Asha Parekh
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Nasir’s Eclectic Blog Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Contents |
Early life
Asha Parekh was born in 1942 Now, when Asha Parekh started out as Baby Parekh in Aasmaan (1952) which is only remembered for the full-fledged musical debut of the king of rhythm, O.P. Nayyar (after scoring background music in Kaneez 1949), Dilip Kumar had mesmerized the nation with his powerhouse of acting talent. Baby Parekh got a small role in Kishore Kumar-Usha Kiran starrer, Dhobi Doctor (1954). The same year, Asha Parekh was noticed by Bimal Roy who cast her in Baap Beti (1954) when she was twelve.
Asha Parekh was doing uncredited roles in some films, and Aasha (1957) was one of them. She continued her schooling and later joined the Filmalaya School of Acting. This school belonged to Sashadhar Mukherjee who was once a producer in the famous Bombay Talkies of Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai.
In 1943, he left the Bombay Talkies to form his own Filmistan Studio at Goregaon, Mumbai, in partnership with Rai Bahadur Chunilal, Gyan Mukherjee, and Ashok Kumar whose brother in law he was, having married the only sister of the last-named Super Star of that era. Nasir Hussain was one of the regular writers with Filmistan.
Sashadhar Mukherjee gave Nasir Hussain an opportunity to direct Filmistan’s Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), starring Shammi Kapoor and Ameeta. This movie proved to be a great hit, especially for the hero who tasted success after his nine films had flopped in a row. When Sashadhar broke away from Filmistan to set up his Filmalaya Studio at Amboli, Mumbai, he again asked Nasir Husain to direct a movie for him.
As a leading lady
This time it was Dil Deke Dekho (1959). In the meantime, Asha Parekh tried her luck for a heroine’s role in Vijay Bhatt’s Goonj UThi Shehnai (1959) but was rejected since according to the film-maker she was not a heroine material. That role went to Ameeta – also known as the Tumsa Nahin Dekha girl. The very next day, Sashadhar Mukherjee asked Nasir Husain to choose between Sadhna, and Asha Parekh, and Nasir Hussain chose the latter for the tomboyish role in Dil Deke Dekho. Thus she landed her first role as the leading lady opposite Shammi Kapoor.
Nasir Hussain’s choice of Asha Parekh as against Sadhna for the heroine’s role in Dil Deke Dekho set off a long term of relationship between them, on both professional as well as personal level. So when Nasir Hussain also turned producer by establishing his own production house under the banner of Nasir Hussain Films he never failed to take Asha Parekh as his leading heroine right from Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai (1961) till Caravan (1971). His other films with Asha Parekh were Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963), Teesri Manzil (directed by Vijay Anand, 1966), Baharon Ke Sapne (1967), and Pyar Ka Mausam (1969).
After 1971, he turned in favour of younger heroines such as Zeenat Aman, Kajal Kiran, Padmini Kolhapure, Dimple Kapadia and Jaya Pradha for his films. Nasir Hussain was already a married man with wife Ayesha, and a daughter Nuzhat and son Mansoor Khan who took over the reins of direction from Nasir Hussain for Qayamat Se Qayamat tak pairing the almost-debutantes, Amir Khan and Juhi Chawla.
Asha Parekh's roles
Most of her roles were glamourous ones, requiring her to look pretty and tomboyish, with little emotions and histrionics. Again, most of her heroes such as Joy Mukherjee (1961 - debut in Love in Simla), Biswajeet (hindi debut in Bees Saal Baad 1961), Jeetendra (debut in Geet Gaayaa Pathron Ne - 1963) and Rajesh Khanna (debut in 1967 in Raaz/Aakhri Khat) were junior to her. Even Dharmendra (debut in 1961: Dil Bhi Tera Ham Bhi Tere) and Shashi Kapoor (minus his roles as a child-artiste in Forties-Fifties; debut in Char Diwari in 1961) were her juniors acting-wise. The film directors other than Nasir Hussain who cast her in films were Shakti Samanta, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, Mohan Sehgal, Pramod Chakravothy, Raghunath Jhalani and J.P. Dutta.
Her role in Chiragh won her the nomination while that in Kati Patang won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. Incidentally, in her interview with Jitesh Pillai, published in Film Fare magazine of September 2001 Mumtaz stated: "I should have won the Best Actress Award for Tere Mere Sapne. I really deserved it. Instead it went to Asha Parekh for Kati Patang in which she wore white and stood in front of piano doing precious little. Khair, jaane do (let it go). God has given me so much..." Earlier, the Kati Patang role had been offered to Sharmila Tagore who turned it down for "some silly reasons."
The other movies that won Asha Parekh the Filmfare nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category were Udhar ka Sindur (1976) and Main Tulsi Tere Angan ki (1978). She won the Filmfare Lifetime Award in 2002.
Asha Parekh’s career
Asha Parekh acted in some 85 Bollywood movies. It is from 1960 onwards that Asha Parekh began getting the lead roles in films such as Hum Hindustani and Ghunghat. Of course in Ghunghat she was totally eclipsed both in acting and beauty by her senior heroine, Bina Rai. Her most successful movies are the ones mentioned above. Her other hit films include Ziddi (1964), Mere Sanam (1965), Love in Tokyo (1966), Aaye Din Bahar Ke (1966), Shikar (1968), Kati Patang (1970), being the most prominent.
As a young heroine, her roles have mostly been glamorous except in a few movies such as Do Badan (1966), Kati Patang (1972), Chiragh (1969), Bahaaron Ke Sapne (1972) and Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki (1978) where she has short role, which was in fact the last of her roles as the film heroine. Thereafter her roles were limited to that of a supporting actress and that chain continued till 1995 when Andolan was released.
She also became a Distributor with the release of Bahaaron Ke Sapne which had its premier at the Apsara Cinema in Mumbai but that film did not click as it was not in the league of the usual Nasir Hussain movies. She also continued with her classical dances and performed live on stage especially during 1972-73 when she went abroad. She also dabbled in TV show production line.
