The Cinema That Was Not!!

Great actors, great combinations, the magic of cinema. As the lights slowly dim and the curtain rises, dreams, songs, dance, emotions, thrills and above all stars transport us to a different world. Our cinema is now a century old and the infant of the 20th Century has become the least common factor across the country.
We have had Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari as our greatest faces of tragedy – but can you recall a single tragedy they did together? They paradoxically came together to do light, comedies like Footpath and Azad.
Yash Chopra was all about beautiful women. After he outgrew the B R Chopra chapter, from Sadhana down to Katrina and Anushka his cinema was where women were beautiful and stylised. Yet he did not make a film with the gorgeous Dimple. The nearest he came to signing the beau Vyjayanthimala is when he is rumoured to have offered her Nirupa Roy’s roll in Deewar. Sushmita Sen a Diva unmatched missed his attention!!
For that matter till Subash Ghai got the veterans in character roles Dilip Saab and the brilliant Nutan never shared screen space. Wonder why our film-makers never scripted a two plus hour tale for Shammi – Waheeda, or Shashi – Nutan. Sharmila did a film with Dev and Dilip but lives with an incomplete filmography for not having a celluloid tale with Raj Kapoor. Amitabh played the romantic lead with seniors Waheeda, Nutan and Mala Sinha but missed out a Sadhana perhaps because thyroid tapped on the lady’s door before Saat Hindustani was out or Anand noticed.
Dharmendra had a great range of heroines to act with, including Kum-Kum, Jayalalita but didn’t make a film with Shabana – though Sai Paranjpee had announced Bichoo with the two. Two great success stories of the 70s – Rajesh and Jaya never paired together though they were the principle characters in Hrishi da’s Bawarchi. Would it not have been wonderful to see Shashi, Shammi and Rishi do a film with Hrishi da and Basu Chaterjee? Would it not have been great to have Shanker Jaikishan or Pancham do a film (just one film!!), for Yash Chopra or Madan Mohan work his magic for R K Films!! Madhuri and Bachchan or Madhuri and Rajesh Khanna would have been interesting combos – that was not to be.
These non-happenings have been inexplicable and perhaps our cinema is poorer by the tale of lost opportunities. Our contemporary film-makers have shown a greater sense of adventure in their permutations and combinations. When we had space for great actors, we missed out on Dilip-Shabana, Dilip-Jaya, Dev-Jaya, Sanjeev-Smita Patil, Shammi-Tanuja, Sanjeev-Dimple Kapadia, Naseer-Jaya (still possible!!), Bipasha-Aamir, Vidya-Aamir, Soha-Ranbir…. Notice that Amitabh has acted even with Shafali Chaya but not, not yet with Deepti Naval. An Aishwarya-Aamir film does not appear a near possibility. Tabu-Shah Rukh? Rishi acted opposite Hema and Zeenat and even Shabana but not Rekha or Jaya.
The raw and intense Mahesh Bhatt didn’t have a script for Rekha, Benegal for Tabu, Ramesh Sippy for Rajesh Khanna, Priyadarshan for Shabana or Aamir (not a bad idea to execute!!). The list of myriad opportunities of what could have been is as mind blogging of what was in the century that was and that. Is what our cinema is all about imagination or just falling short of the magic!! Would the sultry Rekha instead of the stylish Zeenat make SSS a masterpiece? Did the Guru Dutt personal life rob the film-maker of looking beyond Wahheda (at Nutan) for a Kagaz Ke Phool. Wouldn’t Gulzar’s Dharam-Sharmeela-Hema Devdas been a better tale than the grossly appreciated grotesque Bansali’s take on Devdas?
Wonderful combinations s and yet lost opportunities.