Manmohan Desai
| Manmohan Desai | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1937-02-26)26 February 1937[1] Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India |
| Died | 1 March 1994(1994-03-01) (aged 57) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Alma mater | St. Xavier's College |
| Occupation | Film director, producer |
| Years active | 1960–1989 |
| Spouse(s) | Jeevanprabha Gandhi[2] |
| Children | Ketan Desai |
| Parent(s) |
[3] |
Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was a producer and director of Indian movies
Contents
1 Family background
2 Career
3 Filmography
4 References
5 External links
Family background
Manmohan Desai was of Gujarati ancestry. His father, Kikubhai Desai,[4] was an Indian film producer and owner of Paramount Studios (later Filmalaya)[5] from 1931 to 1941. His productions, mainly stunt films, included Circus Queen, Golden Gang, and Sheikh Challi.[6] Manmohan Desai's older brother, Subhash Desai, became a producer in the 1950s[7] and gave Manmohan his first break with the Hindi film Chhalia (1960). Subhash later went on to produce Bluff Master, Dharam Veer, and Desh Premee with Manmohan as the director.
His wife was Jeevanprabha Desai. She died in April 1979. He was engaged to actress Nanda from 1992 until the time of his death in 1994. He had one son Ketan Desai who is still involved in the film industry. Ketan is married to Kanchan Kapoor, daughter of Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali.
On 1 March 1994, per news Manmohan Desai fell from the balcony in Girgaon as the rail he was leaning on collapsed and died.[8] Very little is known about his death except that he was suffering from chronic back pain. Rumours of him committing suicide have not been confirmed.[9]
Career
Manmohan Desai was known for his family-centered, action-song-and-dance films which catered to the tastes of the Indian masses and through which he achieved great success. His movies defined a new genre called masala films. A common theme in his films were the lost and found plot where family members would be separated and reunited.
He had a string of hits with Amitabh Bachchan in the 70s and early 80s which helped cement Bachchan's status as a superstar of Indian cinema. He worked with Amitabh on Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish, Suhaag, Naseeb, Desh Premee, Coolie, Mard and Ganga Jamuna Saraswati; all but the last were box office successes. He was one of the directors who had a special working relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, the others being Yash Chopra, Prakash Mehra, Ramesh Sippy, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Of these, only Yash Chopra went on to make hits beyond the 1980s.
He often worked with the same actors in several different films:
- Jeetendra in Dharam Veer (1977) after Bhai Ho To Aisa
- Shatrughan Sinha in Naseeb after Bhai Ho To Aisa, Shararat and Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973) and Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972)
- Shashi Kapoor in Suhaag after Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973)
- Shammi Kapoor in Parvarish (1977) as a father figure after Bluffmaster (1963)
- Randhir Kapoor in Chacha Bhatija (1977) after Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972).
Apart from Bachchan, Manmohan Desai worked with such leading male stars as Raj Kapoor in the 1960 film Chhalia, Shammi Kapoor in "Bluffmaster" (1963), Rajesh Khanna in Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Roti (1974), Randhir Kapoor in Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Shashi Kapoor in Aa Gale Lag Jaa, Dharmendra in Dharam Veer (1977). 1977 was an exceptional year for him. All four of his films released that year were huge hits: Parvarish, Amar Akbar Anthony, Chacha Bhatija and Dharam Veer. The first two were with Amitabh, and the latter two were with Dharmendra.
Manmohan Desai worked with writers such as Salim-Javed, Prayag Raaj, K.K.Shukla, and Kader Khan, and lyricists such as Anand Bakshi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Qamar Jalalabadi, Gulshan Bawra, and Shailendra. Early in his career he worked with composers Rahul Dev Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, later with Laxmikant Pyarelal and in the 1980s with music composer Anu Malik.
