Hitchcock’s desi avatar

Gautam Chintamani

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Among the many splendid things that the name Alfred Hitchcock might be, his isn’t the first name that pops up when one imagines a Hollywood auteur whose work could be readily adaptable in Hindi cinema.

In an Indian context, Hitchcock’s filmography could be juxtaposed with perhaps a Vijay Anand or a Raj Khosla and while Anand’s name still appears in the top three or five names that would define Hindi cinema, Khosla whose filmography includes almost all genres is relegated to the lower half of a similar list. Hitchcock’s mainstay has been suspense and thriller and these are rarely seen in the same light as drama.

Commercial Hindi cinema also doesn’t consider genre filmmakers to be discussed as seriously as the ones whose works fall in the purview of more mainstream fare. Yet interestingly enough, Hitchcock has been adapted by Hindi cinema not just across eras but also genres and this inspiration has been both direct as well as indirect.

Starting in the 1960s, Kohraa might have been based on Daphne du Maurier’s book but in spirit it was closer to not just the film version helmed by Hitchcock in the 1940s but also the imagery of the master of suspense’s iconic Psycho (1960).

In a circuitous manner, Hitchcock’s leading man from To Catch a Thief (1955) could also be seen as the inspiration for the dual hero poser in Jewel Thief (1967). Later, in the 1970s, Rajesh Khanna and Basu Chatterjee teamed up to reimagine The 39 Steps (1935) as Chakravyuh (1978) and the 1980s saw Vidhu Vinod Chopra intercut between the images and audio of Psycho’s shower scene, which was playing within the scene on a television, along with audio of a character being killed in Khamosh (1985). The same year also had Dial M For Murder (1954) adapted as Aitbaar (1985). But the one film that settles the argument for Hitchcock being at home in Hindi cinema, Inaam Dus Hazaar (1987), rarely comes up for discussion. Additionally the case for Inaam Dus Hazaar being the best Hindi Hitchcock adaptation becomes more delightful as it’s a remake of North by Northwest (1959), a film that completes its 55th anniversary this year, and has created a special place over and above both Psycho or Vertigo (1958).

In Inaam Dus Hazaar, director Joytin Goel took the best element of North By Northwest, the mistaken identity, something that is signature Hitchcock, and mashed it up with classic commercial Hindi cinema ingredients like action, comedy and romance, along with a couple of pleasing R.D. Burman songs to come up with a breezy film that compared to other Hitchcock adaptations doesn’t look dated even after three decades. Instead of the advertising executive that Cary Grant portrayed in the original, here Sanjay Dutt played a small-time salesman, whose biggest fear is that he might end up like his Mamaji, a constantly complaining lower middle-class retiree. Kamal Malhotra (Dutt) likes to play it smart in order to jump the queue called life and on one occasion endears himself to a Nawab (Raza Murad) during a jewellery exhibition. Unfortunately, he is mistaken for a CID officer with the same name by a gang of criminals, who then frame him in a murder forcing him to go on the run.

While he is dodging the police as well as the gangsters he bumps into Sonia (Meenakshi Sheshadri), a model, on a train and uses her as a shield from everyone after him. What Kamal doesn’t know is that Sonia is working for Captain (Amrish Puri), the kingpin of the gang that framed Kamal in the first place, but ends up falling in love with her. After a series of accidents set into motion by the mistaken identity and great drama is it revealed that Sonia is, in fact, only impersonating to be a model while in reality is the CID officer Kamal Malhotra, on a mission to avenge her brother’s death at the hands of Captain.

In the five and the half decades since its release, North By Northwest has gradually created a legacy for itself as well as Hitchcock in a style different from both Psycho and Vertigo. Its effervesce infused the wafer thin plot with a kind of joie de vivre that made it stand apart at the time of its release and thankfully endured long enough to transform into everlasting brilliance. Such was the impact of North By Northwest that after watching a re-release in a gleaming new print on the large screen in 2009 British film critic and historian, David Thomson cited that the film was proof that today’s filmmakers no longer had a signature. Another critic, John Patterson, believes that with North By Northwest Alfred Hitchcock invented the Bond film and every dim blockbuster in its wake.

By comparison, forget a legacy, Inaam Dus Hazaar is barely recalled but even though it doesn’t have anything substantial to initiate a revival among the present generation, a rediscovery of the film nonetheless might be worthwhile. And one of the reasons for that could be that the film is happy to be what one may call a typical Hindi film and doesn’t make any pretence about it. Perhaps that the reason one doesn’t lose interest in Inaam Dus Hazaar while Kohraa starts off as a horror but mid-way becomes a whodunit and can never really make up its mind.

Although it didn’t suffer the same fate as Kohraa, Inaam Dus Hazaar was overshadowed by other big hits of the year like Mr India, Insaaf and Hukumat. But two things suggest that in that long list Inaam Dus Hazaar with certain exceptions such as Mr India would ideally be enjoyed more than others today. One the manner in the heroine’s character is etched where at a glance it seems like Meenakshi Sheshadri would be ornamental but slowly her role becomes equal and more author-backed than Sanjay Dutt’s and the other is the certain timelessness of the plot, which seems to be blessed by Alfred Hitchcock himself.