Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 24, 2019)

A few years after Junglee, Biswajit was surprised by a call from the writer-director-producer of the 1961 musical, Subodh Mukherji. Everyone had expected him to repeat his hit pair, but the filmmaker felt Biswajit da rather than Shammi Kapoor was more suited for April Fool. It was at Mukherji’s residence, during a photo-shoot, that Biswajit da met his heroine Saira Banu. They not only struck lovey-dovey poses, but since the film was a romcom, there were photographs with masti too. These were used in banners to promote the new jodi with the tagline ‘Prince Charming meets the Beauty Queen’.

“Saira was undoubtedly a beautiful girl but I was a huge fan of her mother, (actress) Naseem Banu ji. When she swung by the set one day, I told Saira that her mother was better looking than her. She reacted with a laughing ‘Nooo,’” the veteran actor smiles over their camaraderie.

He recalls a long outdoors in Ooty when the sun would play hide-and-seek. Rather than sit around twiddling their thumbs, the unit would quickly divide themselves into two teams and start a cricket match. “Subodh da was passionate about sports and never travelled without his cricket kits. Sometimes Saira would join us for a spot of underarm bowling,” Biswajit da laughs, adding that even after the light returned, they’d plead with the ‘boss’ to let them finish an over.

It was in Ooty that the title track was filmed. “Neither Saira nor I had time to stand and stare during the song. Either I was chasing her or she was chasing me with an umbrella. People still play 'April Fool Banaya' on April 1,” the film’s hero points out.

You wonder if he played a prank on anyone during the shoot or vice versa and Biswajit da recalls how for “Aa Gale Lag Ja” during a week-long night shoot at Burma Shell’s swimming pool, Saira ji conspired with a bevy of German ballet dancers, who’d been specially flown down, to play the fool with him. “All through the song, the girls were swimming in the pool while I circled it from the edge, in a white suit, trying to coax Saira, dazzling in a gold sequined swimsuit, to come into my arms. It was only for the last few lines that I descended into the pool, stretched out on the float, while the girls converged around me. Then, suddenly, they were pulling me into the cold water with them, and because I was taken by surprise, I fell clumsily and water went into my eyes, nose and mouth. I was hauled out, dripping and spluttering, while Saira and the girls climbed out giggling triumphantly,” he flashbacks to the swinging ’60s, informing that during another Shankar-Jaikishan hit song, “Kehdo Kehdo”while boating in a lake, his leading lady almost went over when he pushed the oars a little too strongly. “The boat swayed dangerously. Luckily, I grabbed Saira in time.”

On Sunday evening, Biswajit is having his first live musical concert at Mumbai, at Ravindra Natya Mandir, during which he will be recounting anecdotes and playing some of his chartbusters. “I will sing 'April Fool Banaya' live, it will be my birthday gift to Saira who turned 75 yesterday,” Biswajit da promises.

Strangely the playful duo never worked together again after April Fool, which released in 1964. But they did bump into each other at parties, and once at a wedding in Lucknow. “I had to fly directly to Kolkata but my wife Ira and daughter Prima returned with Saira and Dilip saab on the same flight. Ira wasn’t keeping well and they were both very solicitous, offering to drop them home because they’d landed very late till Ira assured them that our chauffeur was waiting,” he reminisces. “Dilip saab is an institution, our real Kohinoor. Just his presence is a guiding light for us. And with Saira by his side, I know he has all the love and care in the world. She’s his better half in the real sense, I admire her devotion.”

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 14, 2018)

Today, as Biswajit Chatterjee, the guitar-strumming desi Elvis of the ’60s, turns 80, memories of past birthdays bring a smile to his face. The veteran actor recalls his mother before her untimely death when he was 13, feeding him payesh (rice pudding), a tradition his wife Ira continues, along with a morning visit to the temple. “This is the one day in the year when I’m allowed my favourite dishes, from mishti pulao and mutton to prawn malai curry and steamed hilsa,” he laughs.

He recounts how five-six years ago, his daughter, Prima, broke the routine of quiet dinners, to host a surprise birthday party for him. “After the evening cake cutting, she invited me for a stroll in the terrace where I found a 100 friends waiting. DJs, music and dance, we had a blast,” he beams.