Out of the 20 films that Desai directed in his career span of 29 years (1960–1989), as many as 13 films were stupendous hits. His success ratio was 65 percent in an industry where flops abound. His favourite playback singer was Mohd Rafi. In most of his movie, Mohd Rafi was used to sing all of his songs. When Kishore Kumar's voice was frequently used on Amitabh Bachchan by other Directors, he used Mohd Rafi's voice on Amitabh Bachcan in films like Suhaag and Naseeb. His biggest hits of Mohd Rafi song was Pardah Hai Pardah from Amar Akbar Anthony and John Jani Janardhan from Naseeb. Manmohan Desai once said that Mohd Rafi's voice is God's voice.
Towards the end of his career, Desai's previously successful stories and style began to lose favour with audiences. Critics accused him of self-parody. His last film as a director Ganga Jamuna Saraswati and the films he produced with his son Ketan Desai directing, Allah Rakha (1986), Toofan (1989) and Anmol (1993) failed at the box office.
Filmography
| Year | Movie Name | Cast | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Chhalia | Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Pran, Rehman, Shobhna Samarth | |
| 1963 | Bluff Master | Shammi Kapoor, Saira Banu, Pran, Lalita Pawar | |
| 1966 | Budtameez | Shammi Kapoor, Sadhana, Manorama | |
| 1968 | Kismat | Biswajeet, Babita, Helen, Kamal Mehra | |
| 1970 | Sachaa Jhutha | Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, Vinod Khanna | |
| 1972 | Raampur Ka Lakshman | Randhir Kapoor, Rekha, Shatrughan Sinha | |
| 1973 | Aa Gale Lag Jaa | Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Shatrughan Sinha, Om Prakash | |
| 1972 | Bhai Ho To Aisa | Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha | |
| 1974 | Roti | Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, Om Prakash, Vijay Arora, Nirupa Roy | |
| 1977 | Parvarish | Amitabh Bachchan, Shammi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Neetu Singh, Shabana Azmi | |
| 1977 | Dharam Veer | Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, Jeetendra, Neetu Singh, Pran | |
| 1977 | Chacha Bhatija | Dharmendra, Randhir Kapoor, Rehman, Hema Malini, Yogeeta Bali | |
| 1977 | Amar Akbar Anthony | Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh, Shabana Azmi, Pran | |
| 1979 | Suhaag | Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Parveen Babi | |
| 1981 | Naseeb | Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Reena Roy, Kim Yashpal | |
| 1982 | Desh Premee | Amitabh Bachchan, Shammi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi | |
| 1983 | Coolie | Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri, Waheeda Rehman, Kader Khan | |
| 1985 | Mard | Amitabh Bachchan, Amrita Singh, Nirupa Roy, Dara Singh | |
| 1988 | Ganga Jamuna Saraswati | Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Jaya Prada | |
| 1989 | Toofan | Amitabh Bachchan, Meenakshi Seshadri, Amrita Singh | Producer |
| 1993 | Anmol | Manisha Koirala, Rishi Kapoor, Johnny Lever | Producer |
References
^ Connie Haham (1 December 2005). Manmohan Desai's Enchantment of the Mind. Roli Books Private Limited. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-93-5194-049-4..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ Singh, Kuldip. "Obituary: Manmohan Desai". The Independent. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
^ Raje, Niilesh A. "Anhonee Ko Honee Karde: A Tribute To Manmohan Desai". Learning & Creativity. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
^ Kikubhai Desai. IMDb
^ Tejaswini Ganti 2004, "Bollywood: A Guide to Popular Hindi Cinema", Routeledge Guidebooks, New York and London.
^ Connie Haham (2006) Enchantment of the Mind: Manmohan Desai's Films, Roli Books, New Delhi, p 182.
^ Subhash Desai. IMDb
^ Bawa, Jyoti Sharma. "With Nanda's death, I have lost a very good friend: Actor Mala Sinha". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
^ Mishra, Rashmi. "Accident, Suicide or Murder? The mysterious deaths in Bollywood". India.com. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
External links
Manmohan Desai on IMDb
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