Sharaabi” clocks 41Years – A Tribute
Sharaabi” clocks 41Years – A Tribute
Film “Sharaabi”came after Amitabh Bachchan’s near fatal accident and before his ill-fated stint in politics and amid the big Manmohan Desai’s directorial Coolie and Mard which turned out to be blockbusters at the box-office.
Indeed, even by Mehra’s own standards, set by the super blockbusters Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Namak Halaal, and Zanjeer, Hera Pheri and Laawaris were made with great difficulties and Sharaabi remains his last success as a filmmaker. This post is an ode to the product and the pain in its production.
The origins story of Sharaabi has three versions and the truth lies somewhere in between. The first and best known one is that the film is a version of the English film Arthur. The second account comes straight from the horse’s mouth and suggests the idea was born in, if not out of, thin air.
Event organisers were on the World Tour of 1983, the very first of its kind for the Industry and having performed in almost 10 cities in US and London, were flying to Trinidad & Tobago from NYC, when Prakash Mehra also travelled the organiser suggested for a film based on a father son relationship where the son is an alcoholic.”
– Amitabh Bachchan
Lastly, the story goes that while shooting in the outdoors for Laawaris, Mehra made friends with the hotel owner who fascinated him as a functioning alcoholic who ran a successful business as well.
Mehra’s arch-rival Desai alluded that the friendship was likely based on kinship.
“Only a Sharaabi can make a film called Sharaabi,” Desai said in the press back then. Mehra’s reply can’t be reprinted. But his films always had autobiographical elements. Music director Anand ji quoted that like his films’ orphaned or neglected heroes, Mehra too faced abandonment issues because when he was young, his father had become a sadhu.
The hero his hand off with a Diwali bomb .. took him 2 months to move his thumb to his index finger.
– Amitabh Bachchan
Still recovering from the grievous injury on the sets of Coolie in the July of ’82, which forced Bachchan first to wear special belts around his stomach to basically prevent his guts from spilling out and then long shirts and coats to hide the scars, an accident involving a spurious Anaar on Diwali day of 1983 meant that Bachchan lost most of his skin, webbing and use of fingers on his left hand (and Bachchan is left-handed). But he worked through immense pain and improvised by hiding his injured hand in pockets, creating the iconic look from the film, though in one song, the blood and bandage is woven into the narrative.
This was the time when there was a heroine crisis in Amitabh Bachchan’s screen life. Hema Malini had started a family and cut down on work. Parveen Babi was unwell. Jaya Bachchan had retired. Reportedly, Raj Babbar made it difficult for Smita Patil to be available for Bachchan’s projects. There were doubts over Shabana Azmi’s commercial potential. And Mehra had had date problems with Rakhee in the past. While Zeenat Aman had worked with the duo in Laawaris, Sharaabi’s role of a Hindustani dancer was different. In stepped Jaya Prada.
Bachchan’s idea and insistence to speak the lines in a drawl-like fashion of a drunkard and Mehra’s concern about pacing brought about the brilliant joint decision to keep the lines sharp and short so that Bachchan could draw them out. The fact that his character Vicky in the film was also a budding poet seeking vazan in his spoken creations that he would only find later, like an older-day Janardan Jordan (of Rockstar fame), meant that there also had to a graph along with the meter. Kader Khan memorably put pen to paper.
Kishore Kumar was Bachchan’s voice in Mehra’s films. But when Sharaabi went on floors, a cold war was brewing. Some time ago, Kishore had expected Bachchan to agree to a cameo in a film called Mamta Ki Chhaon Mein but influenced by Desai, who had a long-running feud with Kishore over monetary issues and artistic differences despite their collaborative success, Bachchan declined. Kishore announced he wouldn’t sing for Bachchan again, leaving Sharaabi’s pre-production in crisis.
It was Bappi Lahiri, Kishore’s nephew and Mehra’s Namak Halaal music director, who brought the icons together for Sharaabi. The truce wouldn’t last long though. Kishore got upset that Bachchan got playback credit before him for singing the rap section (“There was a cat…” ) in his “Jahaan Chaar Yaar” unlike their jugalbandi in “My Name in Anthony Gonsalves” in Desai’s Amar Akbar Anthony where Bachchan had dubbed the English-speaking portions.
Kishore’s work in Sharaabi was historic enough to earn him all the nominations at that year’s Filmfare Awards for Best Playback Singer (Male), a record number. Kishore would win for “Manzilein Apni Jagah Hain”. Unlike Namak Halaal’s Pag Ghunghroo, he even performed the classical alaap himself before the Log Kehte Hain Main Sharaabi Hoon section of the Salaame-E-Ishq Meri Jaan-like song “Mujhe Naulakha Mangwa De Re”. RJ Rahoul has a great take on the making of Intehaa Ho Gayi in which it’s impossible to detect when Bachchan’s dialogues end and Kishore’s singing starts. Despite their differences off screen, they were that close on it.
Sharaabi would win its year’s Filmfares only in the Music Category but time has also marked Vicky Kapoor as one of Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic roles and perhaps his greatest performance in the 1980s.
News Edit KV Raman
