Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Date: 11 May 1973. The time of reckoning had arrived. Zanjeer was being released. The first-day-first-show8217;s audience reaction would tell Prakash Mehra and the Zanjeer team whether or not all the hard work, sweat and toil had been judged worthy, and whether or not the film would run8230;
Three hours later, the verdict was out. The resounding applause said it all. Zanjeer was a hit, and with it, its star performers were a hit too!
A few weeks later, at the charity premiere of Zanjeer in New Delhi, the whole hall of Vigyan Bhavan reverberated with the sound of applause the moment Pran set foot on stage. Standing quietly till the ovation died down, Pran then addressed the audience:
8220;Thank you very much for your claps; your love has now bound me with a Zanjeer a chain. But this is such a loving Zanjeer that I wish to be bound by it forever. Today with the Zanjeer of your love, we are going to present you another Zanjeer 8211; that is of Prakash Mehra.8221;
8216;This Zanjeer that has bound me to you people8230; has also bound two people forever 8211; they are Amitjee and Jayajee. I could not attend their marriage and here I am meeting them for the first time since their marriage. Maybe you all are also seeing them for the first time after their marriage. So I8217;m congratulating them on behalf of you all and from my side, I am blessing them.8221;
Yes, with the success of Zanjeer. Amitabh and Jaya who had been seeing each other for some time, decided that marriage could no longer be put on hold, and had tied the knot in a private ceremony on 3 June, 1973.
In spite of a 8217;poor8217; review in a magazine, Zanjeer was so successful that it went on to complete not just a silver jubilee, but a golden jubilee too!
Amitabh Bachchan, the 8216;angry young man8217; had arrived, and how! That Pran had played an important part in Amitabh8217;s success is something that the latter always acknowledges.
Zanjeer is an example of a film made primarily on the strength of the character actor8217;s name, along with factors such as the choice of heroine, the story, the tight script and an audience readied by the then-prevailing times to accept a new tough and angry hero with a purpose. All these inputs contributed to Zanjeer8217;s success.
So successful was the film that it was heartily appreciated even by international audiences! Pran, as part of a cultural delegation visiting the erstwhile Soviet Union to participate in the Thirtieth Anniversary celebrations of Indian independence, was mobbed in a Moscow theatre where Zanjeer was screened as the opening attraction of a week-long festival of Indian films.
After Zanjeer, Pran and Amitabh made a successful team and worked in as many as fourteen more films together. When Amitabh was asked which film he did with Pran did he consider the most memorable and why, he replied. 8216;I would say that there are so many, it8217;s very difficult to pick any one. Quite obviously Zanjeer is one because it was my first experience with him, I found him quite phenomenal in the film. Pran Saab was really the true thespian, the true veteran. He played that role immaculately. So I would rate Zanjeer as my most memorable film with him.8217;
Today, Zanjeer is remembered as much for its 8216;angry young man8217; as for its famous qawwali: 8216;Yaari hai imaan mera, yaar meri zindagi.8217;
