My first Yash Chopra film was 1997's 'Dil To Pagal Hai'. I remember rather clearly how we made it to the theaters a tad too late such that we ended up missing a chunk of the opening solo dance number performed by a glittering Karisma Kapoor. And even I have never been a fan of this cult-classic, it does not take much to make out every sign of the young and restless spirit that the film's young romance exudes. Splendid sets and backgrounds accompany irresistibly melodious songs, free-spirited men and women are decked out in sharp and smart tees, jeans and skirts. This was a year between Karan Johar would come up with the high-heeled and short-skirted Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. And with just such little, ravishing touches, Chopra captured the changing culture and trend of the late 90s.
Yet, Yet. There is also the story-telling to ravish. A premise that may sound in ridiculous in today's times of in-your-face realism about a guy named Rahul who wants to direct a musical centering on a female lead named as Maya and his quest for the perfect woman, perfectly littered with convenient coincidences and split-second miracles. Yet, the breathtaking sweep of the simple story, and the chemistry building up between its leads, sparkles. And the hiccups and obstacles that follow the fervor of new love are captured with jaw-dropping mastery. It is best to watch a single scene in which Rahul and his Maya can be seen rehearsing their lines and they are actually what they want to say to each other. The impact knocks us out. Whoa!
And that was Yash Chopra, a man who chose to reinvent himself every time he looked through the camera, like a suave man raconteur who chooses to be grab the attention at every party and dresses himself ideally as well. It would be wrong to dub him the Grand Old Man Of Cinema. Rather, he is a dashing debonair who remained energetic and enthusiastic throughout his career. With the confidence of a master gambler, he strode into the glitzy world of Bollywood's playrooms and without losing his cool, grabbed solid win after win.
There are few who can match upto Yash Chopra in terms of grand, good old fashioned story-telling. However, if we have a closer look at his works in the past, he has not given us cliches. Instead, he gave us path-breaking storytelling devices which tragically ended up becoming cliches as they were over-imitated. Beginning his career with a film which dealt with controversial topics like religious disparity and pre-marital sex, he chose to end it with a film which is raising some eyebrows for a much-hyped intimate scene between its star leads, showing us how conservative we still our.
Less than 24 Hours after his sad demise, as eulogies begin to pour in, I can't help ponder over the Million Dollar Question. What Was It In This Man That Made Him The Legend?
Maybe it was the warmth, that wonderful feeling of lightness that doused even the most tense and tragic moments of his films.
In his heyday, the scene was crowded with his worthy peers. The likes of Gulzar and Hrishikesh Mukherjee were making warm and credible films dealing with real issues and being alternately comic and sensitive. Among the writers, Salim-Javed gained recognition for the fiery scripts that they penned for Chopra, Ramesh Sippy and Prakash Mehra and their one-liners remain to be as crisp and rousing as they were back in the 70s. But Yash Chopra has this uncanny ability to make the tense drama light.
In the more serious of Chopra's films, the tone would be offset by a stunning surprise. It could be an introduction scene of the hero riding a bike on a ribbon of highway as in 'Kaala Patthar' or the development of quiet romance between its leads. In his romances, he simply let us suspend our disbelief. In mere minutes, Chopra took us away across time, space and geography. One moment we were in India, the next moment we were on the banks of a Swiss Lake. He can also make us filch between the mustard fields of Punjab to the extensive tulip gardens of Holland. He was a master sorcerer.
Maybe it was the way he could tell us stories.
Maybe it was how he eventually told us love stories and tense dramas with such an impressive and aggressive confidence. You have to admire how the compellingly manipulative characters were built in films like Trishul and Deewaar, how the inevitable obstacles would fall in the course of a romance film like 'Silsila' or 'Chandini'. Or how he examined the divide between generations in films like 'Kabhie Kabhie' and 'Mashaal'. And how he created unforgettable heroes and heroines out of believably simple people. Think of those rousing moments that let our actors to let go and give their best shot. Think of all those times when we guilelessly cheered for them.
Maybe it was the way how his stories looked real.
Give his 1965 multi-starrer classic 'Waqt' a proper watch and you know that this is not just a piece of fantasy. True, the plot with its convenient encounters might make today's viewers scoff. But through it all, in its sunlit moments of lightness or the more melancholic times, as chronicled in the unforgettable song 'Aage Bhi Jaane Na Tu', one can't help but admire the nuances. The svelte and shiny Studebaker sedans with their liveried chauffeurs, the women with bouffants and elegant sarees, the dashing men in their tuxedos and suits. All is in place for a grand party and the stage is also set for romantic reconciliations, and of secret plans unfolding. Ah! What storytelling!
Yash Chopra made us believe in his stories. The nuances were themselves worth looking. He chronicled the rise of Vijay in Deewar as a story of a vengeful man from rags to riches in an ambition-obsessed Bombay. He told us the catastrophic Chasnala accident of Bihar's murky mines and recast it as a story of heroism and new-found redemption. He made us believe as the heroine began to see illusions of her lover in midst of her engagement proceedings unforgettably in 'Veer Zaara'. This speaks of how well he can tell us stories, both real and fantastic.
Many feel believably sad as they lament that his demise is the end of an era. I would think that the legacy of the romance that he captured so impeccably would live on.
Maybe we can already see it in our films today. The banner that Yash Chopra founded may have both soared and stumbled but it has nevertheless given us a trail of stories which exude, to some extent, the same magic as in his films. There are those wonderful moments of tenderness, followed by the sweeping, almost effortless escapes to stunning backgrounds and exotic locations.
