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As Kabhi Kabhie turns 50, Ramesh Talwar revisits the poetry, casting battles and behind-the-scenes warmth of the classic
On February 27, half a century ago, a classic two-generation romance, Kabhi Kabhie , hit the screen, cementing Yash Chopra's reputation after Daag as the future high-priest of romance. The film also proved inspiration for many films to come, and Karan Johar even christened his 2001 two-generation family drama as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham , spelt with the second Kabhie as a tribute to the film.
Ramesh Talwar, later the director of films like Doosara Aadmi and Baseraa , was chief assistant on the movie that featured three love triangles in a game engineered by Destiny: Amitabh Bachchan-Raakhee-Shashi Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman-Amitabh Bachchan-Raakhee, and Neetu Singh- Rishi Kapoor-Naseem. Such films happen only Kabhi Kabhie (sometimes), and Talwar goes down memory lane to recall the classic and his association with it.
Exerpts from an interview
How did Kabhi Kabhie happen?
I had taken Yash- ji and his wife Pamela bhabhi and Shashi Kapoor to watch the play, Tanhai , written by my uncle, Sagar Sarhadi, whose real name was Ganga Sagar Talwar. Yash- ji loved the writing and wished to meet him. He had this idea of making a film on a poet, for he absolutely loved poetry and could recite entire poems. Pamela- ji gave the core idea of the film and my uncle worked on it. He just had one condition: that he would like to work on the script wherever he wanted!
Part of the film was thus written in Bangalore. Then Yash- ji took off to London for a holiday and asked my uncle to accompany him to create a relaxed atmosphere for his writing. My uncle would wake up there at 5 a.m., write till 10 a.m. or so and the two would spend the rest of the day strolling around and generally having a great time!
How did Khayyam- saab come in when he was not a top name like Laxmikant-Pyarelal like Daag or R.D. Burman...