49.1942 A Love Story

*Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Manisha Kiorala, Pran, Anupam Kher and Danny Dengzongpa.
(1994)Vidhu Vinod Chopra's

Lavish Filmmaking......A Romantic Saga of Epic Dimensions

The trio of Anil, Jackie and Vidhu Vinod Chopra joined hands once again for this love story set against the backdrop of the Quit India Movement.
As the love struck Nandu, Anil Kapoor exuded freshness as he sported a crew cut, a thin moustache and the trappings of an English lad.

The story:

The movie was not based on any existing story. Vinod had an idea of two people in love in conditions of great turmoil.That is how the concept of 1942 A Love Story first emerged. Kamna Chandra wrote the original script. Vinod then modified the script to make it more exciting.

1942 A Love Story is about the love of Naren and Rajjo, in the background of the Quit India Movement of 1942. Rajjo being the daughter of a revolutionary leader, is deeply affected by the political happenings around her, while Naren, the only son of a rich landlord is drawn into the struggle by his love for Rajjo. Shubhankar, played by Jackie Shroff, is responsible for bringing the passion of freedom to Kasauni, a small village in Himachal Pradesh, where the entire drama of struggle and love unfolds. Caught between their duty for the country and love for each other, the lovers fight their personal and freedom battles.

The Music:

Rahul Dev Burman had to wait to die before recovering lost ground with this nearly flawless album of pure melodies. Whether it is the wheels-within-wheels tumble of romantic images in Javed Akhtar's Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga or the ache-do-team of Kavita Krishnamurthy and Kumar Sanu in Rimjhim rimjhim, Burman's potent magic spreads itself out into a blanket of brilliance.

Each track is a gem of a creation. Every singer knows this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make his or her vocals dance. Significantly, Kumar Sanu never again sang solos like Ek ladki ko dekha and Kuch na kaho. He's however beaten at the latter hands-down by the invincible Lata Mangeshkar who concludes the album with her sighing, hugely expressive version of the Kuch na kaho tandem leaving us with thoughts of an album that never lets us down, never over-reaches.

Incidentally, the female version of Kuch na kaho had earlier been recorded by Kavita Krishnamurthy. Director Vinod Chopra himself requested the Nightingale to re-do this masterpiece. Apparently the short-lived Burman had personally earmarked his melody for Lata didi. Kavita sings her teeth into her solo Pyar hua chupke se with a stealth and splendour that she couldn't subsequently encore in any of her songs. Indeed, the music for 1942 is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. A masterstroke of melodious invention brought about more by instinct rather than design.

Rightfully, singers Kavita and Sanu and lyricist Javed Akhtar (whose life's best work is contained in this album) walked away with Filmfare awards for their work in this album. It's said that many of the songs of this collection were re-hashes of Burman's earlier (unreleased) tunes, just like RD's Amar Prem. Even if this is true, there no harm in it. After all RD was rehashing his own tunes, not someone else's. Hai na?

The Music of 1942 A Love Story emerged straight from R. D. Burman's heart. Every song was melodious and befitting the age it represented. Lyrics by Javed Akhtar were 'a class-apart'. Singer Kumar Sanu was marvellous with all his songs, while Shivaji Chattopadhyaya was introduced with the song Yeh safar bahut hai kathin magar. Kavita Krishnamurthy gave the movie her best, while Lata Mangeshkar made Kuch na kaho immortal.

The Cast:


Anil Kapoor plays Naren, the soft chocolate-cream hero, who for the sake of his love for Rajjo (Manisha Koirala), is more than willing to give up his riches and fight in the Quit India Movement. Sensitive and controlled, Anil Kapoor has brought out Naren's character effortlessly

Jackie Shroff as Shubhankar is convincing and powerful. In every expression and movement Jackie has expressed emotions of Shubhankar without any need for words. He plays a revolutionary with zest, while his eyes express his love for Rajjo. Jackie has managed this balancing act with great skill.

