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Chitralekha still hot, but Bhagwati we forgot
BOLLYWOOD IS contemplating another remake of ?Chitralekha? on a scale as grand as Sanjay Leela Bhansali?s ?Devdas?. Bhansali, Govind Nihlani and JP Dutta are vying to direct the remake, according to the grapevine.
BOLLYWOOD IS contemplating another remake of ‘Chitralekha’ on a scale as grand as Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’. Bhansali, Govind Nihlani and JP Dutta are vying to direct the remake, according to the grapevine.
The film was made twice, the first time in Tollywood in 1941 and then in Bollywood in 1961. Kedar Sharma directed both the versions. Mehatab played Chitralekha in the first film. And in the second, Meena Kumari essayed the title role. Ironically, while the work remains in demand even today in Bollywood, its author Bhagwati Charan Verma has been virtually forgotten in his very own Lucknow. No wonder his 103rd birth anniversary on Wednesday went almost unnoticed just as his centenary three years ago on August 30, 2003 had. All this for the author whose Chitralekha was the bestselling Hindi novel of the 20th century, surpassing even Munshi Premchand’s ‘Godaan’.
Given the lack of remembrance, it was left to his son Dhirendra Verma to organise a small programme. He called a few family friends and eminent poet Gopal Das Neeraj on Wednesday evening to Bhagwati Charan Verma’s residence—‘Chitralekha’ at A-703, Sector C, Mahanagar. Verma lived in this house from 1960 to 1981. To a question, Dhirendra Verma confirmed that Bollywood moviemakers were in touch with him for a remake of Chitralekha. He refused to take any names. But he was much more forthcoming when it came to anecdotes about his father who passed away in 1981.
“While Chitralekha has been his most popular book and, in fact the most popular one of the 20th century, my father considered his other two novels—‘Samarthya aur Seema’ and ‘Bhoole Bisre Chitra’ as his best,” said Dhirendra. “My father went to Hamirpur in 1930 to be a lawyer. However, he did not have a roaring practice. Instead of whiling away his time on the court premises, he began writing Chitralekha. The novella (laghu-upanyaas) was published in 1934. It sold more than five lakh copies in repeated reprints in the 20th century. Chitralekha was his first, but he wrote sixteen more after it,” he said.
Bhagwati Charan Verma spent a few years in Bollywood. And it was he who gave Yusuf Khan his name ‘Dileep Kumar’. “It was Devika Rani who had discovered Yusuf Khan for her production ‘Jwarbhata’. The story was by my dad. Devika Rani felt the name Yusuf Khan wouldn’t click. So she suggested a change. Yusuf Khan agreed. The first name suggested by someone on the sets was Vasudev, which Yusuf Saab did not like. Then, Devika Rani asked my dad to suggest a name, as Jwarbhata was his story. My dad suggested ‘Dileep Kumar’. Thus, Yusuf Khan became Dileep Kumar. My dad wrote seven movies for Bollywood.
Dileep Kumar was the lead actor in three of them.”
“Chitralekha is a novella in dialogue form between Chitralekha, Beejgupta and Kumar Giri. It has thesis, anti-thesis and then synthesis. The synthesis is ‘that man is a slave of circumstances. He does not do good or evil. It’s the circumstances that make him do what he does…but it also says that man’s ‘karma’ (actions) is according to his ‘gunas’ (qualities).”
