my first film — and they went on to compose music for over 200 films.

The third ball spun like crazy; my devastating underhand off spin. The middle stump was uprooted. They weren’t stumps actually, just three strips of plywood stuck on a wooden base. The two man audience clapped for us. The fair and handsome one decided to advise me “you are spinning well, give the ball more air and slow down the speed”. It worked. One batsman was stumped, the next guy tried to whack the ball; it went straight into one of the bungalows, which was out by our rules. Our joy was unbelievable, we had beaten 15th Road, the Khar champions at that time. The duo shook our hands and congratulated us. The merriment was interrupted by the owner of the white Fiat, as he popped out of the office gate. “Hey guys we have to finish the first draft, Kaka will be here any moment.” Our ears perked up as we all knew who Kaka was — the reigning superstar, Rajesh Khanna. At that time we didn’t know whose these three were.

I don’t know by what quirk of fate my dad decided to stay on that stretch of 14th road, Khar, Mumbai. Near the corner was the house where old time “item girl” Cuckoo lived. Two bungalows down was Madan Mohan. Later, music director Chitragupta took over the house and then Anand Milind. Now, Ashutosh Gowarikar has his office there. Bang next to that is the guy with the white Fiat, Ramesh Sippy, who was planning his first film Andaz (with Kaka in a guest appearance) while his writers were advising me on my off spin, Salim and Javed (they were never given credit for the film; just mentioned as a part of the writing team).Two bungalows further lived Devendra Goel. He had already releases Ek phool do mali the previous year (In today’s terms if you adjust for inflation, that movie did over Rs 350 crores). A floor below him was Manoj Kumar, who had deliverd another humongous hut in Upkaar.

In years to come that stretch of ten houses in a row would be responsible for Purab aur Paschim, Shor, Roti Kapda aur Makan, Sholay, Seeta Geeta, Lagaan, Jodha Akbar, Chaalbaaz, Karamchand and Jalwa.

Recently, I dropped in to Costa Coffee at the end of the road and saw a familiar figure sitting in the corner. Karan Johar. Joined him at the table and did NOT have Coffee with Karan, but was talking him about the stretch of Bollywood history down the road. His eyes lit up and we suddenly realised that since his office was above Costa Coffee, technically that was 14th Road as well.

Here we go again… Kuch Kuch Hota hai, Kabhi khushi kabhi gham, Kank, My name is Khan….

I would like to believe I worked hard at my creativity and fought against all odds to make movies… but sometimes I do think there is a bit of 14th Road magic in there, making coincidences happen.

Pankuj Parashar won the Filmfare Award for the documentary Malfunction in 1980.The film, shot at the Yerwada Mental Hospital Pune was part of a student exercise that won in a professional arena.He has directed 12 feature films including Jalwa with Naseeruddin Shah, Chaalbaaz with Sridevi, Sunny Deol and Rajnikant, Rajkumar with Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit and Tumko Na Bhool Payenge with Salman Khan and Sushmita Sen. He’s also directed the cult classic Karamchand, which still counts as India’s most popular and technically proficient detective television serial.