Lekh Tandon Birth Anniversary: Lekh wanted to be an engineer but became a brilliant filmmaker!

Lekh Tandon Birth Anniversary: (Popularly known as Lekhji in the industry) Lekhraj Tandon was born in Chak Chaudah village of Tehsil Nankana Sahib in District Kila Sheikhupura, Punjab, which is currently in Pakistan. Lahore is about 30 miles away from it. His grandfather Jaikishan Tandon was a moneylender farmer, and his grandmother's name was Radha Devi. Lekhji's maternal grandfather Jaildar Gangaram used to preside over 14 villages as a Kanungo (ruler). Lekh Tandon's father Fakir Chand and mother Rampyari Tandon considered their son Lekh as the eldest among five brothers and two sisters. Father Fakir Chand studied at Khalsa School and maintained a lifelong friendship with his classmate Prithviraj Kapoor.

He also worked for the Revenue and Excise Department in the Punjab Government

Lekh Tandon was a staunch supporter of secular and democratic alignment. Even when he was in his teens, he confronted British soldiers in a movie theatre in Murree (a beautiful hill station, now in Pakistan) for not honoring God for saving the queen. At the age of 18, he was sent to Delhi by his parents on August 11, 1947, (during which simmering tensions had disrupted the country) and he reached Delhi the next day. His parents and family came to Delhi on August 25, 1947, escaping the communal holocaust. Lekhi has a shocking tale of that painful era. That shameless confinement was successfully prevented from being recorded in history and kept away from the stories of Partition. The scars of those painful days have perhaps made Lekhji's personality and deeply emotional, a trait which is also visible in his work.

Lekh Tandon was an all-rounder, perfectly interacting with all the hues of the film and his years of creative knowledge from renowned stalwarts stood him in good stead. And all this knowledge came from his exposure to the working styles of legendary cinematic craftsmen. (Lekh Tandon Birth Anniversary)

A young Lekh Tandon arrived in Mumbai on September 17, 1947 at the behest of his father's dear friend Prithviraj Kapoor to join his son Raj Kapoor's brand new banner R.K. Films. Lekhji was the assistant of cameraman V.N. Reddy in the film "Aag" directed by Raj Kapoor, starring Nargis, Kamini Kaushal, Nigar and Raj Kapoor. Uncle Amarnathji (Prithviraj Kapoor's brother) later joined Lekhji in Ranjit Laboratories and he learned film processing under Amar Kapoor. Raj Kapoor introduced him to director Kidar Sharma as his mentor. Sharmaji once visited the laboratory and found a young Lekh Tandon reading a photography magazine. His enthusiasm impressed Sharmaji greatly and he soon took him to Oriental Pictures as his chief assistant. Lekhji learned direction while assisting Kidar Sharma in these films: Thes (1949- Bharat Bhushan, Poornima), Neki aur Badi (1949- Madhubala, Geeta Bali, Kidar Sharma), Bavre Nain (1950- Geeta Bali, Raj Kapoor), Jogan (1950- Dilip Kumar, Nargis), Bedardi (1951- Geeta Bali, Nimmi, Jaswant), Shokhiyaan (1951- Suraiya, Premnath) and Sapna (1952- Bina Rai, Kishore Sahu).

Lekhji chose to leave R.K. Films in 1957 to become an independent director. He joined his uncle Prithviraj Kapoor's Prithvi Theatre and even assisted him in his only directorial venture Paisa (1958). He made several attempts to get a break in direction but was unsuccessful. Disappointed, he decided to return to his father in Delhi but Mrs. Krishna Raj Kapoor persuaded him to stay and keep trying.

1955 was a very special year in Lekh Tandon's life, he got married to a wonderful woman named Savran, who stood by him no matter what and encouraged him to pursue his ambitions. Lekh loved and respected his wife so much that he called her 'Maa'. And they were parents to two boys and two girls. Lekh might have laughed thinking about the other types of charms that came into his life, but the relationship between Lekh and Savran was something that is truly worth emulating by all those who dream of staying close and connected.  (Lekh Tandon Birth Anniversary)

In his late fifties of struggle, it soon dawned on Lekhji that he had to develop a full project concept and prepare the script of the entire film. He developed the concept of 'Professor'. His long friendship with writer Abrar Alvi (one of the best in the business) came in handy and the latter produced a brilliant script. Lekhji wanted to produce the film himself, but everyone was backing out from the project. Producer F.C. Mehra of Eagle Films signed Lekh Tandon to direct this dream project, which became a super duper golden jubilee hit and went down in the pages of history.

It was the saga of a man who could not be stopped by any kind of obstacles. He kept making one big film after another and made a place for himself with Prince, Amrapali, Jhuk Gaya Aasman, Agar Tum Na Hote, Ek Baar Kaho, Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaye, Doosri Dulhan and some other meaningful films that mixed good and healthy entertainment with music. His only film that flopped was 'Jhuk Gaya Aasman' which had intense love scenes between Rajendra Kumar and Saira Bano which led to rumours of their affair despite both of them being married.

Lekhji then shifted his interest to making TV serials and made more than 15 mega serials and he got the opportunity to discover a new actor with 'Dil Dariya' and 'Doosra Keval'. That new actor was Shahrukh Khan.

It was a kind of miracle when a renowned chemical engineer named Dr. Trinetra Bajpai came to Mumbai after 18 years and met Lekhji of whom he was a big fan at that time. He told that he was only 11 years old when he saw Lekhji's super hit film 'Professor' with his mother (Shanti Kumari Bajpai who was a famous Hindi writer) in a theatre in Lucknow. He had told his mother at that time that one day he will make a film which will be directed by Lekh Tandon. That dream of Dr. Bajpai was going to come true soon. Dr. Bajpai had a story 'Vyvadhaan' written by his mother on which directors like B.R. Chopra and Vijay Anand were keen to make a film in the 70s, but things did not work out. Lekhji told Dr. Bajpai that this story can be shown as a mega serial. And it was then shown as a serial 'Bakhri Aas Nikhri Preet' which ran for the longest time. With the success of the serial, Lekhji did many more serials. He made a feature film on the issue of triple talaq for Dr. Bajpai and during that time he was in his 80s when he used to work 18 hours a day and his health refused to support him but he kept working till he gave up and had to be admitted to the hospital and then he did not return alive from there. A big chapter had ended. (Lekh Tandon Birth Anniversary)

Lekhji was also an actor whose talent was recognized till the end and he played important roles in films like 'Mangal Pandey', 'Paheli' and even 'Phir Ussi Mod Par', which was his farewell film as a director he was 88 then.

I will remember him as a great filmmaker, but I will remember him more as a good human being, who was a 'misfit' in the market called film industry, where being good is almost a sin, a crime. (Lekh Tandon Birth Anniversary)

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