Joy Mukherjee Literally Ate To Death

Before Mithun Chakraborty, there were only two successful Bengali actors in Hindi cinema: Biswajeet and Joy Mukherjee. While Biswajeet is still with us, Joy left us early on March 9, 2012 at the age of 73. He died of complications connected with obesity. Food had become an obsession with Joy.

Asha Parekh who did   four films with him — Hum Hindustani, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Ziddi and Love In Tokyo—remembers running into Joy for the last time in Kashmir. Joy refused to come out of his car, as he didn’t want Asha Parekh to see his girth!

Joy began his career with his father producer Sashadhar Mukherjee’s Love In Shimla. The film starred the producer’s son and the director R K Nayyar’s future wife Sadhana. The film and specially its music by O.P. Nayyar was a smash hit. Later Joy was to do three musical blockbusters with O P Nayyar’s hit songs: Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Ho__on and Humsaya which Joy produced and directed in 1968. It was a disaster, despite Nayyar’s nifty numbers like Woh haseen  dard de  do and Dil ki awaaz bhi sun reducing  Joy to near insolvency.

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Looking back at Humsaya, I find the film’s determination to be taken seriously quite amusing. Joy features in a double role, one of them a Chinese. While Mala Sinha plays the Chinese love interest, Sharmila Tagore plays the Indian romantic angle. Legend has it that the two actresses couldn’t see eye to eye (not surprising since Mala’s eyes were half shut by prosthetics to make her look Chinese) and in fact Mala planted a slap on Sharmila’s cheeks when the camera was not rolling.

True to his name Joy was at his best doing ebullient romantic musicals with Asha Parekh and Saira Banu. All of Joy’s film with Asha Parekh were super hits. Asha remembers him as a hassle-free, fun-loving co-star, kind and considerate. But he also had a habit of coming late on the sets, which Asha soon got used to. She remembers shooting Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon was a ball. Love In Tokyo was the first film to be shot in Japan. Again, shooting was like a picnic. Joy and Asha did a lot of sightseeing. Asha remembers Joy threw a party on the last day of shoot in Japan.

She remembers a funny incident from their last film together Ziddi. Joy was supposed to pick her up forcibly, and throw her on the bed. Joy didn’t realise there was no mattress on the bed. Asha landed on the bed with a thud. Her back was injured; she couldn’t get up for days. Says Asha, “Joy went too early. I believe he wasn’t keeping good health. He should have looked after himself.”

Saira Banu remembers Joy in his final year had become so overweight he had to be carried inside to a function. Joy’s father the great filmmaker Sashadhar Mukherjee was keenly into physical fitness. He had an akhaada (wrestling ring) in his home. After his father’s death Joy just gave up. He let himself go to such an extent that his wife Neelam had no control over his diet.  Friends say she’d give him healthy food at home. He would then leave home with his driver to go and have all the unhealthy junk food like samosas and what have you.

For the superhit Shagird director Subodh Mukherjee made Joy go on a special fitness regime for his role, just as he made Shammi Kapoor, another overweight superstar, do for Junglee. So, Joy was fitter than ever in Shagird. After his death Joy’s dream project Love In Bombay which he had produced and directed was released by his wife Neelam and sons Toy and Boy. Waheeda Rehman who starred opposite Joy had done the film under financial compulsions. Joy requested her to be in this film through the film’s cinematographer Nariman Irani. She had never done any film with Joy before that. When she heard the story of Love In Bombay she decided she wouldn’t do it.

However financial constraints made her say ‘yes’ to a film that had her doing the most undignified things. When Mrs Joy Mukherjee approached Waheeda Rehman for a no-objection to the release of Love In Bombay the actress magnanimously relented. Waheeda was pretty sure it wouldn’t get released. Who would want to buy a 40-year-old film with Joy Mukherjee and Waheeda Rehman? She got the shock when she heard it was actually being released. The film came and bombed as expected. It was Joy’s third film in the ‘Love In..’ series after Love In Shimla and Love In Tokyo. Indeed, Joy was born to spread love!