Actor-Director Manoj Kumar breathed his last on 4th April 2025. For me, Mr. Manoj Kumar was not just a legendary filmmaker and a hugely popular filmstar but also a connection to my father, art director Desh Mukerji.
When I met him six years ago - on 6th April 2019 - he was ailing. Yet, he was gracious enough to grant me time and invite me to his home. He reminisced about his association with my father which began when they were both starting out on their careers in the film industry way back in the 1950s.
Reminiscing about the old days he said, "We were refugees from Pakistan and our family stayed at the Kingsway Camp. Later we moved to Nangloi and I studied at Hindu College. I used to be the captain of the cricket team as well."
"On 9th October, 1956, I moved to Bombay. I always wanted to see the ocean. The first thing I did was land up on the beach, wearing a suit, and sweated it out in the Bombay heat!" he laughed.
"I was starting out as an actor and was shooting for Lekhraj Bhakri's Panchayat. Desh had just started working as an independent art director. We would hang out in Ranjit Studios where our sets were being put up and often at night we would crash out on charpais. Sometimes, Dharmendra would land up and he too would sleep on a charpai."
The friendship that began in Ranjit Studios would last for more than four decades as both grew in professional stature, collaborating on multiple films. "We were friends first and shared our struggles in the industry. Desh also contributed a lot in my career. We shared a rapport that went beyond that of a producer and art director. He was an asset to me and my team."
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| Manoj Kumar and Desh Mukerji on the sets of Purab aur Paschim |
My father worked on some of the most iconic of Manoj Kumar's films, including Roti Kapda aur Makaan, Shor, Purab aur Paschim and Kranti. He recalled, "During the shooting of Purab aur Paschim, we had gone to Ahmedabad and from there we travelled extensively within Gujarat. He would take a lot of photographs and these came to good use when we were working on Kranti... the forts and palaces in Kranti... no one had seen such sets before."
Manoj Kumar was unstinting in his praise for his colleague and said, "Desh was more of a director. He had an eye for camera angles and while hunting for locations this came in very handy....I would never go to the studio to check on the sets. I would only go on the day of the shooting."
In
Kamlistan Studios, for Jai Hind, we couldn’t get the necessary dates to shoot
in the hills. So he created a set and for fake snow he used tons of salt.
Talking about the set for Purab aur Paschim which was built inside Raj Kapoor's farmlands in Loni, he said, "For Purab aur Paschim, he had put up this huge complex, complete with streets, houses, temple and everything. It was a truly remarkable piece of work. Raj Kapoor toh dekhte reh gaye."
Farewell, Mr. Manoj Kumar! You will be missed by lovers of Indian cinema - from Purab to Paschim.
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