While Mansoor had a ‘bigger role’ to play in the dialogues for Jo Jeeta …, in that he would often write the scenes in English, it was Husain who adapted the scenes and gave them his own flavour. This is true of the film’s title as well. Mansoor gave Husain ‘Winner takes all’ as the film’s title, which Husain correctly interpreted as Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar . ‘It was his title in that sense,’ said Mansoor. ‘But there were lots of scenes like, “ Uss Thaapar ka paapad bana ke aaoonga ” where it was his flair.’
While on the subject of titles, Mansoor also told me that QSQT was initially titled or had the working title, ‘ Nafrat Ke Waaris ’. This was an offshoot from one of the dialogues in the film when Raj has a confrontation with Randhir Singh. In the heat of the moment, Raj tells Randhir Singh, ‘ Main aur Rashmi aap dono ke nafrat ke waaris banney ko taiyaar nahin (Rashmi and I don’t wish to inherit the hatred between you and my father).’ Consequently, Aamir, Nuzhat and Mansoor would suggest titles like, ‘ Daraar ’ and ‘ Nafrat Ke Waaris ’.
‘Dad had a great flair for titles. One day he came home, fixed his whiskey and then he got it, “bingo”. So he called us and said, “Achha, listen with an open mind. Just listen to it, don’t react. I’ve thought of a title.” We were all very excited. I remember Aamir, Nuzhat and I were there. He said, “ Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak ”, and all three of us went, “We don’t know why, but we like it.” See, we were looking for a rationale for Nafrat Ke Waaris and literally trying to tell the story [with the film’s title].’ Mansoor admitted that this was yet another good example of Husain’s literary bent. Husain even vetted the title with Majrooh Sultanpuri. ‘I remember he spoke to Majrooh sa’ab on the phone. And Majrooh sa’ab said it’s very good.’
While Husain’s literary and old-world sensibilities shone with QSQT , his ability to enunciate the grammar of a generation entirely different from his own (he was over sixty-five when he wrote the dialogues of JJWS ) is what added to the overall appeal of JJWS . Javed Akhtar said as much. ‘ Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was about the youth of that time ... If you listen to the film’s dialogues, you will feel that it is written by someone who is twenty or twenty-two years old. That is because that youngster always remained within Nasir Husain, in his personality and in his writing.’ Mansoor agreed. ‘Addressing the youth, or having that flair, was always the top thing in his mind. He had the knack of writing young dialogues, which would appeal to a new generation.’
Karan Johar offered a more perceptive explanation for Husain’s skill in writing such dialogues. ‘I think that dialogue is a reflection of your awareness of the times. He was constantly evolving. The fact that he had a lot of young people around him helped. I feel that about Yash Chopra also because he had two young boys, he kept himself alive and young. Nasir sa’ab had Aamir and Mansoor and the girls, Nuzhat and Nikhat [Aamir’s sister]. Some were esoteric, some were evolved, some were internationally informed. Aamir was a little more filmy. Mansoor was a little more evolved in a different way. I think he surrounded himself with such a blend of energies even in their growing-up years; that definitely helped him. I also think he was an observer. The fact that his costumes were such, his music is contemporary, that means his awareness factor was huge. I’ve always felt that Nasir Husain was a very aware man. He was aware of his surroundings. He was aware of what was happening in the world, not just his country and city.’
What the dialogues of JJWS also established is that Husain, who first started writing for films in 1949, remained relevant for close to forty-five years. He had kept himself updated to the changed idiom of every passing decade. His dialogues for Amar/ Raj in Munimji or Ramesh in Paying Guest in the mid-1950s were as true to the syntax of those times as Sanjay Lal Sharma’s were to the early 1990s. Aamir spoke at length to explain the significance of Husain’s talent in dialogue-writing: ‘I think he wrote characters very well, which also come out through dialogues … Dialogues are the main source from which you come to know what a person is like. What are the words that a person uses? This tells you a lot about the character. So dialogues are very, very important in building a character. Dialogues also carry your scenes. So while I may have a story in the broad sense, the screenplay is one step deeper, the dialogues at the deepest level, which actually then incorporates all the things that the story and the screenplay originally intended. Now if the dialogues don’t ring true, no matter what I’m imagining the scene is, it won’t turn out that way unless the dialogues actually carry that feeling. So that’s the final step in writing — the dialogues.
‘And what is amazing about Nasir sa’ab is that he remained relevant creatively for a very long time. From 1949 to Akele Hum Akele Tum [Husain wrote the dialogues], which is 1995, is forty-six years. There are a handful of names that cross five decades and remain relevant creatively over such a long period. Now Nasir sa’ab may not have remained relevant as a director, but he began as a writer. So as a writer he remained relevant over five decades. It is a very remarkable thing, to be able to write for an audience in the 1940s and then to be able to write for an audience in each successive decade all the way through to the ’90s. To remain relevant for different audiences of different decades really speaks about your longevity as a creative person.’
This adaptability across decades made Husain the Majrooh Sultanpuri of dialogue-writers. Majrooh, who debuted as a lyricist with Shahjehan (1946), kept his lyrics relevant and updated to reflect the voice of every successive generation right up to the new millennium, writing for films such as Akele Hum Akele Tum , Khamoshi (1996) and Pukar (2000).
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar , however, is a film that almost didn’t get made. Mansoor, who directed the film, had severe problems with the original cast of the film. The actress Nagma had been taken on to play Devika’s role, but she bowed out just a few days before shooting commenced for the film in Ooty. Another lady, Karishma Pahuja, was then taken to play Devika’s role, with south Indian actress Girija Shettar playing Anjali’s character and the model Milind Soman playing Shekhar Malhotra. But for various reasons, this cast didn’t work. Mansoor had to sacrifice an entire schedule of the film before he replaced this cast with the cast that is now seen in the film…
…For all the obstacles that came the film’s way, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar picked up Best Film at the 1993 Filmfare Awards.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was the last film under the Nasir Husain banner. After this, Husain wrote the dialogues of Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995), an adaptation of Sidney Pollack’s Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). The film was directed by Mansoor, but was produced by Ratan Jain (Venus). Akele Hum Akele Tum turned out to be the last film Husain worked on. I asked Mansoor whether Husain had any reservations about him working as a director on Akele Hum Akele Tum outside the home banner, a film with a far more serious thread than Husain’s cinema. ‘No, he didn’t,’ Mansoor said. ‘He felt Akele Hum Akele Tum was an emotional subject so it doesn’t necessarily have to be his style, but he felt that the story had enough appeal and it was worth making.’
Extracted with permission fromMusic Masti Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Husainby Akshay Manwani and published by Harper Collins.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar was the
last film under
the Nasir Husain banner
