The matinee week

When Guru Dutt and K Balachander were born in the same week...

Data mining the lives and times of cine celebrities can result in popping up of very interesting statistics. Especially when columnists of Indian cinema over the years have only remembered and written about the births and deaths of the very top names, quite often ignoring others who also have left their footprints on the sands of time.

A study of the industry scenario, with a focus on its playback singers, lyricists, music directors and the film directors who deploy this talented team to come up with songs and musical score for their ventures was not unexpectedly a pleasantly surprising one. To get to specifics, if one observes, in this week beginning on Monday, July 3 and ending with Sunday, July 9, a total of six icons were either born or died during this phase, in the recent past and earlier.

Not many would have heard of Ravikant Nagaich, born on July 5 (1931-1991), but this man is credited with being the first trick photography cinematographer in Hindi cinema. Born in Chennai, he helmed many films including the Hindi version of Krishna - starrer ‘Gudachari 116’ titled ‘Farz’, which gave a new lease of life to ‘Jumping Jack’ Jeetendra. He also directed the then superstar Rajesh Khanna’s ‘Mere Jeevan Saathi’, released in 1972, known for its super hit songs, prior to which he had Khanna as a hero in the film ‘The Train’ and released in 1970.

Two others who were born on the same day – July 6 – were Chetan Anand (1921-1997) and Mani Kaul (1944-2011). Both have something unique about their creations, the former being known for his towering presence in Indian parallel cinema with films like ‘Uski Roti’. Chetan Anand, the eldest brother of the Anand family in which the other members were Dev Anand and Vijay Anand had the distinction of being the first Indian director to be awarded at Cannes film festival for his film ‘Neecha Nagar’ in 1946. Of course, in his 17-film list he has gems like ‘Haqeeqat’, ‘HansteZakhm’, etc, which are still remembered fondly.

July 7 is the birth date of music director Anil Krishna Biswas, popular as Anil Biswas, (1914-2003), whose association with singer Talat Mehmood brought out a series of immortal hits. The top two who had their birth dates on July 9 are Guru Dutt and K Balachander, iconic film directors.

While the former had a brief but bright record as a director (1925-1964), dying before he touched 40, the latter was one of the greatest helmsmen Indian cinema had produced, who went on to stamp his authority across many film zones across India.

Unlike Dutt, Balachander enjoyed a long innings (1930-2014), which is likely to be an evergreen phase in our kind of films made and savoured. Time for nostalgia and a rewind into the times that Indian cinema was the arena for such accomplished names.