Remembering Raj Khosla, the other great Raj of Hindi Filmmaking on his death anniversary

Most cineastes think of Raj Kapoor as the showman of the Indian cinema. But in my opinion, c was just as passionate and versatile. His music sense rivalled Kapoor and sometimes out did it. The songs that Laxmikant-Pyarelal  composed for Khosla were very frequently superior to what they gave for Kapoor. Like Kapoor, Khosla was a musician himself. He did two films with composer Madan Mohan where the music is considered all-time greats. In Khosla’s Woh Kaun Th_i Madan Mohan created the most important song of his career Lag ja gale se. But who’s to say that Lata Mangeshkar’s other songs of the soundtrack Jo humne  dastaan and  Naina barse rimjhim are  any  less exquisite ? After the stupendous soundtrack of Mera Saaya containing chartbusters like Jhumka   gira re and Mera saaya saath hoga, Khosla suddenly switched from Madan Mohan to Laxmikant-Pyarelal. No one knows what went wrong between Khosla and Madan Moha.But in his next project Anita,which encored  the WohKaun Thi team of Manoj Kumar and Sadhana, Khosla  got Laxmikant-Pyarelal  to do the  songs.  Although the film flopped L-P composed all-time hits like Tum bin jeevan kaise beeta and Samne mere sawariya for Anita. In Raj Khosla’s blockbuster family drama Do Raaste L-P composed one of Lata Mangeshkar’s songs Bindiya chamkegi. The iconic Mumtaz  who danced the tune to eternal glory in her trademark orange-coloured saree, says she had no clue she was dancing to a song that would become synonymous with her image. “None of us thought much of Bindiya chamkegi when we were shooting it. I personally thought it was a little slow in tempo for a dance number. But I was wrong. It is the biggest song of my career.” Lata   once said that Raj Khosla was a singer himself. “He used to sing and compose his own songs. Some of my career’s biggest hits were for Raj Khosla’s films: Lag ja gale se in WohKaun Tthi, Bindiya chamkegi in Do Raaste, Maar diya jaye ke chhor diya jaye in Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Main tulsi tere angan ki, Teri aankhon ke siva duniya mein rakha kya hai in Chirag. Even Raj Khosla’s unsuccessful films had some of my best songs,like A_llah meri payal bole  in Do Premee and Jaane kya baat hai  in Sunny.” There are some exceptional filmmakers in Hindi cinema whose sense music matches their filmmaking skills. Raj Kapoor, Vijay Anand, Manoj Kumar and Raj Khosla come to mind immediately. In the 1970s and 80s when Khosla made a slew of dacoit dramas, he miraculously merged magnificent songs into the action. Khosla’s dacoit dramas Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Kachche Dhaage and Maati Mange Khoon has exceptional songs and music. The unsuccessful Maati Maange  Khoon in 1983 saw Khosla switch from Laxmikant-Pyarelal to R .D. Burman with astonishing results: Main ghunghat na kholungi , Lo Sahib phir bhool gayi main are among Lata’s career-best compositions. Shatrughan Sinha who worked with Raj Khosla in two films describes the filmmaker as a visionary.  “What a great sense of music Raj Khosla had. In Dostana the  film I did with Amitabh Bachchan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal  composed some great songs like Bane chahe dushman zamana hamara  and Dillagi ne di hawa. In my Maati Maange Khoon I remember the great Ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali Saab singing Yeh dil yeh paagal dil mera awargi. Raj Khosla was a genius. He deserved a lot more recognition than he got.” Recalls actress Asha Parekh, “Raj Khosla gave me one of my career’s best films. Then when he wanted me to do Main Tulsi Teri Aangan Ki I was not sure. The whole film revolved around Nutan’s character. I had just fifteen minutes in the film. But what an impact it made.” Asha Parekh played the ‘Other Woman’ in Main Tulsi Tere Aangan. Khosla was obsessed with that character. the mistress, the outsider, the home breaker.  He visited the Other Woman in film after film: Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Sunny, Daasi. He was also fascinated by the traditional screen vamp. Bindu in Do Raaste,Laxmi Chhaya  in  Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Sona  in Kachche Dhaage were more pivotal to the plot than  the  heroines. There was  so much to the cinema  of Raj Khosla that remains eclipsed by the  absence of a proper evaluation  of  his work.I would call him an unsung genius but we are still singing his songs from the  1950s  and  early  1960s  like  from  Leke  pehla pehla pyar in CID, Achcha ji main haari chalo maan  jao na(Kala Pani),  Hai apna dil  toh awara(Solva Saal) and  Deewana mastana hua dil(Bambai Ka Babu), Aap yuhi agar humse milte rahe(Ek Musafir Ek Haseena) and  Bahut shukriya badi meherbani(Ek Musafir Ek Hasina). Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.