by: Roshmila Bhattacharya

Yaadein, that's the title of Subhash Ghai's new film. It's undoubtedly a film about memories that will surely trigger off some memories for Subhash Ghai too. Memories of the time when a starry-eyed diploma holder from Pune's Film and Television Institute came to the city of dreams and saw so many of these dreams shattering.

Even though he won the Filmfare Talent Contest, Ghai had to be content with the bit role of a pilot in Aradhana while the other winner of the contest, Rajesh Khanna, grabbed a dynamic double role in the same film and became a star almost overnight. It took Subhash Ghai six years and six films that included a Punjabi film, Sherni, and a C-grade film, Gumrah, to admit that he was never going to make it as an actor. But he was convinced that he would make a better director than some of those he had worked with.

 He even had a perfect subject to launch himself. But Kalicharan didn't spark off even a flicker of interest in the seven film-makers he approached with his story. One of them even nodded off during the narration. So when NN Sippy called Ghai home and asked him if he had a story handy, Ghai just shook his head, too dejected to face another rejection. Fortunately for him, he eventually worked up the courage to narrate his story for the eighth time to the veteran producer and was shocked when Sippy told him he would love to make the film if he could get someone to direct it for him. Impulsively, Ghai who had never done more than act in a movie before, asked him if he could direct the film himself and was not surprised when Sippy didn't answer him. But four days later at a party Sippy introduced Ghai as the writer-director of his next film and soon after Kalicharan went on the floors with Shatrughan Sinha who had laughed when Ghai had narrated the story to him initially, in the lead.

The film turned the Bihari Babu from a khalnayak to a nayak and made him and Reena Roy a hot pair. Kalicharan is also remembered for its "Inspector General" Premnath and "Lion" Ajeet. "No. 17" was an important clue in this crime thriller and when reversed backwards it read as "Loin". Subhash Ghai wrote the story of Kalicharan in 1974.

It took him two years to see the story translate into a film on screen. But the wait was worth it because Kalicharan was a surprise hit and Subhash Ghai never looked back.Except when he was taking a stroll down memory lane.

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