And that is why he is so great. He is so great that his legacy would live on even as he has left us without that solid and compelling force of storytelling and film making.
Mr Yash Chopra, we salute you. May You Rest In Peace!
Yet, Yet. There is also the story-telling to ravish. A premise that may sound in ridiculous in today's times of in-your-face realism about a guy named Rahul who wants to direct a musical centering on a female lead named as Maya and his quest for the perfect woman, perfectly littered with convenient coincidences and split-second miracles. Yet, the breathtaking sweep of the simple story, and the chemistry building up between its leads, sparkles. And the hiccups and obstacles that follow the fervor of new love are captured with jaw-dropping mastery. It is best to watch a single scene in which Rahul and his Maya can be seen rehearsing their lines and they are actually what they want to say to each other. The impact knocks us out. Whoa!
And that was Yash Chopra, a man who chose to reinvent himself every time he looked through the camera, like a suave man raconteur who chooses to be grab the attention at every party and dresses himself ideally as well. It would be wrong to dub him the Grand Old Man Of Cinema. Rather, he is a dashing debonair who remained energetic and enthusiastic throughout his career. With the confidence of a master gambler, he strode into the glitzy world of Bollywood's playrooms and without losing his cool, grabbed solid win after win.
There are few who can match upto Yash Chopra in terms of grand, good old fashioned story-telling. However, if we have a closer look at his works in the past, he has not given us cliches. Instead, he gave us path-breaking storytelling devices which tragically ended up becoming cliches as they were over-imitated. Beginning his career with a film which dealt with controversial topics like religious disparity and pre-marital sex, he chose to end it with a film which is raising some eyebrows for a much-hyped intimate scene between its star leads, showing us how conservative we still our.
Less than 24 Hours after his sad demise, as eulogies begin to pour in, I can't help ponder over the Million Dollar Question. What Was It In This Man That Made Him The Legend?
Maybe it was the warmth, that wonderful feeling of lightness that doused even the most tense and tragic moments of his films.
In his heyday, the scene was crowded with his worthy peers. The likes of Gulzar and Hrishikesh Mukherjee were making warm and credible films dealing with real issues and being alternately comic and sensitive. Among the writers, Salim-Javed gained recognition for the fiery scripts that they penned for Chopra, Ramesh Sippy and Prakash Mehra and their one-liners remain to be as crisp and rousing as they were back in the 70s. But Yash Chopra has this uncanny ability to make the tense drama light.
In the more serious of Chopra's films, the tone would be offset by a stunning surprise. It could be an introduction scene of the hero riding a bike on a ribbon of highway as in 'Kaala Patthar' or the development of quiet romance between its leads. In his romances, he simply let us suspend our disbelief. In mere minutes, Chopra took us away across time, space and geography. One moment we were in India, the next moment we were on the banks of a Swiss Lake. He can also make us filch between the mustard fields of Punjab to the extensive tulip gardens of Holland. He was a master sorcerer.
Maybe it was the way he could tell us stories.
Maybe it was how he eventually told us love stories and tense dramas with such an impressive and aggressive confidence. You have to admire how the compellingly manipulative characters were built in films like Trishul and Deewaar, how the inevitable obstacles would fall in the course of a romance film like 'Silsila' or 'Chandini'. Or how he examined the divide between generations in films like 'Kabhie Kabhie' and 'Mashaal'. And how he created unforgettable heroes and heroines out of believably simple people. Think of those rousing moments that let our actors to let go and give their best shot. Think of all those times when we guilelessly cheered for them.
Maybe it was the way how his stories looked real.
Give his 1965 multi-starrer classic 'Waqt' a proper watch and you know that this is not just a piece of fantasy. True, the plot with its convenient encounters might make today's viewers scoff. But through it all, in its sunlit moments of lightness or the more melancholic times, as chronicled in the unforgettable song 'Aage Bhi Jaane Na Tu', one can't help but admire the nuances. The svelte and shiny Studebaker sedans with their liveried chauffeurs, the women with bouffants and elegant sarees, the dashing men in their tuxedos and suits. All is in place for a grand party and the stage is also set for romantic reconciliations, and of secret plans unfolding. Ah! What storytelling!
Yash Chopra made us believe in his stories. The nuances were themselves worth looking. He chronicled the rise of Vijay in Deewar as a story of a vengeful man from rags to riches in an ambition-obsessed Bombay. He told us the catastrophic Chasnala accident of Bihar's murky mines and recast it as a story of heroism and new-found redemption. He made us believe as the heroine began to see illusions of her lover in midst of her engagement proceedings unforgettably in 'Veer Zaara'. This speaks of how well he can tell us stories, both real and fantastic.
Many feel believably sad as they lament that his demise is the end of an era. I would think that the legacy of the romance that he captured so impeccably would live on.
Maybe we can already see it in our films today. The banner that Yash Chopra founded may have both soared and stumbled but it has nevertheless given us a trail of stories which exude, to some extent, the same magic as in his films. There are those wonderful moments of tenderness, followed by the sweeping, almost effortless escapes to stunning backgrounds and exotic locations.
And that is why he is so great. He is so great that his legacy would live on even as he has left us without that solid and compelling force of storytelling and film making.
Mr Yash Chopra, we salute you. May You Rest In Peace!
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