Manisha Koirala plays Rajjo, the innocent daughter of revolutionary leader Pathak Babu. She has worked hard on every sequence, fitted herself well into the fabric of 1942 Indian society and identified completely with the coy Rajjo. Manisha brings out very well, Rajjo's dilemma between her love for Naren on the one hand and the desire to sacrifice everything for her father's ideals on the other hand.

Anupam Kher plays Pathak Babu, the determined revolutionary leader, who refuses to shed a tear on his son's death and does not have to think twice before laying down his life for the country.

Major Bisht played by Danny Dengzongpa and Chanda played by Chandani, form a wonderful father-daughter pair. Bisht, who is a brutal pro-British army officer, is also a tender father. Chandani plays the rebel daughter, who despite her love for her father, puts the country first.

Pran plays his small role of Baig Saheb with perfection and ease. His part is of an apparently complacent teacher, who is actually deeply involved in the revolutionary movement.

Sushma Seth is Gayatri Devi, Naren's mother, affectionate and simple. While Manohar Singh is Dewan Hari Singh, the power-hungry and strict father of Naren. The pair has managed to bring out their characters well in the typical 1942 setting.

Raghuvir Yadav is at his best as the over-talkative driver Munna. He lends an air of lightness to the movie with his wit and acting.

Pramod Moutho plays the younger brother of Pathak Babu. Moutho is willing to lay down his life rather than give away the plans of his revolutionary comrades. His wife, Chachi, played by Gopi Desai, is a typical talkative middle-aged lady, who is later shattered by her husband's death. Both Pramod Moutho and Gopi Desai have put a lot of work into their small roles and come out with flying colours; and so has Kamal Chopra the revolutionary who is also a Bus Driver of the sole bus that visits Kasauni.

Brian Glover, the British actor who plays General Douglas with authority and flair, is no longer with us. Brian has lent a stylistic mannerism to the role of General Douglas. His phrase 'hang him' and a casual manner in which his order is executed, bring out the thoughtless brutality of the General.


The Making:

Pursuit for excellence
Vinod's pursuit for excellence begins with the script. It took him innumerable drafts to finalise the script for 1942 A Love Story. Newspapers of 50 years were dug up and several freedom fighters were interviewed to make the script absolutely perfect. Some characters were based on actual freedom fighters of the Quit India Movement. Shubhankar for instance, traces his origin to Surya Sen. The making of 1942 A Love Story was as exciting as the film itself. First half of the movie was shot in Dalhousie in October - November 1992. Locales were far away from each other and the entire unit had to walk it up from one location to another.

With its huge canvas, the climax shoot required thousands of artistes. Chopra therefore employed the services of fellow directors Govind Nihalani and Shekhar Kapur to execute these sequences.
1942-A Love Story was the second film in history, which had more than one director for a special sequence; the first being Lawrence of Arabia.

Blending musical poetry with epic spectacle, "1942: A Love Story" stands as a definitive work of Indian filmmaking. As the film follows a pair of lovers through the Indian uprising against imperialist Britain, traditional Indian song is used to juxtapose the harsh realities of an oppressed people.
Though the film is grand in size, the fact that a small core of characters inhabits the plot makes for an easily understood picture, even while reading subtitles.

"1942" celebrates the people of India and their struggle for independence. When compared to traditional American films dealing with political revolt, this film wins over in heart.
When compared to traditional American musicals of the 1950s and 60s, "1942" displays a deeper social conscience and a more solid grasp on narrative storytelling.
Above all, "1942" provides entertainment with a rich cultural tapestry.

Determined Cast:

The cast and the entire unit of 1942 A Love Story shared Vinod's passion for perfection. Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff rehearsed for several months. Anil Kapoor changed his entire look by cutting his hair and loosing weight. Manisha was on a strict diet to look perfect. Anupam Kher, who was suffering from para-typhoid worked till he finally collapsed. Nobody complained about walking down to locales several kilometres away from each other. Jackie Shroff devoted time exclusively for this film. He grew a beard that suited a fugitive revolutionary. Climbing the steep and rough mountain slopes around Dalhousie, he hurt his foot, but kept going. In the same vein, Manisha Koirala continued to get drenched in the rain in sub-zero temperatures while shooting for the song 'Rim jhim'. The shooting stopped only when she fainted and a doctor had to be
called in.

