Excerpt: ‘Music, Masti, Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husain’
Nasir Husain - Photo courtesy: NH Films/Nuzhat Khan
‘Music, Masti, Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husain’ was published in 2016 - here’s an excerpt from this Akshay Manwani’s biography on Husain’s musical inspirations and influence on the history of Indian films.
Nasir Husain’s career as writer-director-producer, spanning nearly five decades, has shaped commercial Hindi cinema as it exists today. He is by every appraisal as great a film-maker as Mehboob Khan or Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy or Guru Dutt, Yash Chopra or Manmohan Desai. Husain debuted as a director in 1957 with the smash hit Tumsa Nahin Dekha and went on to deliver one musical blockbuster after another over the next two decades. The flamboyance and style of his films have come to define the Hindi masala entertainer, replete with drama, comedy, action and great music.
As we approach the filmmaker’s 93th birth anniversary on 16 November, here is an excerpt from Akshay Manwani’s award-winning book: Music, Masti, Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husain (HarperCollins, 2016). The extract puts in perspective Husain’s collaboration with the acclaimed music composer RD Burman and their phenomenal partnership which resulted in a number of music blockbusters such as Teesri Manzil, Caravan, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.
From L to R: Composer RD Burman, lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri and Nasir Husain - Photo: NH Films/Nuzhat Khan
Together, Husain and RD were able to create a brand of music that was distinct from RD’s successful collaborations with other directors such as Shakti Samanta or Gulzar. Karan Johar agreed, saying, ‘I have always believed that the best musical combination that existed was Nasir Husain and R.D. Burman. The music that they created was way ahead of their times ... Both enjoyed the world of Western music. Their music had a different melody, a different spark, a different orchestra, a different arrangement.’ At the same time, the music in Husain’s films, too, with the coming of RD is distinct from his collaborations with composers who worked on his earlier films. Aditya Chopra, who suggested that Husain couldn’t have been ‘assertive enough’ with the more senior O.P. Nayyar, opined in RD’s context, ‘I think with R.D. Burman, his [Husain’s] celebration of music and his flamboyance came out more because by then he was also very successful. Now he was the bigger star, giving a break to a younger musician. That is when he took full charge on how his music should be.’
And so it is that the music was the biggest star element in Husain’s film-making enterprise. Karan endorsed this view. ‘His music is super iconic. Whether it is Yaadon Ki Baaraat or Hum Kisise Kum Naheen – these are legendary movies but that has a lot to do with the music. Like “Yaadon ki baaraat” – if you hear that particular song even today, it strikes a chord. It has nostalgia in it. Whichever zone of life you are in, it takes you back to a certain nostalgic feeling. Some of those songs are just forever. They have survived decade after decade after decade.’
The question, however, remains: for what specific purpose did Husain use this music? Bhaumik put forth one view. ‘The physicality in a Nasir Husain film is far, far more palpable than in Dev Anand’s films and that is what makes him an auteur for me. To express that physicality, music is the best medium.’ That a lot of Husain’s song sequences emphasize the performative nature and the physical aspect of his characters bears this out.
But perhaps the larger purpose of Husain’s reliance on music was to negate the ‘star effect’ so far as his hero was concerned. That is why Husain’s cinema isn’t synonymous with any one star actor. Shammi Kapoor, who did three films with Husain (and Husain directed only two of them), had six films with Shakti Samanta. Moreover, Shammi’s first film with Husain was while the actor’s career was in free-fall. Husain directed Dev Anand, Joy Mukerji, Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Dharmendra in one film each. Of these men, Joy and Shashi hardly ever hit the really big league in terms of true stardom. Khanna was at the beginning of his career when Husain signed him. Even the association with Rishi Kapoor was for two films only. In this sense, Husain was unlike many great film-makers, whose cinema was often defined by their associations with great actors or star personalities as Manmohan Desai’s was with Amitabh Bachchan.
Husain understood that music is the only real alternative to the ‘star system’ in Hindi cinema. Quality music can make a good film great and even save the most ordinary of films. So while Husain didn’t collaborate with any one actor to the extent that other film-makers did, he put maximum emphasis on his music. This is probably why in a film like Yaadon Ki Baaraat, the Salim–Javed track, which is represented by Dharmendra’s character, has no songs. But Husain propped up his own contribution in the romantic and musical characters of newcomers Vijay and Monto through great music. To this extent, if Yaadon Ki Baaraat stands its ground against films like Waqt and Amar Akbar Anthony despite lacking in relative star power, it is because of RD’s scintillating soundtrack.
