Market Magic

Jack and the Gang, jumped with a Bang

Mama Miya….Pom Pom….Sounds weird? These were the signature lines of a hit era of our very own Bollywood. And jumping over these tunes were the Jack Jeetender, Queens Sridevi and Jayaprada and Jokers like Kader Khan and Shakti Kapoor. And believe it, there was no place for the kings and aces in this pack of cards.

The Jumping Jack and his gang dominated a whole new era. They never wanted critics’ approval. They never cared for the Censor scissors. May be, the likes of Sushma Swaraj and Asha Parekh were not awake then. In fact the scissor- lady Asha Parekh also joined his ‘Caravan’. Himmatwala, Mazaal, Mawali, Tohfa, Kanwarlal, Sansar…, whatever be the title, formula was the same. Blend together Jeetender-Sridevi-Jayaprada-Kader Khan-Shakti Kapoor, add some spicy lyrics and dialogues peppered with Bappi Lahiri type of music and weave a story—whatever you like! The cocktail sure becomes an instant hit.

Another important feature was the props used in the song sequences—giant size Matkas, Sarees, Chudis, Kanganas, Dholaks and whatever you can think of. Take a badminton racket and a cork for example. The sound produced, when one hits the other, becomes the theme track of a song in ‘Humjoli’. And tapping his feet with this hit and sound music is our Jack, crooning ‘Dhal gaya din, ho gayee raat’. What a great delight was it to watch this mixed-singles under rain-showers with Babita! No Tom-Dick-or-Harry can match this. Bravo Jack!

But except for the picturisation, ‘Humjoli was rather of a different court. The lyrics were simple and the partner was also not from his original team. In fact, it belonged to the earlier innings of the master-blaster who now specialized in this legendary stroke. He formed his complete team and jumped right into the hearts of the audience. Nobody ever dared to play on the pitch laid by the Jack and his gang.

The paradox is, all this was happening when action films were considered to dominate the whole indusry. It was the Amitabh, the angry young man’s, era. Nobody took seriously the release of the Jeetender starrers, as they were low budget, light family dramas with a high input of homour. Critics always discarded these movies as nonsense, even before their release. But the public is the ultimate critic. All his films ran on mouth publicity. The winning edge was the unusual songs and dialogues with all the more unusual treatment-- be it pelvic thrusts or just plain jumping.

Sample this. ‘Ladki nahin hai, tu ladki ka khamba hai’, Bak-bak mat kar naak tera lambaa hai’. Any intellectual type will just dismiss this as complete nonsense. But, just think of the majority cine-goers. This is their language. They can connect themselves with the song. These days, the same logic holds good for Govinda and David Dhavan. Jeetender was the hero for the masses. But can anyone become a mass hero? Almost everybody tried, but there was nothing except refusal. Just suppose that someone else is jumping to the tunes of ‘Jhonpdi mein Chaarpaai’. No one really can fit into Jeetender’s shoes. The words like ‘Taaki o taaki’ and ‘Ek aankh maaroon to’, may look easy to write, but the easiness stops there only. The road ahead! is only made for the ‘Himmatwala’. No ‘Mawali’ in this ‘Sansar’ has this ‘Mazaal’. Only ‘Kanwarlal has this ‘Tohfa’.

And when it was the time to declare his innings, this thirty-plus man imparted the secret of his success to his inheritors—Tusshar and Ekta Kapoor. Tusshar proved his inheritance with ‘Mujhe kuchh kehna hai’ and Ekta is donning the small screen with all her Saas-Bahu dramas. They know how to strike the right cord in the hearts of the viewers. And again the target is the masses. Kyonki public makes you hit, not the awards. They come in later, on their own.

posted by Arhaan @ 2:00 AM