Memories for a lifetime

It’s difficult to encapsulate Yash Chopra’s contribution to Indian cinema. For many of us — especially lovers and friends — he was Indian cinema. Chopra directed 22 films and furnished a filmmaking style so distinct and individual that it came to be known as the Yash Chopra style. It’s not for nothing that when the first teaser of his soon-to-be-released swan song Jab Tak Hai Jaan featuring Shah Rukh Khan,Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif was released before the film had a title,many felt the title was unnecessary. Who needed a name for a film when “A Yash Chopra Romance” could communicate it all?

A Yash Chopra Romance was always about the everyman and the everyday. An entire generation fell in love for the very first time while humming Tere chehre se nazar nahin hatthi. The peak of love was with Mera pyaar keh raha hai main tujhe khuda bana doon. The dating ritual got a nod with Dekha ek khwaab toh yeh silsile hue. The height of eternal love is of course Tere liye hum hain jeeye. And who can forget the Yash Chopra-fication of the first-night song — the Kabhi Kabhie poetry.

The various hues of love — timeless love,extramarital affair,obsessive love,older man younger woman love,soulmate-waala love — Chopra gave us all. Yet he never thought of himself as the Big Daddy of Romantic films. “I don’t make romantic films. I make films about human relations. Everyone’s desire is to love and be loved again and again. Relationships are complex. I never have villains because real life brings with it so many complexities and destiny plays such a crucial part in the fortunes of lovers that you never need villains,” was how he explained his films.

As a filmmaker he never feared to tweak the conventional and charted his success story following his heart,with an eye on dramatic stories and characters one could relate to. When the country only knew Amitabh Bachchan as the Angry Young Man,Chopra showed the lover-boy side to him. He brought back Rajesh Khanna to the helm with his first production,Daag. Shah Rukh Khan maintains he owes a huge part of his stardom,especially his lover-boy currency,to Chopra’s films.

If the Yash Chopra lover boy made us swoon,the Yash Chopra heroine is known for the way he presented her,from Silsila’s Rekha to Chandni and Lamhe’s Sridevi to Dil Toh Pagal Hai’s Madhuri Dixit. Chopra acknowledged his hallmark as the leading-lady expert in a chat with SRK on his 80th birthday: “After nature,the most beautiful thing God has made is a woman. I never see bad points in a woman. I like to make films that take a peek inside a woman’s heart. I feel very bad when I see women characters portrayed in such bad light on the television.”

It’s difficult to imagine cinema without Yash Chopra. Though he had announced his retirement from direction,it was widely accepted that he would continue to be the guiding light of Yash Raj Films. He was the social face of Bollywood — always around to light the ceremonial lamp at film festivals,happy to lend an ear to newcomers. Just the sight of Yash Chopra at film events was reassuring. Just like his movies. It won’t be the same anymore. Yeh lamhe,yeh pal hum barso yaad karenge… yeh mausam chale gaye toh hum faryaad karenge.