GABBAR, MERA PYAARA DOST AAJ BHI MERE DIL KE AAS PAAS KAHIN HAI

I often wonder how some human beings can live without true friends. A true friend is a blessing, a prayer , a dedication and a way of worship - ALI PETER JOHN

A true friend is a healer, a lover( sometimes even more than a lover) , an anointing, a healing touch and someone precious who gives more than he receives and even goes to the extent of giving up his/her life for a true friend.

There is a belief in the film industry 'ki log dosti matlab ke liye karte hain' but I had the good fortune of having some of the best friends from the industry who have proved this belief wrong.

And Amjad Khan ( Gabbar Singh) was and is one of the best friends whose friendship I had experienced and felt...

I was still a new comer in Screen and no major interviews were given to me by my seniors.

It was August 1975 and there was news about the death of a senior actor called Jayant (Zakaria Khan).

He was a popular character actor of the fifties and sixties and was better known as a villain.

All my seniors thought I would not be able to write an article about him but my editor who had some strange faith in me asked me to do the article and even as I kept worrying about how to do it , I thought of Amjad Khan , his son who was waiting for the release of Sholay which was his first major film.

I met Amjad 10 days before the release of Sholay and even though he was nervous about the release, he gave me half a day to talk about his father.

I didn't have to talk to anyone else , I had the complete story about Jayant after just speaking to Amjad and when the article was published, not only my seniors but many in the industry kept asking who this Ali Peter John is.

Amjad and me became very good friends even before the release of Sholay. He kept asking me to pray for him as his future depended on this one film.

The film was released on August 15 and was declared a flop on the first day and many said that the biggest weakness of the film was the selection of Amjad to play the role of Gabbar Singh.

But as history knows now, the film picked up on the third day, Gabbar Singh became a household name within one week and he became the highest paid villain and every second film had his name written as 'An Amjad Khan'.

He had soon built his own bungalow in Bandra and was happily living with his wife Sehla , sons Shadab and Seemabh and daughter Alima. Imtiaz Khan was his elder brother and a very strong support and even a mentor.

I saw the first signs of his being a man who stood for the truth in December 1975 when he had become a star among stars.

A journalist called Poky had written a very nasty article about Imtiaz in which he mentioned the relationships Imtiaz had with some of the top leading ladies.

It was a false story according to Amjad and a day after the article was published, Amjad and Imtiaz went looking for the journalist.

They found him in the coffer shop of the Taj Mahal hotel. Amjad just walked upto his table and stuck a knife on the table and told him in hindi," Kal subah teri shakal bombay mein dikhni nahi chahiye". The journalist escaped to Nepal and has not been heard about since then.

There was a meeting with the Union INB Minister Mr. H.K.L. Bhagat. And when it was Amjad's turn to speak , he opened his speech saying, " Yeh mantri log humaari baatein kaise sunenge , inko sunta bhi nahin aur dikhta bhi nahin.

Dekho yahaan log bol rahe hain aur humaare mahaan mantri unke kaale chashme ke peeche so rahe hain".

That line woke up the minister but also made him very angry and he took revenge on Amjad when he created major problems for his films 'police chor' and 'Ameer aadmi gareeb aadmi'.

Amjad and Amitabh were the best of friends. They were doing several films together. 'The Great Gambler' was one of them.

They were shooting for the film in goa and on one evening when there was no shooting they decided to go for a drive.

Amjad was driving the mercedes and Amitabh was sitting next to him. Suddenly there was some technical failure in the car and it rammed into another bigger car and surprisingly nothing happened to Amitabh, but Amjad had fractured all the bones in his chest as the steering had pierced his chest.

The Goa Medical Hospital couldn't do anything much and Amjad was rushed to Bombay and admitted to the Nanavati hospital where he had to spend several months and when he returned from the hospital, he had put on so much weight that filmmakers started dropping him from their projects .

The only filmmaker who waited for him to get well and later cast him was Satayjit Ray who ultimately made Shatranj ke khiladi his first hindi film with Sanjeev kumar, Amjad and Shabana Azmi.

In Bombay , filmmakers continued to neglect him because of his weight and he was forced to do films which one could never imagine him doing when he was Gabbar singh.

The steroids he was taking played hevoc with his health. He kept putting on weight and couldn't even travel.

It was while he was in this state that he called me one day and asked me if I would see him. How could I say no to a dear friend? I went to his bungalow.

He had called me for lunch, but he didn't come down till 4.30 and we started having lunch at 5. He sounded very bitter for the first time.

He talked to me about his secretary who had been cheating him for 17 years. He talked about friends who had betrayed him.

And then he started talking about his best friend, the tallest star. He even went on to talk about the how the star and his beloved had used him as a messenger and a mediator between them.

And then he talked about a film called 'Lambaai chaudaai' which he wanted to make with his best friend and himself.

By 6.30, he was panting for breath and told me that he was not feeling very well and asked me if I could come back again the next day as he wanted to tell me many more interesting stories about people who had many faces on one face. I promised him to be there the next afternoon.

But that afternoon didn't come. I received a call from his house at six in the morning and the voice said that Amjad was dead.

I rushed to his house as if my reaching his house would bring him back from death. It was still early morning and a man was going for his run and when I put my hand out to give the auto driver an indication sign, the entire body of the man hit my left hand and that part of my hand still gives me pain even after so many years.

I couldn't go to Amjad's funeral but that was perhaps the sign for me to know that Amjad, my friend would never die for me.

Today, his bungalow has vanished and his brother Imtiaz is also dead and his children with their mother have settle down and all that remains of Amjad is a small black marble plaque with the words " Amjad Khan Marg" embossed on it.

DOSTI KA KYA KIJIYEGA? KABHI DOSTI AISI LAGTI HAI KI WOH KABHI KHATAM HI NAHI HO SAKTI HAI LEKIN ZINDAGI AUR DOSTI KA AJEEB SA RISHTA HAI.

DOSTI ZINDAGI CHAHTI HAI AUR ZINDAGI DOSTI KO MAARNA CHAHTI HAI. AISA BHI HOTA HAI AAJ KAL KE JAHAAN MEIN.

INSAAN AGAR ISS RISHTE KO BADALNE KI KOSHISH KARE TO HO SAKTA HAI LEKIN INSAAN WOH QADAM KAB LEGA JO INSAAN KI SHAAN BADHA SAKTA HAI.