EK PREM DEWAANA AUR USKI DO PREM KAHAANIYAN

I sometimes wonder whether Yash Chopra would have been a better poet or a better filmmaker that he ultimately became one of the best not only in India but even in the world - ALI PETER JOHN

He proved to be a lover of good poetry even when he was in college and was an ardent admirer of the well known urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi who he worshipped and was a follower and apostle who was however oblivious of the fact that he would one day be working with him as his songwriter in some of his best films he made when he dropped out from being an ICS officer which his father and his elder brother B.R. Chopra wanted him to be.

It is now a well known fact that Yash was a 'mad and passionate lover' who breathed poetry into every major scene in his films, even if they were hard hitting and angry scenes , there was a touch of love about them which could not be gone unnoticed.

I have known Yash Chopra as a filmmaker , but I feel that I know him much better as a lover and a great romantic with whom I have spent hours discussing romance and going deep into the meanings of what he felt about romance and what I felt about romance and our discussions and debates about romance sometimes went on for hours during which we had to have long tea breaks, lunch breaks and even dinner breaks which were also full of the spirit and the essence of romance.

It was during these ethereal talks about love that Yash one evening opened up about his affairs with his two actresses, Sadhna and Mumtaz.

He had met Sadhana during the making of 'Waqt' which was his third film as a director and which was perhaps the first major multi starrer film with big names like Rajkumar, Sunil Dutt , Shashi Kapoor, Balraj Sahni, Shashikala , Madan puri , Sharmila Tagore , Achala Sachdev, Rehman , the one time actor Surendranath and many others.

If one goes back into their films and looks at the romantic scenes of Sadhana and Sunil Dutt, it will be very clear about how Yash , the director has taken all the care to show how madly Sadhana is in love with Sunil and how she can do anything to keep her love safe from a crazy lover like Rajkumar who can even kill for his love.

Yash often told me that his scenes with Sadhana were inspired by his own love for Sadhana.

He talked about how he kept looking at Sadhana even when he was shooting scenes with the other actors in the film.

He once told me how he used to talk to Sadhana on the telephone for twelve hours at a stretch during the night and all the twelve hours were drenched with love and nothing but love.

Their love story however caught the attention of Yash's elder brother and he was against the affair growing and asked Yash to either stop the affair or leave the house.

Yash had still not found his foothold in the industry and had to surrender to his brother's wish and Sadhana who was in love with two other directors, R.K. Nayyar and Ramanand Sagar opted to get married to Nayyar who was the director of her first film 'Love in Simla'.

Yash continued to love Sadhana even after she married Nayyar and their love story took a different turn when Nayyar suddenly died of a heart attack.

Yash who was now the head of his own empire helped Sadhana in making her own films and TV serials and was in touch with her throughout her battle with thyroid problems and other ailments and till she died in an apartment called Sangeeta apartments which was very close to the office of B.R.Chopra.

And Yash himself died of dengue sometimes later. The love story came to a very sad end.

Yash was also in love with Mumtaz during the time he was making 'Aadmi aur Insaan' for his brother's banner and his brother continued to be against this affair too as he didn't like the idea of having an actress as his sister- in- law.

This happy go lucky affair of Yash and Mumtaz also came to an end and Yash was left to live his own life to grow into a better filmmaker.

His brother was now getting desperate about Yash and wanted to get him married somehow.

He and his wife, Prakash took the young Yash to a friend's house in Delhi and Yash was introduced to a young woman called Pamela who was working as an air hostess with the BOAC airlines.

She was to be the girl who the brother of Yash and his wife wanted Yash to marry, but Yash was not interested and told his brother what he felt.

Time passed , Yash became a bigger director, he continued to be a great romantic and was rumoured to be a greater romantic who once said that it was impossible to be a good director if the director was not good at falling in love with his heroines.

Some months later , the brother of Yash and his wife took Yash to Delhi again and when Yash saw the same girl called Pamela he there and then decided to marry her and told his brother that he was willing to marry Pamela.

And his marrying Pamela changed his life, especially after they had two sons, Aditya and Udaya and had their own house in Juhu called Aditya Daya, the house of love where Yash practised all that he had learnt about love from only god knows where.