Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 18, 2019)

On May 15, as Madhuri Dixit turned a year older, my thoughts flew back 31 years ago to N Chandra (left)’s Tezaab which had put her on the road to stardom. The director recalled that he was editing Boney Kapoor’s fantasy-adventure Mr India when he saw the actress for the first time. She’d dropped by with her mother to meet director Shekhar Kapur who had stepped out. “I told them they could wait, if they wished. They did, for a while, then left. That evening, when Shekhar returned, I told him a girl called Madhuri Dixit had stopped by. ‘How did you find her?’ he asked. ‘She’s a star,’ I replied,” Chandra saab reminisced. When prodded on what had made him say so, he laughed, “She is a very beautiful girl, no doubts about that, but what I said was an instinctive reaction, there can be no explanation for that.”

He saw her again when he visited the set of Bajrang, which he was editing. Anil Kapoor and Madhuri were shooting a rain song for the Bapu directorial which eventually didn’t shape up as they’d envisaged and was scrapped. “She stayed on in my memory and when I was planning Tezaab, Madhuri was the first actress who came to my mind,” Chandra saab admitted, pointing out that it was convenient to discuss dates with Rakeshnath who managed both Anil and Madhuri’s work.

The 1988 film today has become synonymous with Anil’s Munna, Madhuri’s Mohini and “Ek Do Teen”. The filmmaker informed that the song was an integral part of the narrative. “But the best part was that everyone who heard Javed saab’s (Akhtar) lyrics, set to music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, instantly agreed it was a superhit song, and from Baba Azmi (cinematographer) and Bijon Dasgupta (art director) to Saroj ji (Saroj Khan, choreographer) and the actors, everyone gave it their best shot,” Chandra saab asserted, recalling how Madhuri rehearsed for a month, perfecting not just her hip-swinging hook step but also her expressions, a different one for every day of the month, as demonstrated by Saroj ji.

The film and the song catapulted Madhuri into the A-list and her director was quick to rave about not just her dancing skills but also her histrionics. He recalled shooting a dramatic scene in Hyderabad when Mohini is shattered after being told that Munna is dead. When he comes to her at night, unable to see him in the dark, she breaks down, hysterically hitting out who she believes was responsible for his death. “It was an intense scene and Madhuri, having had a secure upbringing, couldn’t quite understand its pitch. So, I acted it out for her. She watched carefully, then, sat silently for 15 minutes before telling me she was ready. We canned it in one take and she did a thousand times better,” he said.

The film was unveiled to a full house, which included the industry’s Who’s Who at Metro theatre. The unanimous opinion was that the film was a blockbuster and a star had been reborn (Madhuri had made her debut four years ago in Abodh, going on to do a handful of unmemorable films). “Tezaab celebrated 75 weeks in three shows at Dreamland cinema,” Chandra saab said proudly.

He reunited with Madhuri a decade later in Wajood (right), with Nana Patekar playing a man obsessed with her. This film too had a poem penned by Javed saab, “Kaise Bataoon Main Tumhe Mere Liye Tum Kaun Ho”, which describes what the girl means to him. “I wanted Nana to recite it like a lyrical 30-line monologue and shoot it without cuts. It seemed near impossible when I sketched it to Nana and Madhuri but she was ready for the challenge,” Chandra saab recounted, reeling back to when his gorgeous heroine, in a sunny yellow chiffon sari, tantalised Nana with seductive smiles and playful laughs to bring his romantic fantasy to life. “We did it, in one shot.”

He met Madhuri recently during the Total Dhamaal shoot and along with some fond memories came the yearning to make another film with her. “I’m working on a script, once it’s ready, I’ll take it to her…” His words trail off, the echoes of “Ek Do Teen” remain.