Weekend

Today in my weekend blog I am writing about one of the most respected  Bollywood personality. He was Producer/Director of films as well TV serials, and his one TV serial has become a legend and timeless, even during first lock down  last year this TV serial was again shown at many TV channels across India. Yes I am talking about serial Mahabharat and BR CHOPRA.

His full name was Baldev Raj Chopra, he was born on 22^nd April 1914 at Rahon, Punjab, British India. He later shifted to Lahore (now in Pakistan). His younger brothers were Cinematographer Dharam Chopra and producer/director Yash Chopra.

He did an MA in English literature from Punjab University, Lahore. He started his career in 1944 as a film journalist with Cine Herald, a film monthly published in Lahore, which he later took over and ran till 1947. He launched his first film Chandni Chowk as producer, but because of partition work on the film could not be started and he migrated to India. First he moved to Delhi and later to Bombay, and started his first film Karwat in 1948, which was a flop. His first film as director, Afsana was released in 1951 which featured Ashok Kumar in double role, the film was a hit. He later made Chandni Chowk with Meena Kumari in 1954. He launched his own production house BR Films with film EK Hi Raasta in 1955. His next film Naya Daur (1957) with Dilip Kumar & Vyjayantimala. Next was Sadhana(1958) with Vyjayantimala in award winning role. After that there was no looking back as his production house was well established. In 1959 he launched his brother Yash Chopra as director in Dhool Ka Phool. Yash Chopra later directed many films for BR Films banner, and the films were Dharamputra, Waqt, Aadmi Aur Insaan, Ittefaq, and after that he started his own banner Yash Raj Films.

BR Chopra’s next films as Producer/Director were Kanoon (1961), Gumrah (1963), Humraaj (1967), Daastan(1972)-which was remake of his earlier film Afsana, but this time with Dilip Kumar, and this film did not do well at Box office.

After he directed suspense thriller Dhund (1972), social drama Karm (1977), comedy film Pati,Patni Aur Woh (1979), Insaaf Ka Taraju (1980), Muslim social Nikah (1982). He also produced film which were directed by his son Ravi Chopra. The films were The Burning Train (1980), Aaj Ki Awaaz (1984) Majdoor (1983), Baghban (2003), Babul (2006)and Bhoothnath (2008). He later directed film like Tawaif (1986),Awam(1987) and Kal Ki Awaaz (1992), but these films were not commercially successful. He also produced Choti Si Baat (1976) directed by Basu Chatterjee.

He had a great music sense and songs from his films were always hit. Generally he never worked with bigger music directors. He was one of the rare Producer/ Director who has the relatively low number of songs aung by Mohd Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar, and his favourites were Asha Bhosle and Mahendra Kapoor.

His biggest contribution to entertainment industry was when he launched the telecast of his TV serial Mahabharat in 1988, which ran for more than 2 years on Doordarshan, with weekly telecast of episode on every Sunday morning. People were glued to TV set during the telecast of this serial. It has been said that if an enemy wanted to attack India during those days then they should do on Sunday morning when even armed forces were engaged in watching this serial. He produced many more TV serials but none could match the popularity of Mahabharat.

I am listing below some of my favourite films directed by BR Chopra:

1. Naya Daur- This was a social drama, which was based on man vs machines. The film conveyed the message that men and machines have to co exist and they can not replace each other. It starred Dilip Kumar, Vyjayantimala, Ajit, Jeevan and Johny Walker. The film’s music was super hit, songs were writteb by Sahir Ludhianvi and composed by OP Nayyar.
2. Kanoon- This was murder mystery, court room drama. It was one of the rare films of Indian screen which did not had any songs. It starred Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Nanda,Jeevan, Shashikala and Mehmood. Court room scenes were very well written and picturised.
3. Gumrah- This was a social drama based on the Indian tradition that once woman gets married she had to devote her life to he family. She can not keep relations with he ex lover. It starred Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Mala Sinha. It also had a wonderful music, songs were written by Sahir Ludhianvi and composed by Ravi.
4. Pat Patni Aur Woh- This was a social drama based comedy film, where it was shown that it was wrong a man to have relationship with some other woman after marriage. Although it was having seriops issue bit it was very hillarious. It starred Sanjeev Kumar, Vidya Sinha and Ranjeeta. It had a good music, songs were written by Sahir Ludhianvi and composed by Ravindra Jain.
5. Insaaf Ka Tarazu- The film depicted how a rape by a man can ruin the life of a woman. In the film a model is raped by young industrialist and gets acquitted by court and later the same man rapes model’s teenage sister. It starred Zeena Aman, Raj Babbar, Deepak Prashar and Padmini Kolhapure.

He was conferred with Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1998.

BR Chopra died in Mumbai on 5^th November 2008 in Mumbai, due to old age related problems.

Hope you all must have liked this information.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

2^nd April 2021