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Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was a producer and director of Indian movies.
Background[edit]
His father, Kikubhai Desai,
[1] was an Indian film producer and owner of Paramount Studios (later Filmalaya)
[2] from 1931 to 1941. His productions, mainly stunt films, included
Circus Queen,
Golden Gang, and
Sheikh Challi.
[3] Manmohan Desai's older brother, Subhash Desai, became a producer in the 1950s
[4] 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.
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. His best known super-hit movies were
Amar Akbar Anthony and
Dharam Veer.
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:
- Jeetender in Dharam Veer (1977) after Bhai Ho To Aisa
- Shatrughan Sinha in Naseeb after Bahi Ho To Aisa 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 Junglee and Bluffmaster (1963)
- Randhir Kapoor in Chacha Bhatija (1977) after Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972).
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 songs beside Kishore Kumar. When Kishore Kumar voice was frequently used on Amitabh Bachcan by other Directors, he used Mohd Rafi's voice on Amitabh Bachcan in films like Suhaag and Parvarish. His biggest hits of Mohd Rafi is like song Pardah Hai Pardah from Amar Akbar Anthony and John Jani Janardhan from Naseeb. Manmohan Desai once said that Mohd Rafi 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 and
Toofan, failed at the box office.
Personal[edit]
Manmohan Desai was of
Gujarati ancestry. 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 Khetwadi as the rail he was leaning on collapsed and died. 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.
[citation needed]
Filmography[edit]
|
| 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 | |
| 1973 | 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 | |
| 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 |
| 2016 | Dus | Sunny Deol, Aamir Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Ragini Dwivedi | Presenter |
References[edit]
- Jump up^ Kikubhai Desai. IMDb
- Jump up^ Tejaswini Ganti 2004, "Bollywood: A Guide to Popular Hindi Cinema", Routeledge Guidebooks, New York and London.
- Jump up^ Connie Haham (2006) Enchantment of the Mind: Manmohan Desai's Films, Roli Books, New Delhi, p 182.
- Jump up^ Subhash Desai. IMDb
External links[edit]
| [show]
Films directed by Manmohan Desai
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