Veteran Filmmaker Prakash Mehra passes away

A look at his films that rewrote Indian cinema

Prakash Mehta who passed away yesterday died a sad, lonely death. Though his name is synonymous with the rise of Amitabh Bachchan as the angry young man, the producer-director had a life before Zanjeer that made us look at Indian cinema anew.

In 1968, when Hindi cinema showed the hero and heroine pecking through flowers, Mehra's Haseena Maan Jayega had Babita so confused by two Shashi Kapoors that she went to sleep with one thinking it was the other! He also had Kapoor in drag and spoof his song Pardesiyon Se Na Ankhiyan Milana in Jab Jab Phol Khile as Tatpunjiyon Se Na Aankiyan.

In Mela, real-life brothers Sanjay and Feroz Khan battled for Mumtaz. It was a dacoit drama with the anti-hero far more dynamic than the hero.

When Mehra made Zanjeer he had the sullen cop Amitabh Bachchan bring a street-smart chakku-churiwalli Jaya Bhaduri home a live-in relationship in those days.

Mehra's Muqaddar Ka Sikandar in 1978 was a clever reworking of the Devdas formula with the Big B as Devdas, Rakhee as Paro and Rekha as Chandramukhi.

While Lawaaris was about unwed motherhood and illegitimacy a theme that Mehra was obsessed with.
Who but this audacious filmmaker would have dared to put the Bachchan in drag? Mere Anganein Mein created quite a flutter and we aren't talking about just the Big B's false eyelashes.

Sharaabi , a clever and engaging reworking of the Hollywood film Arthur about a lonely drunken millionaire, made Bachchan look tipsy round-the-clock without actually making him drink even a peg. While Namak Halaal remains as one of Mehra's biggest hits.