After Rishi Kapoor, Kumar Gaurav was the first of the star sons to be launched with great fanfare in the 1980s and the son of the Jubilee star, Rajendra Kumar, technically ushered in the age of the generation – X stars. Born Manoj Tuli he took the screen name ‘Kumar Gaurav’ and became an instant heartthrob with the young viewers after a smash hit of a debut. His impressive screen presence along with this good looks was seen as a perfect mix needed for a superstar and, therefore, it’s hardly surprising that just about everyone thought that he would end up joining the likes of Dev Anand or Rajesh Khanna to become one of the great romantic stars.
He even had his own unique voice in the form of playback singer Amit Kumar, who burst upon the scene with songs like Yaad aa rahi hai (Music: RD Burman, lyrics: Anand Bakshi) The subsequent releases that followed Love Story tried milking his image but both Teri Kasam (1982) and Star (1982), that featured a killer of a soundtrack by Biddu, remember Nazia Hassan’s Boom, fell short of expectations. More than their average box-office run it was the manner in which Gaurav’s draw failed that killed his chances. Since then he was doomed to exist in Love Story’s shadow forever.
He attempted to get the formula right with Romance (1983), Lovers (1983) and All Rounder (1984), which tried to take advantage of India’s 1983 cricket World Cup victory but the going became tough for him with Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and a resurgent Sanjay Dutt populating the landscape. He shifted gears with Naam (1986), which he produced as well, but it was his brother in law Sanjay Dutt who walked away with all the glory. Even Janam (1988), a TV movie directed by Mahesh Bhatt, that Gaurav considered one of his better performances, failed to change things for him.
Very few actors get a second shot at being launched, but Kumar Gaurav enjoyed three such outings with Jurrat (1989) being the first one. This rehashed version of Brain De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987) had him reprising Kevin Costner’s Elliott Ness and Shatrughan Sinha trying to do a desi Jim Malone, the role that fetched Sean Connery an Oscar. But besides being David Dhawan’s directorial debut this action thriller has no enduring memory. The same year saw Gaurav feature in Goonj (1989), a film centered on identity politics in Goa and although this film also flopped, it’s worth a revisit for a host of reasons.
Directed by Jalal Agha Goonj was about the lives of a bunch of students who unwillingly get involved with dirty politics unleashed by two local leaders – Kalekar and Dennis Pereira – in their fight to ascertain who represents the locals the best. Kalekar believes that as a leader of the majority population he deserves to be the ideal candidate while Pereira thinks otherwise. In the middle Sangeeta Kalekar (Juhi Chawla), the daughter of MLA Kalekar falls in love with Peter Samuel (Binju Ali) and their classmate Sanjeev Kamat (Kumar Gaurav), who silently loves Sangeeta as well, unearths the truth about her father. Before he can expose MLA Kalekar of murder and other crimes, Sanjeev is accused of killing Peter and suddenly his life goes into a spin. Sanjeev finds himself on the run and no one seems to believe him.
Gaurav delivers a decent performance in Goonj and the film itself isn’t bad but in spite of some really wonderful songs composed by Biddu, and, a gripping narrative it doesn’t take off. Could it be the sense of desolation that engulfs the film’s narrative and becomes more resonant as it advances the reason why Goonj failed with the viewers? It came at a time when popular Hindi cinema was transiting and the boy next door wasn’t meant to clean up the system. Even if he did so he was supposed to be like Sunny Deol in Arjun (1985) or an Anil Kapoor in Meri Jung (1986). Intriguingly enough Goonj released before the Hindi versions of Nagarjuna’s Shiva (1989) and Parinda (1989) and there is a possibility that had it hit the screens after the two it could have had better chances of succeeding. Watching Gaurav in Goonj one can hardly recognize the denim-clad urban dude seen in Love Story or Romance who was on top of things and unfair as it was by the time the 1990s rolled in he was a distant memory.
A few years later Papa Rajendra Kumar tried to reset Gaurav’s career yet again with Phool (1993) where Madhuri Dixit was cast as his romantic interest and both father, Rajendra Kumar, as well as the father in law, Sunil Dutt, also shared screen space but the end result was same. Between Love Story, Romance, Naam, and Goonj there is enough to celebrate Kumar Gaurav both visually as well as aurally with some great music.
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Images
1. Osianama (http://osianama.com/indian-film-cinema-publicity-memorabilia/song-synopsis-booklets/goonj-1989-1106114?mastid=47421)
2. Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/Biddu-Hindi-Film-Goonj/release/6340081)
Gautam Chintamani is a film historian and the author of the best-selling Dark Star: The Loneliness of Being Rajesh Khanna (2014) and The Film That Revived Hindi Cinema (2016)
Tweet him – http://www.twitter.com/gchintamani
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