The Mumbai i knew - 5

The Mumbai I knew - 5<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /> ​

I was very fond of movies,and gossip(now im fond of only Gossip).Filmfare was drab,so was Star and Style,till Stardust came along in 1972 and swept all the magazines away.Initially it was edited by Shobha De.I think it was priced at 2 bucks,a princly sum those days, when the flavoured milk at Worli Milk Diary was for 30 paise,and the bus from Worli to Nariman point was 25 paise.




She had the column called Neeta's Natter,where u could get all the gory going on in the filmi parties.And Neetu Singh,nee Kapoor,was showm with all her cleavage in her glory.Cute female,very sexy.And the best part is she married Rishi Kapoor, but acted romantically with her Devar Randhir,and husband's uncle Shashi Kapoor.This is what film life is all about.





Dilip Kumar was rumoured to be fond of Nassem Bano ,but landed up marrying her daughter Saira Nano.And Naseem Bano was later rumoured to be close to Subodh Mukherjee,the uncle of Kajol,and favoured Nassem Bano,by launching her Daughter Saira Bano in Junglee with Shammi Kapoor.




Sharmila Tagore,was close to Shakti Samanta,and he launced her in "Kashmir Ki Kali " with Shammi Kapoor.Then he made the ultimate film with her "Aradhana",a la Mother India.But as luck would have it,Rajesh Khanna who was supposed to be the sidey,got his lease of life.Sharmila fell in love with Rajesh,but ultimately married Pataudi.




I used to wonder at the love affairs of the heros and heroines of those days.So many each one of them had.Shabana was going around with one Uday,the she got hitched to Shekhar Kapoor now the hollywood director,and then married the already married Javed Akhtar.Shekhar kapoor married Medha,who left him and married Anoop Jalota,the Bhajan Singer,who divorced his first wife within a month or so.





Rekha married Vinod Mehra,then married Hot Flame guy called Mukesh who committed suicide a few months after marriage.Vinod Mehra married a girl called Meena Broach,classmate of my wife,divorced her,and died.So rekha's both husbands died.Then she moved on to Kamlahasan, and Amitabh Bachan,and still remains single.She still claims she is 38,whereas i have seen her first movie Sawan Bhadon in 1968.I think they may have shown her getting born in that movie,and she must have sung the songs from her mother's womb.Strange are the ways of stardom.





Zeenat Aman,the sex Bomb as they called her,i did not see any bombs in her though,found Dev Anand as her " Mentor,Guide ,and Philosopher ".Someone will have to teach me English to understand this.She then got married to Sanjay Khan,father of Lucky of Main Hoon Na,who was married to Zarine Khan,he hit her in the lobby of Taj Mahal,divorced him,and married Mazhar Khan,who died later,and now going around with a 30 yr old guy with a goatee,saying he is a good friend.Mazhar Khan used to stay at Bhagwan Apartments,Worli Sea Face,and used to play cricket with us on the streets on Sundays.





In the Mid Seventies,a friend of mine was involved in some way with the films,used to take us to the trail shows of the movies.I saw the trial show of "Pran Jaye par Vachan Na Jaye " of Sunil Dutt and Rekha,at a small theatre.Movie was shot in patches, no dubbing had been done,and everything was funny without sound.this was to show the distributors to take the next installment from them.There was a bathing scene of Rekha,and she was almost topless for the scene.What an erotic scene.But it was cut off by the censors,as expected,but shot to show the distributor for his moolah.

I saw a lot of shootings with this friend,in many studios in Parel,and Mahalaxmi,which i dont think exist these days.Huge peices of land,worth a fortune these days i suppose.





Hema Malini, was courted by three actors,this would make a good serial for Ekta Kapoor,unfortunately Her dad is one of the characters involved.She was wooed by Dharmendra,Jeetendra,and Sanjeev Kumar.Sanjeev loved her the most,but he was a Gujerati and a Kanjoos,and a heavy drinker,maybe that is what that put her off.Ultimately the poor guy died a bachelor.





Jeetendra was in love with his childhood pal Shobha Kapoor,but maybe he wanted to break some fresh ground,he flew down to the South,to talk to Hema,when he got to know that she was serious about the already married Dharmendra.Dharmendra too flew down,when he heard Jeetendra had gone to propose.A good merry go round.I think ,if I am not mistaken that Hema and Jeetendra got engaged and then disengaged.This was I think 1974,not sure though.And I think Dharmendra converted to get married to Hema.




This is getting too long,and me being the producer and director of this show,I don’t have the heart to edit my baby.So the choice is yours to accept or throw the baby in the water.




And no complaints even if I don’t receive a single comment.So don’t worry guys and gals,if u happen to read,just fall asleep.And next day if u wake up,and if u feel

like,drop in a nasty comment,for all I care.Huh !




KAMAL MAHTANI

 

Dear Devika,

So u too love Gossip like me.HAHA.I think I must have been a woman in my last birth , god knows.

I used to read Stardust, Filmfare,Cineblitz, Super,Star and Style, u name it and I used to read it.It is just 7 or 8 years back I have stopped reading totally, but now TOI has started on page 2, so I get my feeds for free.HAHA.

Thanks for yr kind comments.Regards.kamal