Yash Chopra: Obituary—too Limited a Word
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Obituary
is too limited a word. One could not find a label if one scrolled down the left
column in this blog that reads “Obituary”. There are many articles, poems and
anecdotes about people who passed away, but none of those attempts to honour
their memories can are called obituaries. This is not just because these pieces
of literatures were written not exclusively in a style apt commonly to
obituaries that one reads in newspapers. There is one more reason, one
undoubtedly unearthly, uncommon reason. It’s the conception of death itself.
Yash
Chopra, the maker of classics in Indian movie screen, transcended into another
dimension today. Death is not a word that one could use for him. He has an
upcoming film, which people across the world wait for release; he is known as a
franchise in the film industry and is a bearer of many more titles as an
individual. How can it be concluded that a so-called ‘dead man’ has an upcoming
movie? How can a franchise die?
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Many
philosophers and Wise Masters called for a necessity to understand death. Books
were written and perused all over the world and in all the cultures around the
world on this concept. In short, to pick a gist from all the literatures
written on death, it is a transition, a moment when a person(s) transcends into
another realm beyond the time bound, space related reality. This is much closer
to the concept of love. Love is a thread that binds all lives. Love implores us
above all to have a glimpse of the life before death.
Many of
the movies Yashji directed were loaded with just one theme, love. Even if it is
in his action thrillers like ‘Deewar’ or romance movies such as ‘Veer Zara’ he
lauded the prime element of life—love. ‘Dhool ka Phool’, a social drama was his
debut movie as a director. It was in 1959. In 1973 Chopra founded his own movie
production, Yash Raj Films. In 1972 it launched a successful melodrama ‘Daag: A
Poem of Love’.
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Indian
film industry has seen Yash Raj films and especially Mr. Chopra as a crucial
contributor to its gallons of movie soups. He set the action thriller trend in
Bollywood with Amitab Bachan’s angry young man role in ‘Deewar’, in the mid
seventies. Then a surge of romances in nineties, with Shahrukh Khan, starting
with ‘Dil to Pagal Hai’ (1997), which is yet to wash its mighty tide on the
minds of his fans with the upcoming ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’, which might be released
in the November of 2012.
This
event will be marked in the history of Bollywood not just as a moment of loss
of an entertainment mogul, but the passing away of a sun-like figure in the world
of movie making in India. Of course, if he were dead.
If one
looks at death as a moment of transcendence, it is surely going to mean a lot
for a lover of Indian movies, especially Bollywood. Yash Chopra’s influence and
creative spirit are going to be experienced and appreciated in the times to
come too. Jab tak hai jaan, until
there is life.
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