Filmi Kalakar: Remembering Bharat Bhushan ji (1920-1992)

Monday, June 14, 2021

Remembering Bharat Bhushan ji (1920-1992)

Born: 14 June 1920, Meerut
Died: 27 January 1992, Mumbai

Baiju Bawra was a golden jubilee hit and established two new stars: Meena Kumari and Bharat Bhushan. It crystallised Bhushan's image as an actor of 'note.' In Baiju Bawra, Bhushan played a gifted but obsessed musician propelled by twin compulsions -- a desire to extract revenge on court musician Tansen, which he achieves through his music and a deep love for his village sweetheart Gauri.

Bharat Bhushan, known for his sensitive portrayals of musicians and poets in several films of the 1950s and 1960s, was born on 14 June 1920 in Meerut(Uttar Pradesh).

Bhushan made his debut in a supporting role in the 1941 film Chitralekha, which also starred Meena Kumari. But director Kidar Sharma and heroine Mehtab got most of the attention for the film. Bhushan had to wait till the end of the decade for Sharma's Suhaag Raat (1948) to pull his career out of the basement. After the young and genial Bhushan had successfully played the bone of contention between two strong women, Geeta Bali and Begum Para, in Suhaag Raat, he was signed for several medium-budget films. The most notable of these were Devendra Goel's directorial debut Aankhen (1950), where Bhushan plays a martyr and sacrifices his love for Nalini Jaywant when he realizes his brother is also in love with her; and Bimal Roy's first Bombay Talkies film, Maa (1952).

In 1952 came the landmark film Baiju Bawra with Bharat Bhushan in the lead — and it brought him instant fame. Baiju Bawra became a golden jubilee hit and established two new stars: Meena Kumari and Bharat Bhushan. It crystallized Bhushan's image as an actor of 'note.' In Baiju Bawra, Bhushan played a gifted but obsessed musician propelled by twin compulsions -- a desire to extract revenge on court musician Tansen, which he achieves through his music and a deep love for his village sweetheart Gauri. In an age of heroes with slicked back hair, Bhushan's unruly mop and simple demeanor caught the attention of women in the audience; his ability to convey anguish went down well with the masses. Bhushan received much help from Naushad's classical raga-based artistry and Mohammad Rafi's vocals as he became the screen face of evergreen numbers like O duniya ke rakhwale, Man tadpat Hari darshan ko aaj and Tu Ganga ki mauj.

Riding the crest of success, the star-director team of Baiju Bawra collaborated once again for Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1953), for which Bhushan bagged the Filmfare Best Actor Award. Sohrab Modi's Mirza Ghalib (1954) saw Bhushan playing a poet (the eponymous Ghalib) whose wife and lover were played by Nigar Sultana and Suraiya respectively; in Basant Bahar (1956), he played a singer once again. Basant Bahar was intended to rival Baiju Bawra. It had the same initials and was a musical success, with songs like Duniya na bhaye mohe, Bhay bhajana vandana sun and Sur na saje picturised on Bhushan.

In the next five years he acted in films like Shabaab, Kavi Kalidas, Pardesi, Champakali, Samrat Chandragupt and Barsaat Ki Raat. The 1960s began well for Bhushan with Barsaat Ki Raat and the ensemble hit, Ghunghat (opposite Bina Rai), but there were several younger heroes on the scene now. In 1964, his ambitious color starrers like Jahan Ara (opposite Mala Sinha) and Dooj Ka Chand (opposite B Saroja Devi) failed to break the bank.

Bhushan's career was clearly on the wane. His stint as the older man began on a hopeful note with Rajshri's Taqdeer (1967), but the film failed to recreate the Dosti (Sushil Kumar, Sanjay Khan, Sujit Kumar) magic for its producers. Nasir Hussain's Pyar Ka Mausam (1969) had a decent role for Bhushan as the estranged father of protagonist Shashi Kapoor. Realizing his acting days were drawing to a close, Bhushan planned to direct a film with Manoj Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in the late 1960s, but the project fell through. The 1970s were not kind to Bhushan -- a star of his stature reduced to doing bit roles in inconsequential films.

Bhushan's films were often extravagant tragedies. Unfortunately, his off-screen life also underwent many upheavals wherein he lost his wife, stardom and faced diminishing fame and fortune.

Bharat Bhushan owned bungalows in Bandra, Bombay and other areas. He was an avid reader and boasted of his collection of books which too he had to sell off like his cars and bungalows in the bad times. He died when he managed to finally get rid of his financial crisis, on January 27, 1992.