Subhash K Jha looks back at K Balachander’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye, and in a special bonus star Rati Agnihotri talks about the experience of making this film.
It is significant that Kamal Haasan’s latest film Thug Life opens on the same date as his first Hindi film Ek Duuje Ke Liye 44 years ago. After K.Balachander’s inauspicious debut in Hindi cinema with the well-intended Aaina (which he remade from his Tamil hit Arangetram) the doyen of the South Indian cinema bounced back with one of the biggest musical romances of the Hindi cinema.
The story of a Tamil boy and the Punjabi girl who communicate through Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s universal language of love, was so endearingly marinated in moments of romance , it couldn’t have failed. And it didn’t. Ek Duuje Ke Liye was one of the biggest successes of the 1980s, setting a pattern for future romances between mature 20-something lovers as an alternative to the teenybopper togetherness celebrated in Raj Kapoor’s Bobby and its innumerable spinoffs.
Kamal Haasan was hugely entertaining as the prankish Tamilian. Spinning tops on the giggly Rati Agnihotri’s jelly belly and shrugging his shoulders to her shuddh Anand Bakshi-penned lines ‘Hum bane tum bane ek duuje ke liye’ with the cutely Tamilian English retort, “I don’tknow what you say. But I want to sing and dance”.
Kamal sang and danced into Hindi moviegoers’ hearts. And Rati followed right behind. It’s hard to believe that the media pitched the made-for-each-other pair against each other. Kamal denies any differences with his co-star during the making of the film. It was only after the release of the blockbuster when Rati spoke against director K.Balachander that Kamal loyally flared up on his mentor’s behalf. Kamal and Rati did another film Dekha Pyar Tumhara which could have been a gem but was stymied by the lead pair’s personal differences.
Ek Duuje Ke Liye with its haunting Goan locales and Lata Mangeshkar and S.P.Balasubramaniam’s raga-driven voices suggested a depth and feeling beyond the superficial romances of Indian cinema. Songs like ‘Tere mere beech mein kaisa hai yeh bandhan anjaana’ and ‘Solah baras ki baali umar ko salaam’ made the onscreen lovers look mature, passionate and simply unforgettable. The tragic doom-laden finale whereby the lovers committed suicide triggered off a chain of self annihilating love stories in the South. Balachander was advised to change his screenplay. But he stuck to the original ending.
The film marked a joyous beginning in Hindi cinema for many artistes including Kamal Haasan, Rati Agnihotri and Madhavi who played the widow with a soft corner for the restless Balu (Kamal).
The Doyen of the South L.V. Prasad, himself a director of awesome stature, produced Ek Duuje Ke Liye for Balachander. The love scenes in Ek Duuje Ke Liye such as the one when Balu sings a whole song based on mukhdas of Hindi film songs to Sapna (Rati) in a lift, or when Sapna burns Balu’s photograph and defiantly drinks the ashes with her coffee in front of her hysterical mother (Shubha Khote) were indicative of a passion never before seen in Hindi cinema, except perhaps in Raj Kapoor’s Awara.
Balachander made two other extremely thought provoking films Ek Nayi Paheli and Zarasi Zindagi with Kamal Haasan in the lead. Neither worked even a fraction of the magic of Ek Duuje Ke Liye at the box-office. The very idea of a couple being asked by their respective parents for a trial separation of one year fired the romantic imagination of the viewers.
Thanks to Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s music and Anand Bakshi’s poetry the couple seemed to communicate by telepathy. From Laila Majnu to Bobby-Raja (in Bobby) we had seen screen lovers do everything conceivable and inconceivable for each other. But we had never seen anyone quite like Balu and Sapna.
Ek Duuje Ke Liye competed with two Bachchan biggies Naseeb and Satte Pe Satta and still emerged as the top money-maker of 1981. Interestingly the film’s producer L.V.Prasad was persuaded to co-star with Kamal Haasan in the Tamil film Raja Parvai during the same year that Kamal made his Hindi cinema debut in Ek Duuje Ke Liye.
K Balachander’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye came and conquered the box-office in 1981. It gave us two stars: Kamal Haasan already a name to reckon with in the South , and Rati Agnihotri raw and new she had never imagined a career in films.
Recalls Rati, “My Dad was approached and we immediately agreed because the film was produced by the great L V Prasadji and directed by the stalwart K Balachanderji.”
Ek Duuje Ke Liye was a remake of Balachander’s Tamil smash hit film Maro Charitra. Rati’s father Roop Agnihotri saw the original before saying yes to the remake. The original film in Telugu, Maro Charithra, was a Tamil-Telugu love story. Wisely Balachander transposed it to a Tamil-Punjabi terrain for the Hindi version, with the humour and situations from the original preserved to the core.
But Rati was not allowed to see Maro Charitra. Explains Rati, “Balchanderji didn’t want me to get influenced by the earlier film. So I had no idea what the film was all about. All I knew was I had a great producer, director and co-star Kamal Haasan.”
Rati remembers feeling quite isolated on the sets. “I was really scared of Balachanderji. I wondered if he was angry with me. He had these really huge eyes which would look straight at you. But he never ever shouted at me.”
At 16, Rati had to project complex emotions of love, longing and parting. “I was so young and so raw. I knew none of the emotions that I had to express. Balachanderji would come up to me , whisper comforting things in my ears, and I would do the scene. I’d just follow what he said. I was like a sponge, absorbing all that I was given.”
The fact that Rati didn’t know a word of Tamil was not conducive to good work. “Balachanderji would talk to me in Tamil, then English. Prasadji, Balachanderji and Kamalji would pull up a chair and explain the scenes to me. That’s how I managed. I couldn’t have done it without these three great artistes to guide me through Ek Duuje Ke Liye.”
Rati also feels grateful for the great songs in Ek Duuje Ke Liye composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and sung by Lataji. “In songs like ‘Solah baras ki baali umar’, ‘Tere mere beech mein’ , ‘Hum tum donon jab mil jayenge’ and ‘Hum baney tum baney ek duuje ke liye’, Lataji expressed everything I was supposed to. I just had to lip-sync those emotions.”
After Ek Duuje Ke Liye, Rati was flooded with offers. “I was working round-the-clock . My costars were Amitji (Bachchan), Rishi Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt in multiple films. I had a ball working with them. Talent is all very well. But what really matters is luck. I was lucky to have such big hits in my career.”
Incidentally, Ek Duuje Ke Liye was originally titled Ek Naya Itihaas. A sequel was planned. But it never happened.
