Nasir Hussain: Maverick of Musicals

21st Death Anniversary of Nasir Hussain

Nasir Hussain best known as a writer, director and then producer. That is the order in which he emerged as a film personality. His forte was writing and he developed a unique style of storytelling. He wrote and co-wrote a string of hits for Filmistan Studios, started his own banner Nasir Hussain films, Changed the persona of Dev Anand ( Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hain), developed the persona of Shammi Kapoor ( Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Teesri Manzil) as the Rebel Star, provided the platform to composer Rahul Dev Burman for his first big banner hit, sustained his faith in lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri  ( an association which went on till almost 1986.)

However as a film maker in continuation as a writer he is known to have  had only one story to tell; He could not think beyond lost and found sagas; and the hero Heroine being engaged in childhood only to meet as adults. The maker whose films always had masquerading characters and revenge plots running through; the film-maker to whom cinema was all about song and dance, someone who loved mountains and balloons; and an ear for music.

In fact after Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon it was joked that it should be Phir Wohi Story Laaya Hoon

However as as maverick he is known as the man who made Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Jab Pyar Kiseese Hota Hai, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Caravan, Teesri Manzil, Yaadon Ki Baarat and Hum Kisi se Kum Nahin. But he also had Baharon Ke Sapne, Pyaar Ka Mausam too.

I don’t think Nasir Hussain’s cinema has been given the recognition it deserves. He is never spoken of in the same breath as Shakti Samanta, Pramod Chakraborty ,Subodh Mukerji, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, all of who used the same or similar tropes, as often and as unrealistically, if not more so. They were all contemporaries of, or just that bit junior to Nasir ji.

To give him his due 

Nasir Hussian was possibly the biggest mainstream filmmaker of the 1960s and 1970s. He knew the pulse of the audience for two decades and his cinema reflected a certain modernity and cosmopolitanism that hadn’t been seen in Hindi cinema before.

The slide started with Zamane Ko Dikhana Hain in 1981, a lavish film which didn't do well ( Ironically one of biggest hits of 1982 a year later Sanam Teri Kasam was a complete rehash of the Nasir Hussain formula and which gave R.D.Burman his first main stream award )

Manzil Manzil, Zabardast ( all delayed and recast films ) bombed and it seemed curtains.

But the new generation came in form of his son Mansoor Khan for whom he wrote Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Joh Jeeta Wohi Sikandar redeemed his status but alas without R.D. and his own direction.

He passed away on today's date in 2002

An era ended. But his Films and their Music Lives on..

Reference & Quotes: 

Akshay Manwani

Music, Masti, Modernity 

The Cinema of Nasir Hussain