The Yahooo Moment

Subodh Mukherjees Junglee went on to set the famous Shammi Kapoor template: hill-station-musical- romance-family entertainer. Junglee,Kapoors first colour film,also gave us Saira Banoo,who sparkled in her debut as the vivacious Kashmiri girl who transforms the hardhearted-and-always-grumpy Shekhar (Kapoor) from a junglee into a dilchasp insaan.

Junglee came to Kapoor in a roundabout way. The actor,who had struck gold with his pairing with filmmaker Nasir Hussain in Tumsa Nahin Dekha and Dil Deke Dekho,was tipped to star in his Jab Pyaar Kissi Se Hota Hai. In an earlier conversation with me,Kapoor narrated the casting story. After Dil Deke Dekho,Nasir called me up and said,Im starting my production and Ive got Asha Parekh,and Shankar-Jaikishen. Do I have you? I was hurt by the way he put it,so I told him that I wouldnt do your film. He signed Dev Anand, he said. This,in turn,prompted Mukherjee,who was Dev Anands director in Munimji,Paying Guest and Love Marriage,to knock on Kapoors door. When Subodhda found out that Dev had gone to Nasir,he offered me a colour film titled Mr Hitler that he wanted to shoot in Kashmir. I heard the story and said yes, said Kapoor. The film was later rechristened Junglee.

Junglees agenda is laid out from the opening voice over: Duniya main sab haste hain aur haste haste ghar baste hain. Magar yeh kahani in anokhe sahab ki hai jo zindagi mein kabhi nahin haste. Aapka naam shri Shekhar hai. Laughter really is the theme of the film. Shekhar needs it as does his tough mother,Lalita Pawar,who is described as oonchi chattan jisne is jwalamukhi ko janam diya hai. Enter Raajkumari (Banoo),who brings laughter into our heros life.

Shekhar and Raajkumaris love story begins in typical chedh-chaadh fashion. The grand twist is that unlike in all his other movies,here,Kapoor is not the one teasing. They meet when she throws a snowball at him. She was trying to target a bandar but excuses her mistake by claiming,aap bhi phudakte jaa rahe the aur bandar bhi phudakta jaa raha tha… isliye dhoka kha gayi. He,in turn,thinks she is makhiyon ki aulad… subah hoti hai toh maujood,shaam ko aao phir maujood. His intentions are clear: Mujhe yeh company bilkul pasand nahin hai.

Off screen,the situation was somewhat similar between Banoo and Kapoor. Fresh out of a finishing school in London,the actress wasnt prepared for what she had signed up for. She recalls an incident when Kapoor snapped at her,which made her vow never to work with him again. My first shot was the song Kaashmir ki kali hoon main in Nishant Garden in front of hundreds of foreigners who had come to watch us shoot. I got very nervous and could not get the dance steps right. Shammisaab got angry and told me off in front of everyone,Acting karni hai toh theek se karo. I started crying but did the shot. In retrospect,I realise that this was his way of teaching me but it took me years to get over it, says Banoo. Later,Kapoor would ask her why she had been refusing films with him,especially Professor,to which Banoo,with her characteristic candour,told him,Jis din mujhe acting aa jayegi,us din main aapke saath kaam karungi. Eventually,they worked together in 1974,in Zameer,in which Kapoor played her father.

On screen,Kapoor and Banoo crackled together. In the pivotal Sheshnag sequence where Shekhar and Raaj come to terms with the raging storm outside and inside,Mukherjee opts for close-ups,as dialogues by Aghajani Kashmeri flow in the form of couplets. For example,Do tez hawaaon ki buniyaad hai toofan par… ya tum naa haseen hote ya main naa jawaan hota.

And then comes the Yahooo moment. The declaration of love,Shammi Kapoor style. Kapoor had used the word in Tumsa Nahin Dekha and offered it to composer Jaikishen to use it for the song,Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe. As always,Mohammad Rafi sang it,but it was writer-director Prayag Rajs voice behind the Yahoooo shout,as Shankar Jaikishen feared Rafi would strain his vocal chords. The song was shot in Shimla. When we landed in Kashmir,there was dirty snow in Pahalgam and Chandanwadi. I threw a fit and told Subodhda that I wont shoot in this kind of snow. He said to me,Shammi,I promised you snow and Ill give you snow. After we wrapped up the Kashmir portions,we went to Shimla to shoot the song in Kufri. That year,Shimla got a record snowfall and we shot it in almost eight inches of snow, narrated Kapoor.

The music of Junglee smashed all records,two songs made it to the coveted top 10 of the Binaca Geetmala. Chahe koi mujhe was at No 4 while surprise,surprise,the No 1 song was the dulcet Ehsaan tera hoga mujh par. Lata Mangeshkar loved the composition so much that she requested Shankar-Jaikishen to add a version of the song,sung by her,which wasnt in the script. The song,like the movie,lives on.

harneet.singhexpressindia.com