Nu and I have this common liking for old hindi movies, so much so that in this time and age too our favorite weekend stop is the Landmark store' Hindi movies section ... you will find us here often, lost in debate on which movies to buy for our ever increasing collection of films. And now that Moser Baer and the likes have managed to crack the high pricing of films Nu cant seem to stop himself! At home we often watch these films together on a Saturday / Sunday evening with a glass of beer and wafers doing the rounds. Needless to say, we are the kind of couple that pauses at a channel airing an old movie while surfing ... and hum along with the old favorite melodies or imitate a dialogue or smile wistfully at a romantic scene or debate a particular movie' popularity and finesse or just crack a joke over some idiocy being enacted by Mehmood or Dev Anand or Kishore Kumar or Tanuja or Nutan or Asha Parekh or Bindu and the likes; or just laugh out loud before we move on with our surfing ...BUT it is seldom the case that we have surfed past a Dharmu film and cant help but get glued the moment we spot him ...
What a man he is and what films he has done; from his earliest ones when he was a nobody doing films like his first few 'Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere', 'Anpad' and 'Phool aur Pathar', to his hits in his prime years and his parallel cinema films and even the latest. He is one man that gets us weak in the knees, that makes us sigh unabashedly about his good looks and wins our hearts hands down for his acting skills ... whether it be emotion, comedy or action ... the man has done it all and not unlike us he has won the hearts of millions across the globe!
And yet through his career spanning 50 years he has not been awarded a single best actor award ever ... he has been nominated several times (Phool Aur Pathar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Resham Ki Dori, Yaadon Ki Baarat, Ayeee Milan Ki Bela, Naukar Biwi Ka) but never awarded ... In fact even his nominations are not for any of his best performances ... I find amongst my favorites of the 250 odd films that he has done till date; that whether it was Satyakam, Chupke Chupke, Sholay, Phool aur Pathar, Black Mail, Aankhen, Guddi, Seeta aur Geeta, Raja Jani, Naya Zamana, Jeevan Mrityu, Jwar Bhata, Dost, Shalimar, Burning Train, Krodhi, Razia Sultan, Chacha Bhatija, Ram Balram, Metro, Apne or Johnny Gaddar; his dialogue delivery, comic timing, action rigor and romancing have never failed to impress me and yet he was never even nominated for any of these films!
In 1975 his releases were PRATIGYA where he pretends to be the village inspector Davinder SIngh while he is avenging his fathers death with none other than Ajit and is swooning (the now remixed version) to 'Main Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana o rabba itti si baat na jana ke ke ke o mainu pyaar kardi hai o o saddey uttey o mardi ey' at the joy of Hema acknowledging his love -- a thrilling comedy and a great screenplay, SHOLAY the first Indian movie to have made 60 Golden Jubilees in over a 100 theaters across India where he played the ever favorite heart on his sleeve romantic Veeru showering his love for Basanti played by none other than his sweetheart Hema and where he spewed fire at Gabbar barking 'Basanti in kutton key samney mat nachna chahe meri jaan chali jaye', CHUPKE CHUPKE Hrishikesh Mukherji' cult comedy film where he played the adorable Dr. Parimal Tripathi urf Pyaremohan kidding the great Om Prakash in the guise of a Driver from Allahabad speaking SHUDH Hindi and frustrating the life out of him and his family ... all 3 great films and excellent performances by Dharmu and yet he didnt even get nominated for these films. The same year also saw releases like Aandhi (Sanjeev Kumar), Deewar (Amitabh Bachchan), Sanyasi (Manoj Kumar) and Amanush (Uttam Kumar)... Sanjeev Kumar walked away with the Black Lady for his unforgettable performance as JK for his rendition of a lover of a woman in power!
As an actor he has never failed to please ... however as a man he has disappointed me personally on two counts and since this is a piece dedicated to Dharmu here goes ... it bothers me that he must have hurt Prakash his first wife when he chose to convert and wed his on-screen dream girl Hema; although I am sure that now all must be well and that the families and wives have adjusted to each other' place in his life it is still a gnawing feeling that the man of my dreams let me down ... and the second is his habit of drinking ... Perhaps this had a lot to do with the dual life he was forced to lead due to his second marriage. And yet I have only seen love and respect in the eyes of his sons Bobby and Sunny and never so much as a twitter from Hema or Esha/ Aahana ... so he must be doing a lot of good for his families ... Sigh! My heart goes out to him and wants to hold him and say 'I love you Dharmu nevertheless and always will ...' Needless to say, both of these are private matters that we can only speculate about and hence my comments dont count! May God bless his families with happiness always!
Last December 8 he completed 75 years of age and although in his recent appearance in his home production 'Yamla Pagla Deewana' he didnt really look that great the fact is that his spirit is unending and there is a renewed zeal in him to do more and I wish him the very best.
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