Enduring legacy of Rajesh Khanna, playing out at The Hague!

Beginning today the sixth edition of The Indian Film Festival at The Hague would hold a Rajesh Khan Retrospective and this writer, who penned the first full length biography of the iconic star, would present a talk on the phenomenon that Rajesh Khanna was. Deciphering Rajesh Khanna's stardom can be a daunting task. With nearly 65% of India's population under the age 25 it is apparent that none of them were around when Khanna was undisputed king of Hindi cinema. With seventeen blockbuster hits in a row, a feat that remains a never before and never since phenomenon, everything that Rajesh Khanna touched turned into gold. The man created his own parameters of stardom and such was the level of popularity that terms like 'phenomenon' were used for the first time in the context of a film star. And, then as suddenly as he hit unseen heights of stardom with the release of Aradhana (1969) within three years by 1972 everything started going south for him. The law of averages finally caught up with Khanna and he delivered six flops in a row- Dil Daulat Duniya, Bawarchi, Mere Jeevan Saathi, Joru Ka Ghulam, Maalik and Shehzada. These films were not washouts or flops by the conventional definition of the word but by Khanna's own standards these were not in the league of an Anand or a Kati Patang, a Dushman or a Do Raaste or an Amar Prem. The five films that form the Rajesh Khanna Retrospective at the Indian Film Festival show the range the actor managed within the confines of popular Hindi cinema. In Aradhana and Do Raaste he created the template of the socially conscious urban youth of the late-1960s that had emerged from the shadows of the letdown that the Nehruvian dream had come to be.This young man was aware of his shortcomings but not ashamed of them. In Amar Prem he portrayed a disillusioned upper middle class businessman who had the worked hard for the comforts of life but was unaware of the price that he had paid to live the dream, in Aap Ki Kasam he played a man who got whatever he asked for but didn't know what to do when dreams came true and in Anand he played a cancer stricken man who while living a on borrowed time ensured that he made each day count than counting each day that he had left. Khanna was never a great actor and often felt insecure because of Sanjeev Kumar and later Amitabh Bachchan, who became the preferred choice of writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. Salim-Javed practically transformed the zeitgeist of the mid to late-1970s and a rumoured falling out of sorts with the duo saw Khanna lose out on roles. But more than roles Khanna suddenly became somewhat irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. But even with everything that happened Khanna never let his popularity dominate either his choice of films or how his characters were executed. Most of his memorable films, and especially the five mentioned above, show how he never tried to undermine the well-etched roles women enjoyed in his films or change scenes to suit his popularity. And it is in that context that Khanna's stardom and popularity both continue to remain peerless. In a day and when the number of Twitter followers that one has or the number of times someone googled a star decides the degree of their popularity, the degree of stardom Rajesh Khanna enjoyed might come across as a greater legend than what it was. At the peak of his career people would get their sick children to be blessed by him in the hope that his luck would rub off, women would put the dirt left behind by his sports car as sindoor and girls would write letters in blood accompanied with a doctor's certificate to authenticate that the blood was indeed their own! It there ever a star whose life seemed like a fable and the reality of what was happening appeared to be a myth even as the events played out in real time then few can be in the same league as Khanna. Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.