King of natural swag no more: RIP Vinod Khanna!

It was 1978 and a boy barely ten, his elder sister and their Dad were trekking through the forests of what was until then only the Borivali National Park. On their way back from the Tulsi lake to their Bhandup home they came upon a teal and silver impala car. Inside was the handsome Vinod Khanna in silken saffron lungi and kurta who was fiddling with a still camera. My dad introduced me and he extended his hand only to find a shy, gauche and nervous me refusing to extend mine. While he told Dad he was waiting to be called for his shot and driven away from the location to shoot a few pictures, he bent forward patted my cheeks and reassured me asking me not to be scared.

This scene played out in a loop as word came in by noon that the septuagenarian star had lost his battle to advanced bladder cancer and breathed his last at 11.20 am on Thursday. Though his career spanned both films and politics, this perennial heart throb's drop dead handsome looks, piercing eyes and cleft chin ensured he had most audiences, especially women, wrapped around his little finger. In fact the late filmmaker and studio moghul Yash Chopra who cast him in his block buster Chandni in his second innings on the silver screen had once famously remarked in an interview, “The film industry has several stars and superstars, but Vinod Khanna looks the part. All he needs to do is enter a room and people know they are in the midst of a star.”

And yet after debuting in Sunil Dutt's Man Ka Meet (made to launch Sunil Dutt's borther Som) in a small role, he struggled with supporting/negative roles in Purab Aur Paschim, Sachaa Jhootha, Aan Milo Sajna, Mastana, Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Elaan before actually hitting the big league.

Till Khanna arrived on the scene no actor had moved from being villain to a hero. Yet he was instantly accepted by audiences in his first solo lead inHum Tum Aur Woh (1971) opposite Bharati Vishnuvardhan. While the track Priye Praneshwari  by Kisohore Kumar is still a much requested favourite on radio, not many may recall Vinod Khanna lending his voice in the refrain “Radhe Shyam” with Asha Bhosle even as he played the village buffoon to Helen in the cabaret number Tu Mila Le Aaj Nigahon Ko  on screen.

Gulzar's casting him in the multi-starrer Mere Apne with Meena Kumari, that brought forth his acting chops. In fact the lyricist-poet would go on to cast him in his nextAchanak,  too. The critically acclaimed film based on the real life KM Nanavati case saw him reprise the role of an army man who kills his wife and her lover, with such aplomb, that he never needed to look back thereafter.

Parchaiyaan which came in the same year, saw him being cast in a series of romantic leads. Between 1973 and 1982, he did films like Farebi, Hatyara, Qaid, Zalim, Inkaar, Gaddaar, Aap Ki Khatir, Raajmahal, Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Khoon Ki Pukar, Shaque, Adha Din Aadhi Raat, Aarop, Taaqat, Jail Yatra, Daulat and Qurbani all of which did very well at the box office.

Though he has acted in nearly 50 multistarrer starrers, whether it was Amitabh Bachcan, Sunil Dutt, Rishi Kapoor, Dharmendra or Jeetendra he always held his own. In fact his fees were higher than Jeetendra Bachchan. Many in the film industry say that Amitabh Bachchan's unhindered rise to superstardom was helped largely by the five year-gap Khanna took from the industry to pursue spiritualism under Godman Osho aka Rajneesh

Fellow Osho devotee and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt remembers how many in the film industry were shocked when Khanna left for Oregon, US to be with his guru. “Many felt he was being foolish by giving it all up at the height of his career when he was the biggest star around but that's the way he was,” he recounts and adds, “People said strange things even when he came back but he proved them all wrong but still began getting as much and even more work than before.”

When he came back, though he did more action films, than romantic many of his romantic roles like Jurm, and Chandni are recalled to date. While his Zooni (opp Dimple Kapadia) by Muzaffar Ali is still lying unreleased in the cans, fans will recall the outstanding Rajasthani carpenter he reprised for Aruna Raje's 1988 Rihaee .“I had to only tell him and he immediately agreed,” remembered Raje whose soon-to-release autobiography: Freedom, My Story has several anecdotes about Khanna.

While dubbing for Rihaee, the actor latched on to the fact that she was troubled and kept asking her. She would just avoid speaking about it. He then actually put an arm around her and forced her to tell him. “I told him I was short of money for the print and nothing was working out so it was weighing on my mind,” she says and adds, “He just went out to his car, brought back Rs 30,000 and gave it to me. Though I returned it later, his perceptively reaching out to help when I was in distress will always be a cherished memory.”

Bharat Ratna songstress Lata Mangeshkar also expressed anguish over Khanna's passing away. “He was a grest human being. Very softspoken and well mannered, according everyone around a lot of respect and love.” She recounted how he had immediately said yes to her 1991 production Lekin which Gulzar had directed. “There were no questions on length of the role or who is doing what in the film. Despite his stardom he was so approachable.”

Composer Bappi Lahiri too was saddened by Khanna's passing away. “The first time I gave playback for him was Bambai Se Aaya Mera Dost for Aap Ki Khatir and it is still one of the most popular picnic songs across the country. In the same film I also sang Pyaara Ek Bangla Ho and Shola Re all of which became hits. That made him warm up to me. I went on to compose music for his Khoon Ki Pukaar and Lahu Ke Do Rang (with the great Kishore Kumar foot tapper Chahiye Thoda Pyaar . After he came back from the US I sang Jaanu Meri Jaanu for his first hit Satyamev Jayate and composed music for five more.”

This Filmfare lifetime achievment awardee also tried his hand at TV alongside Smriti Irani who had produced a serial called Mere Apne. Born in Peshawar in undivided India, the actor who was last seen in Rohit Shetty's Dilwale with Shah Rukh Khan two years ago, has a huge fan following both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.