Raj Khosla

Claim Page

Began as singer but took film direction on Dev Anand’s advice Raj Khosla had a passion for music hence he mastered classical music and joined AIR (All India Radio) and worked in its Music department. Later he came to Mumbai to make a career as singer but was spotted by Dev Anand . Raj Khosla in an interview recalled, “Somewhere in 1945 I came to Mumbai. I happened to meet actor Dev Anand, who recommended me to join his production house Navketan as assistant director with Guru Dutt. I gave my nod and thus began my journey as assistant director.” Under Guru Dutt , Raj Khosla did many films. He began with Baazi (1951) followed it by Jaal (1952), Baaz (1953) and Aar Paar (1954). It may be noted that all these films were crime thrillers inspired by Hollywood action movies.

Raj Khosla ’s debut film as director was a failure After assisting Guru Dutt for over 5 years film producer Fatechand brothers gave Raj Khosla his first directorial venture Milap (1955). It was written and directed by Raj Khosla . The movie had a wonderful star cast starring Dev Anand, Geeta Bali, Johnny Walker and K.N. Singh. The film had music by N.Datta. The music of the film was much applauded but probably the weak script failed to appeal the audience. The failure came as a setback to Raj Khosla and he looked disappointed. But Guru Dutt , Raj Khosla’s Guru Dutt, under whom he had learnt the craft of filmmaking was much contented by Khosla’s maturity in handling many departments of film making brilliantly like positioning of camera, shot angles, song picturizations and most important managing top stars. Guru Dutt boosted Raj Khosla’s confidence with his next film CID After the failure of Milap when other film producers closed doors for Raj Khosla, Guru Dutt came to his rescue and offered him to direct his home production C.I.D. (1956) staring Dev Anand and Shakeela and Guru Dutt’s new discovery Waheeda Rehman in the lead. Raj Khosla grabbed the opportunity and pumped all his energies into the film. The highpoint of the film was its deft direction, creative cinematography, tight screenplay and razor sharp editing. The overall impact was that the film was a smash hit at the box office and established Raj Khosla as the specialist of crime thriller. What impressed Guru Dutt most was Raj Khosla’s exceptional presentation of Waheeda Rehman , though she played a vamp, but Khosla escalated her role to amazing heights so much that she stole thunder from the film’s heroine Shakeela. O P Nayyar’s brilliant music was a cherry on the cake! After C.I.D.’s success Raj Khosla and Dev Anand hit a hat-trick The Dev Anand and Raj Khosla Jodi became a jubilee hit and the duo hit a hat-trick by delivering three hit films in a row. The films were Solva Saal (1958), Kala Pani (1958) and Bombai Ka Babu (1960). What is interesting is that all the three films had a different theme Solva Saal (1958) was a thrilling story laced with humor; Kala Pani , like C.I.D was a crime thriller with pinch of emotional element about a son fighting to prove his father’s innocence in a murder case and Bombai Ka Babu (1960) was a totally unconventional theme of a criminal on run and the emotional turmoil when he impersonate as a blind man’s son to save himself from law. The success of all the three film placed Raj Khosla among top directors but the real Raj Khosla was yet to come! Raj Khosla changed gears with musical love story Ek Musafir Ek Hasina Impressed by the hit record of Raj Khosla, top film producer S Mukherjee signed Raj Khosla to direct a love story for his son Joy Mukherjee. O P Nayyar was signed for music and his music was so mesmerizing that Raj Khosla used all his ten songs and cleverly weaved a hair line script around it and rest with his brilliant cinematography and bewitching song picturization Raj Khosla made a wonderful film. The movie was a huge hit and film critics were left dazed at Khosla’s ability to switch so effortlessly from one genre to another! Raj Khosla further proved his mastery in love stories with Do Badan (1966), Chirag (1969), Prem Kahani (1975) etc. With Do Raaste Raj Khosla proved his hold over family dramas In the late 60’s when family drama were ruling roost thanks to the South family dramas doing well, Raj Khosla produced and directed a family tear jerker Do Raaste with Balraj Sahni and upcoming actor Rajesh Khanna. The film dwelt about the pathos about disintegration of joint family system. The film was a huge hit. Raj Khosla later made another social film Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978) staring two legendary actresses Nutan and Asha Parekh in key roles. The movie was about the clash of two ladies- one a mistress (Asha Parekh ) and the other – a wife ( Nutan ). It was an intense emotional saga that proved a big hit. What is surprising is that the film eventually fetched Raj Khosla his first and last Filmfare Award but alas not as director but as film producer! Raj Khosla’s foray into dacoit films genre Since Raj Khosla wanted to attempt all kinds of films hence he did a film on dacoit genre with Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971). In this film he made actor Vinod Khanna , immortal by giving him a larger than life character, which looms large over the film’s hero. Few may know that it was Raj Khosla, who made the villain, larger than hero in Mera Gaon Mera Desh. The movie was such a hit that it inspired writer Salim-Javed to write Sholay , which is highly inspired from Mera Gaon Mera Desh. In Sholay that dacoit is called Gabber Singh and in Mera Gaon Mera Desh , he is called Jabber Singh. In Sholay , Sanjeev Kumar is handicapped in both hands, in Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Jayant, is handicapped in one hand. Sanjeev Kumar is retired police officer in Sholay and calls two gangster to battle with Gabber Singh, in Mera Gaon Mera Desh , Jayant is retired Army officer and call one gangster to fight Jabber Singh……… Watch the film and you will be dazed to find many more similarities.