Who Doesn’t Know Shashi Kapoor In Algeria?
His crooked smile and brilliant acting might have won over many in India, but Shashi Kapoor in Algeria was still a bigger thing
by K Sridhar
The recent announcement that Shashi Kapoor has been given the Dadasaheb Phalke award left one with a good feeling. It is an award given to one of the most charming personalities of Hindi cinema and someone who used his success in popular cinema to pave the way for an alternative and what would be considered, more meaningful film production. But when one recounts a life with such a diverse contribution to Hindi cinema, how would one choose to do it? Would it be the films that he made where he forayed into realms beyond the strictly popular or the alternative cinema that he acted in? Or his roles in the masala that Bombay cinema tirelessly churns out.
Shashi Kapoor had some great movies to his credit even in the masala genre and it is easy to list a dozen such movies, especially by people who grew up watching his films in the 60s and the 70s. It is interesting how the collective memory of a generation operates — how some movies and songs stay in this memory and how others, even those which were popular in their time, are obliterated. But how would another generation remember him, if they do at all? How would people in another part of the world remember him, if they know him at all?
Which takes me back to about 15 years ago at a dinner at an Algerian friend’s place in France. My friend is quite a Hindi movie buff, like many others from these countries. He also knows the tunes of many Hindi film songs but without knowing the words, of course. He was whistling the tune of the song “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na” and I started humming it. He was so surprised and he came up to me excitedly asking me if I knew the name of the movie it was from. I, of course, did. It was Aa Gale Lag Ja — the 1973 Shashi Kapoor-Sharmila Tagore starrer made by Manmohan Desai. My friend was thrilled to bits. I had never seen him in such a state.
But the Algerians have always watched this movie without subtitles and even the names of the movies were not known to them. They remembered it only as Jaani Tu, from the most popular song in the movie whose leit motif was Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.
It turned out that when he was growing up in Algeria some 30 years ago, this movie was the biggest hit there. They showed it often on TV and when that happened the streets would get deserted and everyone was in front of the TV — it was like World Cup football, apparently! Even now, like Sholay in India, Aa Gale Lag ja remains etched in the popular imagination of Algeria. But the Algerians have always watched this movie without subtitles and even the names of the movies were not known to them. They remembered it only as only as Jaani Tu, from the most popular song in the movie whose leit motif was Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.
My friend kept searching for a copy of this movie but could never track it down which seems strange now in the era of Google. He eventually married an Indian girl from Delhi (and I half suspect he did so because he wanted to figure out the name of this movie!) and came down to India for a visit. He claims to have gone around the streets of Delhi saying “Jaani Tu” which must have been quite a sight! Even after all this that my friend told me I was not sure and wanted to check the claim of this film’s popularity with other Algerian friends. I know four — and each time the response was the same, an excitement bordering on ecstasy at the very mention of Jaani Tu. One Algerian friend in Paris was in tears, literally, when I asked her about Jaani Tu, but a more enterprising Algerian friend from Montpellier suggested that I get a good-quality DVD of the movie which we can use to make a million copies and sell in Algeria!
Often when I relate this story to friends, Raj Kapoor’s Awara and its popularity in the Soviet and in Eastern Europe is brought up. But Awara is one of the classics of Hindi cinema and is still remembered as such by many in India. But Aa Gale Lag Ja! One would think of remembering the 70s in Hindi cinema by Sholay or Deewar or, depending on your taste, the Hrishikesh Mukherjee/Basu Chatterjee offerings or, maybe, the alternative cinema of Shyam Benegal and others. Or all those hugely successful movies Rajesh Khanna acted in. But Aa Gale Lag Ja! The big Manmohan Desai movie from the 70s, with a larger-than-life Bacchhan in it, was Amar, Akbar, Anthony which is still fondly remembered. But Aa Gale Lag Ja!