But perhaps the larger purpose of Husain’s reliance on music was to negate the ‘star effect’ so far as his hero was concerned. That is why Husain’s cinema isn’t synonymous with any one star actor.
Continuing with this logic, it is with RD by his side that Husain stood up to the Bachchan–Salim–Javed combine that saw the Hindi film hero in a towering rage. But at the same time, none of the Salim–Javed films are particularly remembered for their music be it Zanjeer, Sholay, Deewaar, Don, Trishul, Kaala Patthar, Shakti. This is why much of Yaadon Ki Baaraat’s success owes to Husain, because even the presence of R.D. Burman in films like Sholay, Deewaar or Shakti didn’t result in the kind of spectacular music that Yaadon Ki Baaraat has. Yaadon Ki Baaraat is the only Salim–Javed film whose music can be safely termed evergreen. This is why even with the dominant Salim–Javed vendetta narrative, it is Husain who leaves his stamp, with his choice of music, on the film. This is why Yaadon Ki Baaraat is certainly Husain’s best work.
Photo courtesy: Akshay Manwani / HarperCollins
Bachchan’s other films, too, which rode on his superstardom in the late 1970s aren’t about music, but looked to exploit the raging persona of the man. Jerry Pinto commented, ‘The Bachchan wave was erasing heroines. And erasing songs. And erasing romance. The Bachchan oeuvre has very few really good songs in it. Most people cannot remember two songs out of Zanjeer. And Nasir Husain was only focused on the song, the romance and the heroine. I mean the biggest memory today we have of Zeenat Aman is not Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram [1978]. It’s her in “Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko”. And she’s looking gorgeous. She’s dressed in Western clothes. It suited her perfectly. She’s strumming a guitar and she’s in the middle of a party. She’s central. And look at who the hero is.’
It is also worth noting that at Bachchan’s peak, most film- makers, who debuted around the time that Husain made Tumsa Nahin Dekha, be it Vijay Anand or Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Yash Chopra or Raj Khosla or Shakti Samanta or Manmohan Desai or Pramod Chakravorty, turned to Bachchan. These men either gave Bachchan some of his best films or went to Bachchan to rescue their sagging careers. Husain was the only one who made it huge without Bachchan. With Caravan, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Hum Kisise Kum Naheen, Husain more than stood his ground in the 1970s, Bachchan’s decade, with three immensely successful commercial films. With RD by his side, Husain defied the Bachchan wave. Karan Johar agreed. ‘Nasir Husain didn’t need Bachchan. He had a separate story happening. He was a “hatke dukaan” (something else) as they say. His music was just on another level.’
It is not surprising then that with RD’s decline in the mid- 1980s Husain, too, went through his worst phase, with films like Manzil Manzil and Zabardast. Their enviable jodi that endured over twenty years and resulted in many fine films came to an end after Zabardast, with Husain’s son, Mansoor Khan, selecting Anand–Milind to helm the score for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.
‘The memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from,’ wrote the English author John Still. But the apocryphal tales of octogenarian men make for enchanting kaleidoscopes to look back at great artistic collaborations. Bhanu Gupta mentioned an episode about a Pakistani producer who once came to meet Husain and exhorted him to make a film specifically for the Pakistani audience. Apparently, Husain’s ‘musical comedies’ had a great audience and fan base across the border. Husain heard the man out patiently, but ultimately said no. His logic was clear. ‘Even if everything else fell in place,’ said Husain, ‘magar mujhe R.D. Burman kahaan milega wahaan? (Where will I get an R.D. Burman in Pakistan?)’
Excerpted with permission from Music, Masti, Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husain, Akshay Manwani (HarperCollins, 2016).
Akshay Manwani has written on Indian cinema and popular culture for a variety of publications such as The Caravan, The Indian Quarterly, Scroll.in, Firstpost, Mint, Business Standard and Mumbai Mirror. He has written two books: Sahir Ludhianvi: The People's Poet (2013) and Music, Masti, Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husain (2016). He currently works as a commentator for NBA India. He can be found on twitter: @AkshayManwani and Instagram: @manwani.akshay
