FEROZ KHAN

Today is the 82nd Birth Anniversary of arguably the most suave hero of the 70s.

Referred to by some as India’s answer to Clint Eastwood for his signature cowboy swagger, 

Feroz Khan was an icon for his persona as well as his flamboyant films. Born in Bangalore to an Afghan immigrant father and Iranian mother and the eldest of five siblings. After finishing school, Feroz Khan moved to Bombay to act in films and made his debut with Didi (1960). In the early years of his career, he played the lead in films like Reporter Raju (1962) and Teesra Kaun (1964). He also made his mark by acting with veterans Ashok Kumar and Raaj Kumar in Phani Mazumdar’s Oonche Log (1965), which first got him recognition. The good-looking star was acclaimed widely for his supporting role in Yash Chopra’s Aadmi Aur Insaan (1969) and his performance as Sharmila Tagore’s possessive and suspicious husband in Asit Sen’s Safar (1970). The former won him the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1970. In Prakash Mehra’s Mela (1971), he acted with younger brother Sanjay Khan and Mumtaz (whose daughter Natasha would later marry his son Fardeen). Soon after he launched his own production house FK International with the action thriller Apradh (1972), co-starring Mumtaz.

Followed by Dharmatma , Qurbani and 5 movies more 

Feroz Khan launched son Fardeen with Prem Aggan (1998) and though the latter's career never quite took off, father and son were very close, both defending each other vigorously through testing times such as the younger Khan's arrest for drug possession in 2001.

Feroz Khan made very few film appearances in the 2000s, possibly due to his age and health issues. He won the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. His last appearance was in the film Welcome (2007) as RDX, the top gangster.

Today as a Tribute to him would like to talk about his first Production APRADH which which the Feroz phenomena began. Ram(Feroz Khan) is a dashing Formula-1 race driver and is in Europe to take part in the world championship.He is India's hope at the race.He meets a thief by compulsion Meena(Mumtaz) by chance.

Meena is on a move after stealing a Rs. 15 lakh necklace(2,00,000 U.S. dollars in those days according to the jeweller) and hides the necklace in Ram's attire in a moment of fear.Meena keeps getting back to Ram in search of the necklace as her bosses want the necklace.When Ram comes to know about the whole thing he not only rescues Meena from the gang but falls in love with her as well.In the meantime he manages to win the Formula-One race as well(Indians are still dreaming that one day some Indian will actually do this). After winning the race Ram decides to return to India. A stranger gives him a bottle which supposedly contains medicines which are meant for his elder brother Harnam.However the bottle contains diamonds and Ram is taken by the police. On being released and returning to India Ram feels that he will live a simple life and would not induge in any criminal activities.He marries Meena and they live happily till Harnam(Prem Chopra) comes to them.Diamonds and Meena create a misunderstanding between the brothers.To make matters worse one of Harnam's men breaks away from him and swears to kill Ram. After having lived the life of a criminal for long Harnam finally dies while protecting Ram from the bullets being fired from his own men. In 1993 when in Baazigar,one could not stop praising Abbas-Mustan for shooting a motorcar race in a hindi movie.However in Apradh the hero is shown as a Formula One race driver.Clearly the story of Apradh written by Akhtar-Ul-Iman was way ahead of its time.It was aided by a tight screenplay and good dailogues.Another plus point of the movie is its good music.the songs 'Tum Mile Pyaar se...' and 'Hamaare Sivah..' are popular to this day.

Aye Naujawan hain sab kuch Yahan was the first of the disco rhythms of FK Films. Kalyanji-anandji formed a dream team with Feroz Khan starting with Apradh.Surprisingly they use Kishore(instead of Feroz's favourite Mukesh) as the voice of Feroz Khan which yielded good results.Technically the film is brilliant.The cinematography,sound recording,action sequences,editing and above all the locations are absolutely fabulous. Feroz Khan looks his dashing best in Apradh.Although Feroz became a popular star but he was famous for his supporting roles.This pushed him to become a filmmaker so that he gets a good lead role.Feroz acts quite well and fits in easily to the role of Formula One Race driver.Mumtaz also looks good and acts decently. She is infact the catalyst of the film .The film has some bad acting by the side villains specially the actors who played the gang members of Mumtaz. However if there is one performance which lingers on even after the movie is over it is that of Prem Chopra's.Apradh is arguably Prem Chopra's best performance till date.In a role which gave him ample opportunity to be that bad guy yet be human and have emotions for his younger brother even till the end Chopra gives a sterling performance. (A delayed birthday wish to him as he turned  86 a couple of days back )

Starting from Apradh was another Feroz Khan tradition that was followed in all F.K.International movies.The tradition was that the other lead actor would die in the end and will have a more power packed role as compared to Feroz himself.Whether it is Prem nath in Dharmatma,Vinod Khanna in Qurbani, Anil kapoor in Jaanbaaz or Vinod Khanna in Dayavan,all followed this trend.It is quite surprising that Feroz never casted Prem Chopra after the success of Apradh. To say the obvious,Apradh belongs to Feroz Khan the filmmaker.His work as a producer is evident from the high class production balues of the movie.But it is his work as a director which really impresses.The western influence is very visible throghout the movie.

Foreign locales,cabarets,gangsters and the murder of the lady in bath-tub show that Feroz was highly influenced by English movies.But Feroz surprised one and all in the way he handled the emotional scenes and the bonding between the brothers.He is totally in form even while handling the most Hindustani emotion.The icing on the cake however is the way in which he has shot the Car Race.It is said that he shot the famous Nuremberg Car Race(Germany) with the aid of a prince from the royal family of the Leopolds.I am still waiting for any Indian director to show a car race similar to this one in a Hindi movie. Apradh when released in 1972 was a hit and it started the trend of Feroz Khan's stylised Hindi movies.

A salute to the connoisseur of style and Panache.