Lekh Tandon
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October 17, 2017: The Times of India
Film director Lekh Tandon's clean comedy `Professor' (1962) and feelgood drama `Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaye' (1977) attracted families in droves to the movie theatres and drew `Housefull' boards for weeks.
`Prince' (1969), a formula box-office winner, `Ek Baar Kaho' (1980), a sensitive love story partly inspired by Rock Hudson's Come September and the mature drama `Agar Tum Na Hote' (1983) were other notable entries in the resume of the Lahore-born director whose career spanned over five decades.
If the first half of his resume belonged to cinema, the second was dedicated to television. The long-running `Phir Wahi Talash' (1989-90) and `Farmaan' (1994) are two well-known serials by him. Tandon was among the first who gave a break to Shah Rukh Khan in the DD tv series, `Dil Dariya' (1988), though, the wouldbe-megastar grabbed attention in another DD serial, `Fauji' (1988). Late in life, the director also took to acting. He essayed the small but significant role of Dadaji in Khan's underrated, offbeat venture, `Swades' (2004) and was seen again in, `Chennai Express' (2013). `Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaye' was released at the peak of Bollywood's multi-starrer craze. In 1977, director Manmohan Desai released four movies -`Dharamveer', `Chacha Bhatija', `Amar Akbar Anthony' and `Parvarish'.Each of them became a super hit. Yet Tandon's film made with three unknown actors (Prem Krishen, Rameshwari and Shyamali) bucked the trend. “In `DWJPMB', he was involved in every aspect of film-making, even the size of the curtain on the sets. The credit for the film's quality goes to him and to the producers, Rajshri Films, for believing in him....“ Rameshwari, the film's heroine, told TOI on phone.