Behind The Scenes:

The contribution of those behind the scenes was just as important. Binod Pradhan's cinematography gave the movie its most beautiful shots. Picturisation of the songs in this movie has contributed to making the songs popular.
Renu Saluja did the editing job with her usual flair. During a special sequence involving a crowd of over 1,500 people, three blue chip directors - Govind Nihalani, Shekhar Kapoor, Sudhir Mishra and ace cameraman Ashok Mehta offered voluntary services. This sequence resulted in 20,000 ft. of exposed film. In a marathon editing session, Renu reduced it the required length of about 500 ft.

Magnificent Set:

The second and final shooting was done in Bombay, where the Town Square of Dalhousie was painstakingly recreated at the Film City. The set covered
2,00,000 sq. ft. of area and was worked out to the last detail. The Town Square at Dalhousie was studied minutely and almost every feature was replicated
at the Film City.
The set was a result of meticulous planning. Shrubs were planted well in advance of the monsoons, so that the foliage would grow on time for the shooting. British actor Brian Glover, who played General Douglas, found the set of 1942 A Love Story comparable to sets in major Hollywood Productions.

Dolby Introduced In India:

1942 A Love Story was re-recorded at Cinelingual Sound Studios, London, using Dolby Spectral Recording System, making it the first Hindi film to be mixed in Dolby Stereo. Getting Dolby to India was not easy. Not a single cinema house was willing to spend for it. They believed that the Indian audiences did not need a better sound system! Vinod Chopra Productions financed the first Dolby System of India.They introduced a trend. Today all the leading theatres find it useful to advertise their Dolby Systems.

Army In The Rain:

For a special sequence, a crowd of about 1,500 people had to be gathered, walking with mashals in hand. Suddenly it started raining heavily and all the 1,500 people ran for cover. The Indian army was helping Vinod. Vinod appealed to the soldiers to come back. His appeal worked and out they came, to brave the rains.

A Team Effort:

To quote the man himself -
"But for the passion and the team spirit of my entire cast and crew,
1942 A Love Story would not have been possible."
- Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Credits:

Director.....................Vidhu.V Chopra
Written......................Vidhu.V Chopra
Music........................Rahul Dev Burman
Lyricist......................Javed Akhtar
Cinematography........Vinod Pradhan
Editing.......................Renu Saluja...
Song Direction......... Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Singers:

Lata Mangeshkar
Kavita Krishnamurthy
Kumar Sanu
Shivaji Chattopadhyaya

Awards:

Kavita Krishnamurthy (Best female singer....Filmfare) for "Pyar hua chupke se"

Javed Akhtar (Best Lyricst....Filmfare) for "Ek ladki ko dekha"

Rahul Dev Burman (Best Music Director....Filmfare)

Kumar Sanu (Best male playback singer....Filmfare) for "Ek ladki ko dekha"

Jackie Shroff (Best Supporting Actor....Filmfare)
**********************************************

out of curiousty raj... how come Sholay hits number 50 on ure list but before that u got some crap movies like jewel thief, guide and even mr india before that.. im sure thats not doing this great movie justice... this film easily has to be in the top five!! What about Asoka... that is another excellent movie.... i dont see any mention of that movie in the thread top 50... is this list ure choice or the choice of the people!!

Did you miss this post? :tounge:



Ali



Edited By ali on Mar. 28 2002 at 05:12

oh right ok... im dumb thank u very much indeed!!

Ali you beat me to it......

Faddy yes your right 'Sholay' would have been in the top five.

I would have put it at number one....

Just thought it be more interesting if the list was in no order.

Waiting anxiously for your next batch Raj.

Keep them comoing.

Thanks.

Rana

Hey Rana -

- What next batch*

I thought, you said, the additional write up that you added was only a taster. So, I assumed more was to come. It appears now that you alrady have added all the supplementary material that was deserving??

Great effort Raj.
Thanks.

Rana

P.S.
It definitely is BOOK MATERIAL (i.e. worth publishing).

