A documentary for Film Buffs [UBC Post 4]

Since we need to blog every day, I have decided to find inspiration from my daily life. As I mentioned that I have been reading this book called ‘the Greatest Show on Earth’ (edited by Jerry Pinto), there are few references of Devyani Chaubal, who was supposed to be the queen bee of gossip columnists. I remember she always finds mention in articles on Rajesh Khanna. So, I finally decided to look her up on the internet, which led me to a supposedly famous 1973 BBC documentary on Rajesh Khanna called ‘Bombay Superstar’.

This write-up pretty much covers what is shown in this documentary. It also has links to the 9 parts of the BBC documentary. If you are anything like me, and love films, and filmy people and gossip, then you will enjoy it. I was about to go to sleep yesterday at 12 am, when one thing led to another and I started watching the documentary. I slept only after watching the whole of it. It is interesting to watch the inside world of a superstar. I don’t know if filmstars were generally this candid those days because I cannot expect such interviews

from the filmstars of today. Devyani Chaubal’s candid observations on Rajesh Khanna are very, very interesting.

There are no politically correct answers. It is rare to find a Bollywood heroine (Mumtaz here) admit that she loves when people flock to watch them shoot, climbing up the trees, etc. It shows how famous they are. She agrees that it looks silly to mimic to someone else’s voice in songs but people have got used to it and now they expect too. There's Rajesh Khanna arriving late for a Hrishikesh Mukherjee shoot, footage of Rajesh Khanna getting married to Dimple Kapadia, Dimple Kapadia getting ready for Filmfare awards in the capacity of Rajesh Khanna’s new bride. (Even her voice sounds different, childish. She was about 16 then), there's Shashi Kapoor talking about what people want to watch on the big screen.

I will say if you are a Bollywood fan, watch it. Here are the YouTube Links (in 5 parts):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Images courtesy: YouTube