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Journalism of Courage
Aap ki Kasam had a progressive take on the dynamics of marriage
Meet Sunita. She drives herself to college in a fancy car and is the cynosure of all eyes. Her Majesty,the beauty queen has arrived, whispers an admiring suitor. Another one quips,Ram jaane yeh jackpot kiski kismet mein lagega. Enter Kamal,the hardworking ideal student. Sparks fly when Sunita Mumtaz meets Kamal Rajesh Khanna. Its a cute moment,but a few misunderstandings follow. Sunita vows: Woh tum sab ka hero hai na,saale ko zero naa banaya toh mera naam badal dena. Soon,all is well. Sunita apologises,Kamal relents and calls her Sonu. They are very much in love. Its beautiful. They get married. But the honeymoon is soon over. Kamal grows suspicious about Sunita and convinces himself that she is having an affair with his best friend Mohan Sanjeev Kumar.
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 daughters 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 doesnt 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 Mumtazs 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 characters 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 films 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 Id have a situation like this in my film.
