This story sounded too filmi to be true. A Mumbai policeman who got lost as a child at a crowded railway station gets reunited with his family after 24 years - thanks to a tattoo on his arm.
It was the most tried and tested formula for most Indian filmmakers of yesteryears. Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra adeptly handled it to rake in the moolah at the box-office.
The setting used to be some mela in a dusty village and the brothers (the scriptwriters never went beyond names such as Ram, Shyam and Vijay) used to get separated, either due to surging crowds, stampede or due to a raid by dacoits, and go their own ways. In most cases one used to become a police inspector while the other lands in some daaku or smuggler gangs. To give further twist to the story the lost brother gets raised by a Muslim or Christian household and follows those religions. They reunite towards the end of the film and the last frame used to be a group photo with the mother (forever played by Nirupa Roy) and their lady loves thrown in. The reunion used to happen because of a tattoo mark, birth mark or a ring.
Other filmmakers too latched on to this formula and it soon died a natural death as it became so ghisa pita that the audiences' patience began wearing thin. Soon it got relegated to being a spoof writers' muse.
Coming back to the policeman's story, Ganesh Raghunath Dhangade was extremely lucky that though he did undergo his share of the trials and tribulations which boys separated from families undergo, he had a fairytale ending. A majority of such children either end up as maimed beggars or become part of criminal gangs.
Dhangade himself recalls that after he got lost he had to clean platforms and eat at dargahs and Ganesh mandals. Even the fisherman family that took him home extracted their pound of flesh by making him beg on local trains and provide food in exchange for money. The orphange Anand Ashram in Worli needs to be commended for playing a stellar role in shaping his future.
Lastly truth has proved that is way too stranger than fiction. Maybe it’s time we took Manmohan Desai films a bit more seriously!
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
It was the most tried and tested formula for most Indian filmmakers of yesteryears. Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra adeptly handled it to rake in the moolah at the box-office.
The setting used to be some mela in a dusty village and the brothers (the scriptwriters never went beyond names such as Ram, Shyam and Vijay) used to get separated, either due to surging crowds, stampede or due to a raid by dacoits, and go their own ways. In most cases one used to become a police inspector while the other lands in some daaku or smuggler gangs. To give further twist to the story the lost brother gets raised by a Muslim or Christian household and follows those religions. They reunite towards the end of the film and the last frame used to be a group photo with the mother (forever played by Nirupa Roy) and their lady loves thrown in. The reunion used to happen because of a tattoo mark, birth mark or a ring.
Other filmmakers too latched on to this formula and it soon died a natural death as it became so ghisa pita that the audiences' patience began wearing thin. Soon it got relegated to being a spoof writers' muse.
Coming back to the policeman's story, Ganesh Raghunath Dhangade was extremely lucky that though he did undergo his share of the trials and tribulations which boys separated from families undergo, he had a fairytale ending. A majority of such children either end up as maimed beggars or become part of criminal gangs.
Dhangade himself recalls that after he got lost he had to clean platforms and eat at dargahs and Ganesh mandals. Even the fisherman family that took him home extracted their pound of flesh by making him beg on local trains and provide food in exchange for money. The orphange Anand Ashram in Worli needs to be commended for playing a stellar role in shaping his future.
Lastly truth has proved that is way too stranger than fiction. Maybe it’s time we took Manmohan Desai films a bit more seriously!
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
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