The news that Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s most beloved film Anand, and the one that proves that there will never be a star actor like Rajesh Khanna, was going to be remade by the film’s original producer N C Sippy’s grandson, sent shivers up my spine.
The first image that came to my mind was Ittefaq, that other Rajesh Khanna classic that was remade by the original producer B R Chopra’s grandson. In the hands of the uncontrollable kin (are there no laws preventing the progenies and successors of artistes from vandalizing a work of art?) Ittefaq become What The…never mind!
Sidharth Malhotra, who played Rajesh Khanna’s role in the remake, had me weeping in my seat. I also felt tears pouring down on my head from heaven. It was Rajesh Khanna crying for the act unpardonable act of discretion.
Now, Anand? Seriously? Errrrr…who will play the title role of the sunshine man who spreads happiness even as he faces death? Ranveer Singh, perhaps? Or perhaps Shah Rukh Khan? Oh, I am sorry SRK has already played Anand: in Kal Ho Naa Ho, an unofficial Anand ripoff.
The mind boggles, the heart freezes at the thought of Anand being desecrated. I never met Rajesh Khanna. But I once spoke to him on the phone. And I asked him what it felt like to be such an influential superstar,
He had laughed that trademark laugh and said, “They copy me. But they can’t be me.”
This may sound arrogant. But coming from the greatest star actor of Hindi cinema, it was a statement of fact. There can never be another Rajesh Khanna. There cannot be another Anand with one of the current actors playing the eponymous role. It is like Mona Lisa being re-painted. Or Lata Mangeshkar’s Ae mere watan ke logon re-mixed. Scary.
Some works of art, you can’t touch. What Ram Gopal Varma did to Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay remains the single biggest illustration of artistic defilement.
Sippy watched his film being vandalized.
“What can I do if the laws don’t favour me? Why don’t the generations who grew up on Sholay go out on the roads and protest?” Sippy had wondered.
Why, indeed. I remember speaking to dear Hrishida(Hrishikesh Mukerjee for those who came in late) about why Anand stands out in his dazzling oeuvre.
“Beta, ho jata hai. Such a film just happens. I worked just as hard on Sabse Bada Sukh. Have you even heard of the film? Satyakam is my favourite film from my oeuvre. But it is Anand that people love the most. A film like that just happens,” Hrishida said.
I know it’s a free world out there. If someone wants to do a club mix of Mozart’s Sixth Symphony, so be it. But decency and just plain and simple fear of God demands that we leave some works of art alone.
When that wonder man of God, Dev Anand was hurt and angry with what Rohan Sippy (Ramesh ‘Sholay’ Sippy’s son) had done to Dum maro dum from Dev’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna by re-mixing it under Pritam’s watchful gaze, Dev Anand had thrown his hand in the air and said, “Why why why? They could have come to me and asked me for the original. I would have happily given it to them,”
Anand belongs to its producers the kin of N .C Sippy. They don’t even need to ask.
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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