Manmohan Desai

Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was an Indian film producer and director. He was one of the most successful filmmaker of the 70s and 80s. Desai is now considered one of most influential film director of Bollywood and a pioneer of making masala film.

Family background

Manmohan Desai was of Gujarati ancestry. His father, Kikubhai Desai, was an Indian film producer and owner of Paramount Studios (later Filmalaya) from 1931 to 1941. His productions, mainly stunt films, included ''Circus Queen'', ''Golden Gang'', and ''Sheikh Challi''. Manmohan Desai's elder brother, Subhash Desai, became a producer in the 1950s and gave Manmohan his first break in the Hindi film ''Chhalia'' (1960). Subhash later went on to produce '' Bluff Master'', '' Dharam Veer'', and '' Desh Premee'' with Manmohan as the director.

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, as per news Manmohan Desai fell from the balcony in Girgaon 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.

Career

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. A common theme in his films were the lost and found plot where family members would be separated and reunited.

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:

*Jeetendra in ''Dharam Veer'' (1977) after ''Bhai Ho To Aisa''
*Shatrughan Sinha in ''Naseeb after ''Bhai Ho To Aisa'', ''Shararat'' 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 ''Bluffmaster'' (1963) and Budtameez (1966) and a cameo role in Desh Premee as Shamsher Singh
*Randhir Kapoor in ''Chacha Bhatija'' (1977) after ''Rampur Ka Lakshman'' (1972).

Apart from Bachchan, Manmohan Desai worked with such leading male stars as Raj Kapoor in the 1960 film ''Chhalia'', Shammi Kapoor in "Bluffmaster" (1963) and "Budtameez" (1966), Rajesh Khanna in ''Sachaa Jhutha'' (1970) and ''Roti'' (1974), Randhir Kapoor in ''Raampur Ka Lakshman'' (1972), Shashi Kapoor in ''Aa Gale Lag Jaa'', Dharmendra in ''Dharam Veer'' (1977). 1977 was an exceptional year for him. All four of his films released that year were successful: '' Parvarish'', ''Amar Akbar Anthony'', ''Chacha Bhatija'' and '' Dharam Veer''. The first two were with Amitabh, and the latter two were with Dharmendra.

Manmohan Desai worked with writers such as Salim–Javed, Prayag Raaj, K.K.Shukla, and Kader Khan, and lyricists such as Anand Bakshi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Qamar Jalalabadi, Gulshan Bawra, and Shailendra. Early in his career he worked with composers Rahul Dev Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, later with Laxmikant Pyarelal for many films. Laxmikant–Pyarelal and Manmohan Desai have worked for nine films, most of them produced and directed by Manmohan Desai, including
Amar Akbar Anthony 1977,
Dharam Veer 1977,
Parvarish 1977,
Chacha Bhatija 1977,
Suhaag 1979,
Naseeb 1981,
Desh Premee 1982, and
Coolie 1983. In later years Manmohan Desai worked with music composer Anu Malik.

He used an assortment of male singers in his films. In Chhaliya, Mukesh sang the songs of leading man, Raj Kapoor. He preferred Mahendra Kapoor for Biswajit in Kismat. In Roti and Aa Gale Lag Ja, Kishore Kumar's voice was used for the hero. He used Mohd Rafi's voice on Amitabh Bachchan in films like Suhaag and Naseeb. He also used Kishore for Amitabh in Amar Akbar Anthony.

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'' (1986), '' Toofan'' (1989) and ''Anmol'' (1993) failed at the box office.

Filmography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, Manmohan
1937 births
1994 deaths
Film producers from Mumbai
20th-century Indian film directors
Hindi-language film directors
Gujarati people
Film directors from Mumbai