FREMONT: Dharmendra and sons Sunny and Bobby have come together for the first time in the new film, Apne, directed by Anil Sharma of Gadar fame. The film also stars Sharmila Tagore, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Shilpa Shetty and Katrina Kaif. It premieres at Naz 8 Cinema, Fremont, CA on Sunday, July 1.
Dharmendra, who started his film carreer in 1957, is now celebrating his golden jubilee year. Dharmendra remained a top Hindi film star for three decades creating an influential image as a markedly North Indian (Punjabi) macho man devoted to his mother and committed to upholding the honour of his family or the village.
He was born Dharam Singh Deol in Phagwara, Punjab and was fascinated with films right from childhood, often travelling miles to frequent the touring cinema. He was married at the age of 19 and took up a job with an American Drilling Company boring tubewells. Fortunately for him, he was noticed in a Filmfare spot-the-talent contest and came to Bombay to become an actor.
He was signed by Arjun Hingorani for Dil Bhi Tera, Hum Bhi Tere (1960), his first film as hero for Rs 51 as signing amount and a daily breakfast that was to contain strictly of tea, two toasts and butter but no jam! Ironically, after all the struggle he went unrecognized at the premiere of the film and sneaked back home on a train.
However strong, supporting romantic lead roles in women oriented films like Anpadh (1962) with Mala Sinha, Bandini (1963) and Soorat Aur Seerat (1963), both with Nutan brought Dharmendra to the fore. A liaison with Meena Kumari saw the two of them starring together in a series of films. Phool Aur Patthar (1966) finally made Dharmendra into a star.
Most of Dharmendra's earlier films were soft romantic films, many of which presented a secularized Hindustani version of Bengali literary stereotypes, starting with Bimal Roy's Bandini and continuing with Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 60s socials - Anupama (1966), Manjhli Didi (1967) and Satyakam (1969). He mainly played the nice, romantic, handsome hero and was in fact voted as one of the five most good-looking men in the world in the 1960s.
Satyakam saw Dharmendra giving perhaps his greatest ever performance as an idealist seeing his dreams crumble after Indian Independence. The 1970s saw Dharmendra take to the action genre like a fish to water. Sholay (1975) and Chupke Chupke (1975) revealed another facet of Dharmendra - his flair for comedy. Even though the former was a large scale action drama, Dharmendra's comic scenes with Hema Malini were among the many highlights of the film. And Chupke Chupke saw him single-handedly carry Hrishida's whacky comedy of a botany professor who impersonates a driver to spend some precious time with his wife at her brother-in-law's place! It is a masterful performance with razor sharp comic timing.
Dharmendra also formed a hugely successful pairing with Hema Malini, the two of them doing a string of hit films together - Naya Zamana (1971), Raja Jani (1972), Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Jugnu, Dost (1974) and Sholay among others. In fact, among Dharmendra's later films in the 1980s and 90s, his work with director J.P. Dutta stands out - Ghulami (1985), Yateem (1988), Batwara (1989), Hathyar (1989) and Kshatriya(1992).
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