He then got busy hawking his new script, which required the hero to be permanently angry, an auburn-haired Pathan to be perennially blustery and hearty, and an after-thought of a heroine who sharpened knives for a living. After Dev Anand nixed it, Mehra turned to the tall, lanky newcomer, who had just finished an indifferent year with such releases as Sanjog, and Bandhe Haath, both of whose leading ladies, Mala Sinha and Mumtaz, were much bigger stars.

Mehra’s pinning his hopes on, his words, that ‘patla sa ladka’ didn’t enthuse too many people. Pran, who played the pivotal Pathan role in the film, couldn’t get his own friend who ran his (Pran’s) distribution office in New Delhi at the time, to release the film. The people who did, found themselves with a gold seam which ran, unchecked, for more than 15 years. Every time it returned to theatres, and those days there was no other avenue for repeat screenings, it scored silver jubilee runs.

Mehra’s golden period began, and all the films he made with Amitabh after Zanjeer — Khoon Pasina, Hera Pheri, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Lawaris, Namak Halal, Sharabi — were blockbusters. He stopped being director-for-hire, and produced, directed and distributed all his future projects. Industry vets remember him as a ‘zindadil insaan’ with a great ‘shayarana andaaz’, who was as generous in success as he was in failure. His last film with his lucky mascot, Jaadugar, was his first and only flop with Amitabh; there was a falling out, and there were no more collaborations between the two.

... contd.