I keep seeing an advert on B4U-to vote on your favourite 100 films, similar to this list!!

Does anyone know when the results are coming out?

It would be interesting comparing Raj's list to B4U's!!

Cool*

Aks (Rakesh Omprakash Mehra 2001)

*Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon, Manoj Bajpai, Nandita Das

Director: Rakesh Omprakash Mehra

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra deserves a huge pat on the back. For daring to pick up oft-used blocks from Hindi cinema's oldest plot premise - the contraposition of good and evil - scrape off the cobwebs and then employ them to construct a slick, gutsy, technically brilliant preternatural drama.

For having the gumption to throw caution to the wind and think really, really big. And for giving Mumbai moviedom's most accomplished actor, Amitabh Bachchan, the kind of complex, multi-layered role that he always deserved but never got.

AKS is another one of those movies for which you hold back from watching due to a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be very good. It's also one of those movies that proves that ones sneaking suspicions are actually lumbering buffoons, because actually it is (very good).

After 30 minutes I was just blown away, and wanted to come wax lyrical on its virtues... The second half of the movie isn't quite as tight as the first, though the curveball it throws at the midpoint certainly takes things in a very interesting direction, and the whole movie is very impressive.



The first thing that impresses about AKS are the visuals. The movie has a very cool look, with striking cinematography and lighting that favour cold blues contrasted with occasional warm firey yellows. It's very sharply edited and features great art direction too. The next thing that impressed me even more was how *dark* the movie is - far darker than anything else I've seen from India, almost disturbing at times.

Much of the credit for this has to go to Manoj Bajpai, who is tremendously sinister and charismatic as the villain - though the godly Amitabh Bachchan is just as charismatic and almost as sinister in the hero's seat. Add to all this the complex and fascinating characters, razor sharp dialogue and the exploration of some fascinating themes, and Aks is surely a winner.

Manu Verma (Amitabh Bachchan) is in charge of the security of defence minister Amol Palekar. The story begins in Budapest. The Indian defence minister is on, what seems to be, a routine foreign visit. However, the truth of the matter is that there is a hidden agenda behind the smiles and the handshakes.

A criminal Raghavan, (Manoj Bajpai) who is a master at disguises, thanks to his psycho brother Mahadevan (KK Raina), succeeds in killing the minister whom Manu is supposed to safeguard.



After the Defence Minister is assassinated the killer sets his eyes on the Prime Minister.
Manu gets on the trail of a political conspiracy, with the only lead being the possibility of finding the assassin. As he gets closer, he gets drawn in further and further to the situation himself - to lengths that he could never imagine.

The chief of security, Manu Verma, becomes a man obsessed with capturing Raghavan. Nothing matters to him now except his prey. Manu Verma digs deeper into the heart of darkness. And, one fine day, catches his prey. Then he takes Raghavan back to stand trial for his crimes. When the master of disguises tries to escape, he kills him as well. Here, the story takes a twist.



Raghavan enters Manu's body and commits murders one after another. There are a couple of sequences wherein the viewer is completely confused and cannot fathom as to what is going on.

Raveena Tandon plays the role of a bewitching stripper and she is at her glamorous best. Nandita Das is a typical cop-wife and is very natural.

Amitabh Bachchan and Manoj Bajpai come out with superlative performances.

Mehra's handling of several sequences deserves kudos. The scenes between Amitabh and Manoj Bajpai have been shot with elan. The one that can be singled out is when Amitabh physically assaults Nandita Das. The cinematography (Kiran Deohans) can easily be compared with the best of international cinema. The action sequences are well executed and the picturisation of the songs are different and imaginative.



Aks almost completely eschews humour, and avoids song and dance as much as is physically possible in a Bollywood movie, integrating the excellent songs from Anu Malik well into the movie's natural context for the most part. It's a gripping and intense movie, expertly directed by Rakesh Mehra - despite it being his feature film debut.

The first half of the movie is so tight and sharp but the second half loses focus a little bit, but still remains gripping and visually mesmerising.

