When Love and Hate Collide

Producer J Om Prakash’s directorial debut Aap Ki Kasam is a portrait of a picture-perfect marriage undone by suspicion. The theme was best underlined by a line on the film posters: “You could be possessive in love but it’s dangerous to be suspicious in love.” Looking back at his 40-year-old film,Omji (as he’s fondly called) says he was convinced about the subject. “I was clear that I would direct only when I have a subject which allows me a chance to say something. The biggest contribution to Aap Ki Kasam was by my writer,Ramesh Pant. I was lucky to get a talented cast of performers. Anand Bakshi and Pancham gave me a great musical score also. I congratulate myself that I got to work with such a talented team,” he says.

Aap Ki Kasam is a film about the man-woman dynamic. It is a relationship of equals. Sunita drives the car and gives Kamal a lift to his village. She informs her father (Rehman) about her intention to marry him in a letter. Her barrister father is quite progressive and agrees with his daughter’s wishes. “Padhi-likhi samajhdar beti hai hamari,apna achcha bura khud samajhti hai… ab pati parmeshwar ka zamana chala gaya,aaj aadmi aur auraat ek barabar hain,” he says. The progressive thought is maintained through the film. Because Sunita has been brought up the way she has,when her husband accuses her of infidelity,she doesn’t even deign to give him an explanation. She just packs her bag and leaves. He goads her,saying,“Tumhara iss tarah ghar se chale jaana mere shaque ko yakeen mein badal dega.” She snaps back,“Mujhe iss ki parvah nahin. Main iss ghar se hi nahin balki tumhari zindagi se bhi jaa rahi hoon,aur hamesha ke liye.” Says Prakash: “This dialogue by Mumtaz would elicit huge applause in the theatres.”

The Rajesh Khanna-Mumtaz pairing works like a charm. Aap Ki Kasam released after Mumtaz’s marriage to Mayur Madhwani. Together,Khanna and Mumtaz acted in eight films — all superhits. In Aap Ki Kasam,Khanna had the toughest part — he had to balance the grey with his massive romantic hero reputation. He makes the transition well — when he confronts Mumtaz,he is hurt and angry; he is blistering in the scene with Sanjeev Kumar; when he apologises to Rehman,he is a broken man. The song,Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hain jo makam,brings alive his character’s quest for redemption. “I convinced Kaka (Khanna) that even though it had negative shades,only he could do justice to this role. He told me,‘Omji,main iss picture ko apni performance se jamaunga,’” says Prakash.

In the BBC documentary titled Bombay Superstar: Rajesh Khanna (1973),there is a lot of behind-the-scene footage of how the song,Suno kaho,was shot. In a sequence,Khanna has to jump on a rock and give about 20 takes just to get one line right. The interviewer asks whether the endless retakes were tedious. A smiling Khanna says he enjoyed it. “Once we get the correct beat and the action is executed on the correct beat,there is appreciation and people say (he gestures as if he was whistling).”

The film’s music score is evergreen. If Zindagi ke safar mein is one of the first songs with the word zindagi that comes to mind during a game of Antakshari,then Jai Jai Shiv Shankar is unofficially the national song of Mahashivratri. Prakash got the idea of the bhaang song when he saw a newly married couple dancing at a Shiv temple in Amaravati. “The couple was chanting Jai Jai Shiv Shankar and dancing merrily. They were the centre of attraction for everyone there. I spoke to them and they told me that they had bhaang as prasad and not nasha. I decided that I’d have a situation like this in my film.”