Prem Nagar turns 50

One of the lesser-known Rajesh Khanna hits, Prem Nagar paired him with Hema Malini with whom he shared a crackling chemistry even in a cameo...

One of the lesser-known Rajesh Khanna hits, Prem Nagar paired him with Hema Malini with whom he shared a crackling chemistry even in a cameo in Ramesh Sippy's Andaz (1971). Here they were cast together as leads for the first time. A remake of A Nageshwara Rao’s Prema Nagar (1971), the director K S Prakash Rao is the father of K Raghavendra Rao B.A.

Prem Nagar which hit the screens on May 24, 1974 had Khanna playing Karan Singh, an alcoholic womanizer prince who falls for his gareeb secretary Lata (Hema) much to the chagrin of his elder brother Shamsher Singh (Prem Chopra) who wants to usurp his share of the estate. Lata successfully makes him give up his vices but their love story faces a familial hurdle.

Hema and Kaka looked great as a pair and complimented each other perfectly. In one scene, we have Kaka staring at a wet Hema and then asking her to come near the fire and not shiver in the rain. It's a highly romantic moment! The role of a rich womaniser suited Khanna perfectly and this is one of his finest performances. 

The music is by S.D. Burman though it appears to be RD’s. "Yeh laal rang kab mujhe chodegaa" and "Jaa jaa" sung by Kishore da were instant chartbusters. I personally love the raunchy "Pyase do badan pyaasi raat mein" filmed on Rajesh Khanna and Aruna Irani having a rollicking time in bed. 

Not many would notice but the kind-natured alcoholic character of Khanna in Prem Nagar was similar to Amitabh Bachchan's Vicky in Prakash Mehra's Sharaabi (1984). I won't say Sharaabi was a blatant copy as Mehra and Bachchan brought their own individual touch to it but the basic characters are uncannily the same!!

At the box office, Prem Nagar was a hit celebrating a silver jubilee in most centres. It was producer D. Rama Naidu's first Bollywood film. Later, he gave many huge hits in Hindi, one of them being Prem Qaidi (1991) which launched Karishma Kapoor into the industry!! 

By Sumeet Nadkarni