Most times, colon cancer announces itself when it’s too late. By the time Ramanand Sagar’s son Prem Sagar was diagnosed with it in July, the end was almost at his doorstep.
In the 80s era of the Ramayan and the Mahabharat, visiting the Sagars and the Chopras for stories on the two big mythologies was a part of our weekly routine. Five filmmakers — Ramanand Sagar, Shakti Samanta, Pramod Chakravorty, F.C. Mehra and Guru Dutt’s brother Atmaram — had their offices inside Natraj Studios. Since many stars like Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor and Jeetendra shot there, a visit to Natraj never stopped with meeting the heroes. Dropping into the offices of the filmmakers was a part of the schedule.
Elsewhere, B.R. Chopra and son Ravi welcomed visitors at their Santa Cruz office, which now shares a wall with SRK’s Red Chillies. Actors like Suresh Oberoi remember BR as a filmmaker who invited even job-seeking newcomers to a meal at his table.
Over the years, Natraj Studio stopped being a filmmaking hub and the landmark BR bungalow in Juhu, with its own dubbing and preview theatre, also gave way to Maestro, a swank, multi-storey Raheja building.
Sagar Villa, the imposing bungalow in Juhu that Ramanand Sagar built, once housed his five sons and their families. His only daughter lived in Delhi. After his death in 2005, the joint family broke up into independent apartments. But till the very end, Prem’s standing invitation remained, “Come to Sagar Villa for rajma and parathas”.
An Epic Life: Ramanand Sagar: From Barsaat to Ramayan is an important book Prem wrote, going beyond idolising his father. Against a backdrop of the Partition, Maharaja Hari Singh’s accession to India and the attack by tribals from Waziristan, who were barely 50 yards from the makeshift airfield in Srinagar, Prem chronicled Ramanand’s narrow escape from Kashmir in 1947. Naveen Patnaik’s father Biju Patnaik had piloted the Dakota DC-3 that had ferried the Sagars to safety.
On his 81st birthday, Prem had sent me a ₹500 note from the sathabhishekam puja performed to celebrate the 1,000 full moons of his life. With his passing last Sunday, the rajma and parathas at Sagar Villa remain unfulfilled. But the ₹500 note is tucked away in my cupboard. Travel well, Prem.
The shutter has almost come down on the vibrant Sashadhar Mukherjee family too. From Hrishikesh Mukherjee to Ashok Kumar and Hemant Kumar, it was S. Mukherjee who’d drawn talent from Bengal to Hindi cinema. Like Sagar, Sashadhar too was the proud father of five strapping sons (including Joy, Debu and Shomu) and daughter Shibani, who married a surgeon and moved to Kansas. This year, within the space of three months, Debu, eldest son Rono and Shibani have all passed away.
Sashadhar’s filmmaking genes seem to have died with him. Even grandson Ayan Mukerji, who once seemed promising, has lost the box office battle the second time with War 2. Brahmastra (2022) had signalled the beginning of the end.
Irrespective of the box office verdict, it has been an exacting Friday the 5th in the Hindi film industry. Baaghi 4, where Tiger Shroff and Sanjay Dutt take turns at bludgeoning everybody around, is a tedious 2 hour 43 minute watch. After delivering yet another failure with Sikandar this March, Murugadoss, whose sole claim to fame in the Hindi belt has been the violent Ghajini, badmouthed Salman Khan to garner attention for his Dil Madharaasi. This dubbed-in-Hindi clobber-fest is 2 hours 48 minutes. Topping them all is Vivek Agnihotri. The Bengal Files, which may or may not be seen in Bengal, takes 3 hours and 20 minutes to visit the blood-soaked Direct Action Day of 1946 with parallels drawn to recent events in the state.
A bloody brutal beginning to a festive month.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author