Parties have been the norm since childhood and grew bigger and more boisterous when he entered the film industry. “After the mandatory cake-cutting on the set, the director would let me off early, joining me with the team at the party later in the evening, along with top stars like Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Vinod Khanna and Dharmendra,” he narrates, flashbacking to an outdoor in Kullu Manali when Maryada stars Rajesh Khanna and Raaj Kumar, joined Manmohan Desai’s Shararat unit for the celebrations. “Fresh trout was on the menu and the party went on almost all night,” he says.

Biswajit misses this camaraderie today as he recalls cricket matches during the Kodaikanal outoors of April Fool, Sanjeev Kumar coming to actor Manmohan’s home where they met for lunch every Sunday with a tiffin carrier of mom-made dhoklas for him, Raakhee cooking fish for the Saaheb unit while Sandhya Roy and Supriya Devi did the same in Bengal.

He made his debut on stage in Kolkata, playing a junior artiste in Maya Mriga, in which he had just one line of dialogue. Two plays later, he landed the romantic lead in Maya Mriga when it was turned into a film “and I became a hero from zero.”

Soon after Biswajit landed the role of Bhootnath in the theatrical production of Saheb Bibi Golam and was coached by Uttam Kumar who had played the character in the Bengali film version. Guru Dutt who was planning his own Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam in Hindi at the time, turned up for one of the shows with wife Geeta and writer-friend Abrar Alvi who went on to direct his film. After a dinner with his Guruda at the Grand Hotel, Biswajit flew down to Mumbai where the filmmaker introduced him to the film’s leading ladies, Meena Kumari and Waheeda Rehman, and cinematographer, V K Murthy, as the hero. But wary of signing an exclusive five-year contract with Guru Dutt Films so early in his career, Biswajit eventually turned down the offer. Guru Dutt himself played the role later. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam opened in 1962, 11 months after Hemant Kumar’s suspense drama, Bees Saal Baad, which launched Biswajit opposite Waheeda. “I could live my dream of becoming a pan-India actor rather than remain a regional star because the owners of Rang Mahal Theatre, Hemant and Nalin Banerjee and Jatin Bose, tore up the agreement I had signed with them and let me take off to Mumbai despite the play packing full houses two weeks in advance. A month-and-a-half after I left, it shut down,” he informs, indebted to his mentors.

In Bollywood, he first became popular as the ‘suspense hero from Bengal’ with films like Bees Saal Baad, Kohra and Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi, then turned a musical star with Shararat, April Fool and Kismat . He dabbled with the occasional socials— Asara and Do Kaliyaan—and costume fantasies like Do Dil . “I also played Ram to Moushumi’s (Chatterjee) Sita and Prem Nath’s Raavan in Bajrangbali. My producers begged me not to do it, saying it would turn me into a mythological hero like Trilok Kapoor and Shahu Modak. But I was from the stage and didn’t want to get typecast. I wanted to prove my versatility in diverse roles. I had started out with Kansa, and become the most popular Krishna in Bengal, nothing frightened me,” he asserts.

Few know that Biswajit’s Bengali film Dada Thakur bagged the National Award for Best Feature Film in 1963. “Later, I was nominated for the National Award for a deglam role in Tarun Majumdar’s 1969 film Rahgir ,” he says, recalling Gulzar’s beautiful songs, including “Janam Se Banjara Hoon, Bandhu”.

He has to his credit some of the best songs, but while Biswajit sang for Bengali films and recorded for a Durga Puja album every year, with one exception, Do Shikari’s “Aye Dil Meri Jaan” for Chitragupta, he refused to give his own playback in Bollywood. “Kishore Kumar and Mohd. Rafi were far better singers and I knew they would make the songs bigger hits. I’d come to Mumbai to be an actor, not a singer,” he avers.

Today, the octogenarian sings frequently at Biswajit live shows across India and abroad. “I had a show in Kolkata this September as part of my golden jubilee celebrations, I sang seven-eight songs. But I haven’t moved there as many believe. Mumbai’s been home since ’62. Everywhere I go, there are requests for 'Bekaraar Karke Hamein Yun Na Jaiyye' and 'Pukarta Chala Hoon Main.' Times change but the magic of movies and its melodies never fades,” he signs off.


Biswajit celebrating his birthday with Sanjeev Kumar, Hrishikesh Mukherjee; With daughter Prima last year