During this weekend I was viewing the haunting melodies of Mohammed Rafi on my DVD when the song ---“Parda hai parda----from Amar, Akbar Anthony came on screen. The movie is of course one of the classics of Indian Cinema and was a signpost in the rise of Amitabh Bachchan as a superstar.
I personally have three dominant memories of the movie.
The first was when the movie was released in 1977 and I went to see it with some family friends with whom I was spending a part of my vacation. We really enjoyed the movie and I loved the scene where a drunk Amitabh Bachchan stuck a plaster to the mirror.
The second came a few months later when again the song Parda hai Parda was shown on the popular film song programme—Chaaya Geet. That was the day it rained heavily and my building was flooded. Further, the building wall broke down and the water from the adjoining gutter flowed into the compound. I began my exploratory mission but before they could taken on anything like the adventures experienced by Tom Sawyer, I was pulled inside home by my mother and slapped for straying from the safety zone.
The third memory is that of when the movie was shown by Zee around 1993. That was when the satellite channel revolution was peaking and people were getting to see movies they hadn’t seen for a while or had even forgotten. At that time everyone was discussing the forthcoming telecast of the movie more than a week before. My friend Vaidy remarked –“Look at the impact of the movie. It has not been forgotten even today”.
Amar, Akbar Anthony of course has been telecast many times since then and will be telecast many times more. These three memories to me are the abiding ones about the movie. My mental images of Amar, Akbar and of course Anthony.
2 comments:
Am a great fan of your writing, but this one was a bit of a disappointment. Expecting something better next Monday
Ravi, Great stuff, bought back all the memories of those days.... Great writing - Keep it up - JP Rao
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