PART 5 OF 10: CROSSING OVER THE VINDHYAS

1981 is a tough year to slot. I mean, there were no earth-shaking world events that took place that year. Yes, there were a few failed and some successful assassination attempts on world leaders. Yeah, I know. "Successful" and "assassination" sound incongruous together, but you get the picture. Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II escaped attempts on their lives, while Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh), Anwar Sadat (Egypt), and Mohammad-Ali Rajai (Iran) weren't so lucky. The Cold War was at its climax. The nations of the world were divided up as satellites of the super powers: United States and Soviet Union. Countries like India walked the sham middle-path of non-alignment but everyone knew that the shadow of the big-brother, hafta vasoolis loomed large over every country. Indira Gandhi was back as the Prime Minister after successfully toppling the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and Charan Singh.
As far as the Indian movie scene was concerned, it was the age of the "one-man industry", Amitabh Bachchan in Hindi. Superstars Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal and Mamooty were emerging as stars, down south. Bachchan had five releases in 1981 and four of them were super hits. Such was his box office draw. One among the top ten movies of the year was 'Ek Duje Ke Liye'.
Another doyen of the South, K Balachander had wanted to remake his Telugu movie, 'Maro Charitra' ('History Repeats Itself') in Hindi. 'Maro Charitra', starring Kamal Haasan and Saritha had released in 1978, and was a mega hit in Andhra Pradesh. 
With the famed studio system in the South going through a steady decline throughout the 1970s, Balachander and many of the southern directors were going Indie. Malayalam and Kannada were already on their parallel cinema movements, taking a leaf out of their Bengali and Hindi brethren. The seventies were perhaps the only time that Tamil and Telugu cinema mildly dipped their feet in the placid, NFDC-funded waters of tedious, alternate cinema. Directors like K Viswanath, Balachander, Mahendran, Bharathi Raja, and Balu Mahendra tried striking that elusive balance between art and commerce, and succeeded to an extent. Their movies led to the inflection from the patented, Madras tear-jerkers to the more free-spirited, outdoorsy cinema of the late-seventies and eighties.

For 'Ek Duje Ke Liye', his Hindi debut, K Balachander chose Laxmikant Pyarelal (LP) as the music composers. The duo were reigning the Hindi music scene then. K Balachander repeated his favorite protégé, Kamal Haasan, as the Tamil-speaking protagonist and brought in Rati Agnihotri as his Punjabi love interest. Since the story called for it, Balachander was particular about having Balu’s voice for Kamal Haasan. LP weren't so sure. They were reportedly unimpressed with the plump playback singing genius. They preferred using one of the established singers from Hindi. However, Balachander put his foot down and thankfully had his way.

It is another matter that Balu eventually became one of LP's favorite singers. The composer-duo were so impressed by Balu's musical aptitude and grasp that they used to hold him as the shining example for other singers to emulate. All of that sounds sweet now looking at it with 2020 vision. Still, I am a bit perplexed by LP's initial decision to reject Balu. Granted that there were highly accomplished singers in Hindi at that time, but to not recognize and appreciate the talent of someone like Balu, reeks of prejudice and territoriality, which impedes us as a nation even today. I am glad K Balachander was there that day to arbitrate. Or SPB would have remained a unknown, three-letter acronym, north of the Vindhyas.

Okay. Enough venting. Please listen to Balu's second national award winning performance. The evergreen lyrics are by the great Anand Bakshi.

One more point on this composition. I have always fancied this lovely LP composition in Raag Sivaranjani, but had preferred Lata's version for the sheer élan with which she renders this song with her perfect pitch and the intricacies of her sargams. Just masterful. Especially when she goes '...kaisa hai yeh bandhan, anjaaa-aaa-aaa-na...'. One of my friends who is a Lata devotee herself, felt that the Balu version worked better for her due to the emotive experience that his version gave her. I will humbly accept her viewpoint. As a rule, I never dispute anyone that says Balu is better.

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