THIS week marks the 40th anniversary of classic Bollywood film Woh Saat Din, which was released in cinemas on June 23, 1983, to great acclaim. It is also 40 years since Anil Kapoor made his debut as a leading man in that film and kickstarted a remarkable career that would take him all the way to the very top.
Eastern Eye decided to celebrate Woh Saat Din, which gave audiences the evergreen star by listing 20 quick facts connected to the film.
- Woh Saat Din was a remake of the 1981 Tamil film Andha 7 Naatkal.
- Director Bapu had successfully remade Andha 7 Naatkal as Telugu film Radha Kalyanam (1981), so was signed up for the Hindi remake Woh Saat Din. The Tamil film was also later remade in Kannada as Love Maadi Nodu (1989).
- Anil Kapoor had been unsuccessful in landing a lead role and played small bit parts in movies like Shakti (1982). He was finally launched as a hero in his family’s home pro[1]duction, which was produced by his father Surinder Kapoor and brother Boney Kapoor.
poster of the film - The film was initially offered to Mithun Chakraborty in 1982, but he had hiked his price after superhit film Disco Dancer (1982) and made himself too expensive for the project.
- Sanjeev Kumar and Randhir Kapoor were also considered for the role because producers thought Anil was too young and not saleable, but he finally convinced his father and older brother to cast him.
- Legend has it that Anil and his brother Boney had gone to Chennai to buy the film’s rights but they did not have enough money, so had to borrow from Sanjeev Kumar and Shabana Azmi.
- The film was initially titled Sanjog during its production in 1982, but later changed to Woh Saat Din.
- A number of leading ladies refused to work opposite young actor Anil because he was an unknown. Some financiers and distributors backed out for the same reason.
- Padmini Kolhapure had agreed to do the film but she was a big star and heavily in demand. It was Anil’s job to convince her to give the dates for shooting, and he would send a daily tiffin to her house.
Padmini Kolhapure in Woh Saat Din - Acclaimed actor Naseeruddin Shah also initially refused the film because he didn’t want to play a supporting role to Anil. Producer Boney finally convinced him by paying a higher fee, as he felt his presence would help sell the film to distributors, since no one knew who lead star Anil was at the time. This was the debut movie of acclaimed actor Satish Kaushik. He was given `201 to play a small role in the film, but Anil requested his brother to pay him an extra `300. His scene was shot at a temple in Worli (Mumbai), and he was given his fees there, which is why Kaushik considered it his lucky place.
- Anil and Satish kick-started a 40-year friendship with the film, which saw them working on many projects together, including Mr India (1987). That is why Anil was left devastated when his close friend passed away in March.
- Baby Suchita, who made her acting debut playing Naseeruddin Shah’s daughter in the film, went on to become a well-known television actress named Suchita Trivedi. She has starred in popular TV serials and is still going strong.
- Anil’s sidekick role in the movie was played by Raju Shrestha. He was a very famous child star, who had previously played the younger version of leading men like Amitabh Bachchan in successful films, throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.
Anil Kapoor - Anil got top billing in the opening credits even though Padmini Kolhapure and Naseeruddin Shah were bigger names at the time.
- Listen carefully and you can hear the theme of iconic 1981 British film Chariots of Fire play in the scene when Naseeruddin meets Anil for the first time. The same melody was later recreated as Main Tere Hoon Jaanam for the movie Khoon Bhari Maang (1988).
- The Kapoor family’s next home production was blockbuster hit Mr India (1987), which was directed by Shekhar Kapur, who had coincidentally made his directorial debut the same year as Woh Saat Din, with 1983 success Masoom.
- The film’s cinematographer was Baba Azmi, who is the brother of acclaimed actress Shabana Azmi. He would go on to shoot many of Anil’s movies like Mr India (1987), Beta (1992), and Pukar (2000).
- The movie was edited by N Chandra, who would go on to direct Anil Kapoor starrer Tezaab, which became the biggest Bollywood box office success of 1988.
- Look at the plotline of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s superhit movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and it is the same as Woh Saat Din. In both movies a woman falls in love with a musician but is made to marry another man. Then
poster of the film
Padmini Kolhapure in Woh Saat Din
Anil Kapoor
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5