This perhaps all sounds a little to hyperbolic, so I ought to acknowledge that the movie has flaws too. I can't actually think of any, but others may find it a little too dark and cynical; Definitely not a kids movie - there's some violence and quite a bit of eroticism that would probably get the movie an M rating in the US, or even an R if the ratings board were having a sensitive day. It's perhaps guilty of becoming overly melodramatic towards the end, but then how many movies aren't?



Aks at best is an epochal revisionist epic, with its evocatively Expressionistic lighting, visual lushness and combustible narrative material,
But also confuses at times in the exploration of the ancient Indian metaphysical wisdom that suggests that good and evil are but two sides of the same coin, that the noblest of men can be possessed by a streak of evil.

The film's content is boldly intriguing, it's the execution that goes haywire, especially in the second half, when the diabolical spirit of a dead serial killer Raghavan (Manoj Bajpai) takes over the body of an upright and intrepid police officer Manu Verma (Amitabh Bachchan) so that it can continue on its evil path.



That's a pity really because Aks does have a lot to say, and the director, an obviously skillful craftsman, does not seek to temper the sheer unconventionality of the theme for popular tastes. If anything, he heightens it manifold through a stylized approach to storytelling, an approach that lays no greater stress on what is obvious than on what his merely suggested or alluded to through the means of images, gestures and backdrops.

What really is Aks trying to convey? Let's give it a shot. At the social level, the character of Raghavan (played with remarkable skill and control by Bajpai), whether he is alive or disembodied, is the face of evil that our society doesn't want to acknowledge as an inevitable part of its reality. On the philosophical plane, he represents an ugly entity that is only a reflection of what are perceived as the positive, life-affirming forces of good.

The battle, it is suggested, isn't always an external exercise, it often has to be waged within the soul of a single individual. Sounds simple? It does, but only if you make a real effort to fathom exactly what Mehra is driving at over a stretch of three hours; the narrative doesn't spell it out quite that clearly.



Be that as it may, do not give Aks a miss if you want mainstream Hindi cinema to graduate beyond the formulaic. For all its failings, it's no mindless stalk-and-slash horror flick. Aks deserves to be seen for its laudable spirit of innovation, for the courage of its conviction, and, of course, for the quality of the performances. It is unlikely that you'll ever see so many marvellous performances in one film.

Bachchan is, well, Bachchan - absolutely out of this world. To Bajpai's credit, he matches steps with the stalwart without ever slipping off the pitch that Bachchan raises the confrontation to. In terms of footage, Raveena Tandon as a nightclub dancer and Nandita Das as the cop's understanding yet independent-minded wife, pale in comparison. Yet, they manage to leave an imprint when the opportunity arises.



Now the million-dollar question is - why is the film called Aks or reflection? Simply because when Amitabh Bachchan has Manoj Bajpai's ghost inside him, he sees Bajpai in the mirror!

If you prefer your movies on the dark, intelligent and visually slick side of things, Then AKS is a must.





Edited By raj on 1068941510

PINJAR should DEFINETLY goo on this list...

BRILLIANT ACTING by everyone, especially urmila and manoj. I dont think any other actors could have portrayed puro and rashid as good as they did. they were just utterly perfect

EXCEPTIONAL art design and photography. it had some lighting that indian movies have never come across

A MINDBLOWING story

and just beautiful direction. just beautiful. i havent seen a movie this "beautiful" since dil se... or even bombay. it was just too good.

as for other choices of mine...

devdas
dil se
kannathil muthamital
iruvar
bombay
roja
hum dil de chuke sanam
khamoshi
dil to pagal hain
chandni bar
koshish
cant think of any right now...



Edited By shivrk on 1068936528

Thanks... shivrk some of those films you've mentioned I've already listed like Khamoshi The Musical...

I'm going to be updating the list by adding pics to each movie write-up and will aso be adding some more films ... So keep checking back...

Also I've not yey seen Pinjar... but reading about what you had to say... Ima* going to watch it a.s.a.p ...

And thanks spookykiller, I got those pics of Pran from the site... http://www.PranSikand.com