Biographies- 2

Continuing the previous post, about biographies I was reading. Of Hindi cinema artistes.

Nanda was a girl actor, Baby Nanda, as she came from a film family- Master Vinayak, her father, was an acclaimed actor and producer/director of Marathi films. She started acting to support her family after his death, and continued into Hindi films due to unexpected success. She acted with Dev Anand in Hum Dono, Rajesh Khanna in The Train and Ittefaq, Shashi Kapoor in Jab Jab Phool Khile, Manoj Kumar in Gumnaam, and with lots of other heroes. After many successful films, she withdrew from the film world. She was to be married to Manmohan Desai, but he died suddenly before it could happen. She was friends with Waheeda Rehman, Shakeela and Helen.

Rajendranath is known as a comedian in umpteen Hindi films. His brother Premnath was a villain in films. Their sister married Raj Kapoor, so they were related to the Kapoors through marriage. But each one tried out his own thing. Shammi Kapoor and he spent many penniless days while they struggled to establish themselves. They also played many pranks on people. Rajendranath became popular as Popatlal after he played this character in a film (Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai). He was contented doing his own brand of comedy, and entertained us in many films. He was Nasir Husain's favourite. I still remember him in Saboot, wearing spectacles with tiny wipers on them.

B.R. Ishaara was not even his name, but he acquired the name along the way while struggling to make his place in films. He did a lot of menial jobs initially, then became an assistant to some directors and learnt the craft, before branching out on his own. He made a lot of films, many controversial, on bold subjects. Chetana, with Rehana Sultan, and Charitra, with Parveen Babi when she was new. Her hero was the cricketer, Salim Durrani. Not all films succeeded commercially, but that did not bother Ishaara. He was quite uncompromising, and made exactly what he wanted to, depicting hypocrisy in society in many films. He also gave breaks to lot of FTII students. Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Anil Dhawan, Raj Kiran, Shekhar Kapur, Danny all acted early in their careers in his films. 


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