I FELT I HAD LOST A BRILLIANT AND WONDERFUL FRIEND LIKE DIRECTOR PANKUJ PARASHAR

Ali Peter John

I have found some of my friends who were in school with me on my mobile either making a friend request or writing a post on Facebook ,I had never imagined that I would ever find them .I have tried looking for old friends and have found their children and grandchildren .

I have found some of my good and not so good relatives on my mobile and I have not been able to recognise them ,I have found men and women who I had decided not to have anything to do with and my hands have trembled when I have touched their names or faces ,I don't know why .....

I have just returned home after an appointment with a leading dentist ,I was in some pain and tried to find some relief with my mobile which has been one of my best supports during this lockdown which is slowly turning the world into the kind of place which no Nostradamus must have thought of or dreamt about and made a prediction about .

I stopped when I saw a name called Pankuj Parashar and I couldn't believe that this man in the photograph was the same young man who I knew as a director who had a bright future ahead of him .I had to find out more about this man Pankuj Parashar and came to know that he was indeed the same Pankuj l had known more than twenty- five years ago ....

Pankuj ,I think made a great beginning as a director when he made a film called "Jalwa"with Naseerudin Shah (whose birthday it is today, July 20 ), Sanjana Kapoor , the beautiful daughter of Shashi Kapoor and the film in which Jhonny Lever made his debut in films , never to look back again .....

For me , What Pankuj did in his next film as a director was a personal experience . The producers of the film called "Ab Aayegaa Mazaa" " were two actors called Girija Shanker and Alok Nath (where has this fine actor vanished after he was involved in the MeToo movement ?).

The film was also the launching pad for the lyricist Sameer and music directors Anand-Milind (Sameer was the son of the well-known lyricist Anjaan and Anand-Milind were the sons of the composer Chitragupta ).

The film which had Farouqe Sheikh and Anita Raaj (the daughter of the character actor Jagdish Raaj who had the unique record of playing the police inspector in more than five hundred films) had a song ,"Gaadi ke niche aakar sar katvaaoogi"sung by Lata Mangeshkar as one of its major highlights.Pankuj had established himself with "Ab Aayegaa Mazaa"

But , it was "Chalbaaz" that brought Pankuj into the limelight and he was recognised as one of the ten leading directors of Hindi Films . The fim for those who don't know had Sridevi in her first double role with Sunny Deol and Rajnikant as the two heroes and Anupam Kher and Rohini Hanttangadi who had become popular names after "Saaransh"in roles that were way away from the roles they played in "Saaransh". The film got appreciation and commercial success ....

There were great expectations from Pankuj , but he vanished from the scene and as far as I know he didn't direct a film again.I have heard that he is happy in a place away from the making of Hindi films.I would be very happy if Pankuj himself or someone closed to him enlightens me about what my one time good friend and promising director is doing now.I can only hope that the man who I had last seen walking down an old bridge outside Churchgate Station is happy with whatever he is doing because I know that he will not do anything that doesn't give him creative satisfaction and makes him happy

Where are you , my friend Pankuj ? Answer my question please and give me the satisfaction of knowing that a friend is doing well for himself and in doing so is doing something good for people around him and the world.