New Delhi: “Anand” was running in theaters in 1975 when the lyricist-Filmekar Gulzar, who was in Moscow, received news about the banned film in India, to present at a film festival.
Set against the background of elections, “Anand” is a love story between a hotel manager (Sanjeev Kumar) and his prestigious wife, played by Suchitra Sen, who re -joined after years after becoming a politician.
Writer Saba Mahmood Bashir’s 2019 “Gulzar’s Anand: Insightse in the film” throws light on the controversy around the film and there is a political atmosphere in the country during its release.
Many people noted similarities between the characters of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sen, including the white streak, dress and walk of hair, but under the chairmanship of the then I and B Ministry, IK Gujral, nothing was found objectionable and the film was released in theaters in February.
Then on 25 June 1975, Gandhi announced the Emergency.
In July the same year, Gulzar was to introduce the film at a film festival in Moscow and when he came to know about it. It was in theaters for more than 20 weeks at that time.
“They came to know that they would have to get out of the show as the film was banned in India. To ensure that it was a film magazine, published a feature on ‘Aandhi’, with the headline, ‘Watch your Prime Minister on screen’,” Write in the book Bashir.
The book also featured an interview with Gulzar, who spoke about how he returned to India after the ban.
The cinema veteran said, “Sanjeev was also with me. After we came back, J Om Prakashji (producer of the film) tried hard to lift the ban. We were already in the twenty -fourth week, so we decided to modify two scenes,” the cinema veteran remembered.
One of the new scenes included Aarti Devi was depicted by Indira Gandhi’s portrait and called her “role model”.
He said, “He added us to that bit. He insisted. Till then the film was going on in its twenty -twenty or twenty -fourth week,” he said.
Gulzar insisted that there was no equality between the main character and Indira Gandhi, but she borrowed references from the late Prime Minister for the personality and manner of Aarti Devi.
“At that time, it was not the story of Indira Gandhi’s life. But even today, there is no one like her, so she was the best personality to keep in mind. Accordingly, that reference could be introduced to any actor – the way he used to walk, the way he landed in the stairs flying, the way he used to come out of a helicopter.
“We used her symptoms in good taste – not because the character was based on her or her life. But then things happened – opposition parties commented that Aarti Devi’s character was shown to consume alcohol, and some decided to add two unrelated personalities,” Gulzar said.
According to Gulzar, fuel was added to the fire, there were advertisements and posters for the film.
In the book, Bashir wrote that it was unfounded to debate whether the “storm” was made on Indira Gandhi’s life, but the similarities between real and reel characters were quite striking.
“Both Aarti Devi and Mrs. Gandhi got married. If the stone was given to a rally in Aarti Devi, she was also fed at a rally near Bhubaneswar in Orissa in Mrs. Gandhi in 1967.
He said, “This is a coincidence about marriage, and the fact that Ferroz Gandhi also ran a hotel in Allahabad, which inspired critics and spectators to connect dots and began to believe that ‘Anand’ was the story of Indira Gandhi,” he wrote.
Gulzar recalled that he later went to Moscow, where he met Gujral, who was serving as an Indian ambassador to the Soviet Union.
“Gujral Sahib told me that it was Sanjay (Gandhi), who did not take the dispute well. Otherwise, there was no objection to others. I also remember my reply, that it was one of the things that occur in democracy.”
(This report has been published as part of the auto-early syndicate wire feed. In addition to the headline, there is no editing in the copy by ABP Live.)
