Saawan Kumar loved poetry, Meena Kumari & Salman Khan

During his 34-year old career as a filmmaker and a lyricist, Sawan Kumar Tak made many hits including the blockbuster Souten in 1983 which dealt with his favourite subject of the other Woman, and which revived fading superstar Rajesh Khanna ’s career temporarily.

One of the major factors in the film’s success was its chartbuster music by Sawan Kumar’s ex-wife Usha Khanna . Shayad meri shaadi ka khayal dil mein aaya hai issi liye mummy ne meri tumhen chai pe bulaya hai. Neither great poetry (Sawan was capable of much better) nor a great tune (Usha Khanna did far superior compositions including Main teri choti behna hoon in Souten). But like Sawan was fond of saying, “Souten chali aur aise chali ki kabhi meri koi film aisi chali hi nahin thi.(no film of mine succeeded like Souten)”

Women played a very big hand in Sawan Kumar’s career. His former wife Usha Khanna’s music was the backbone of Sawan’s cinema: Teri galiyon mein na rakhenge qadam (Hawas), Madhuban khushboo deta hai (Saajan Bina Suhagan, another a major hit ), Zindagi pyar ka geet hai (Souten), Saath jiyenge saath marenge (Laila) and Yeh dil bewafa se wafa kar raha hai (Bewaffa Se Waffa) are songs that define Sawan Kumar’s career.

The woman who shaped Sawan Kumar’s destiny and personality was the mythical Meena Kumari . Almost ten years her junior, Sawan entered Hindi cinema through Meena Kumari’s patronage. His first directorial Gomti Ke Kinare was not only her last film ( Pakeezah is mistakenly seen to be Meena Kumari’s swan song) the actress also funded the film by selling one of her bungalows to Mumtaz who also played a pivotal part in Gomti Ke Kinare.

In hindsight, Sawan Kumar admitted he was in love with Meena Kumari. But he also had the grace to set the record straight saying it was a spiritual bonding and that his love for his muse was a form of hero-worship. He even looked after her in her last days; claiming that he collected her vomit of blood in his hands.

Gomti Ke Kinare released after Meena Kumari’s death was a flop. It took Sawan Kumar two years to bounce back with the rather cheesy but successful Hawas in which the voluptuous Bindu played a nymphomaniac. Clearly Hawas was a long way off from Gomti Ke Kinare.

In his later works, the other Woman theme recurred with rigorous persistence. Starting with the super successful Sajan Bina Suhagan (in which Nutan was non-legally wedded to Rajendra Kumar ) and then came Souten where Padmini Kolhapure played the extra-marital interest in Rajesh Khanna’s life, Sawan Kumar proceeded to glorify the Souten (the mistress) in Souten Ki Beti ( Rekha was the Other Woman), Bewaffa Se Waffa (Vivek Mushran preferred other woman Nagma to wife Juhi Chawla when the latter couldn’t bear children), and Khalnayika (where Anu Aggarwal played Jeetendra ’s stalker).

Snide elements in the film industry began to refer to Sawan Kumar as ‘Souten’ Kumar. He took it all with a smile and a good laugh. Sawan had the last laugh when a big blockbuster Sanam Bewafa in 1991 revived his and his leading man’s careers. Featuring Salman Khan ., a remake of a Pakistani film Haq-e-Meher it was the surprise hit of the year. Between 1991 and 1993 Salman did eleven films. Among them, only Sanam Bewafa and Sajan were hits.

Sawan Kumar went on to do two other films with Salman Khan: Chand Ka Tukda (with Sridevi in the title role) which was a flop and Saawan which was a disaster. Saawan in 2006 was Sawan Kumar’s last film. Thereafter the world moved on. Sawan’s themes of old-world courtship, unrequited love, all-sacrificing wives and mistresses became obsolete. But his lyrics and poetry live on.

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.

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