Screen love will never be the same, again...

Forget how the late Yash Chopra came into the industry (riding on his eminent and gifted big bro, BR Chopra’s shoulder and banner), even assisted IS Johar for a while before hotfooting it back to bhaisaab… Forget the early films he directed – Dhool ka Phool and Dharamputra – toeing the “socially relevant and meaningful” line that defined the BR mantra… And cut to Waqt. The time was the mid-60s and this escapist, big-budget, gorgeously-lensed multi-starrer with glamorous stars packaged in a mind-blowing manner, took every single viewer by storm! In some fashion, it set the tone and tenor of the YRF brand.

Little wonder that when he broke away from big bro’s BR camp to start his own – YRF – he started with a 40-carat love story, Daag! Powered by a cast to die for and suitably controversial – Rajesh-Sharmila-Rakhee, with the two Bengali ladies not wild about each other – the film torpedoed Yash Chopra and his celebration of screen love to another level.

Interestingly, while he continues to be labeled as the creator of the Angry Young Man – Deewar, Trishul, Kala Patthar – discerning Yash Chopra watchers will beg to differ. While these movies were certainly spot-on with production values, casting, detailing and craft, they were clearly Salim-Javed creations. Yash Chopra never ever failed to acknowledge the huge contribution of these two master script writers in their success. However, it was Yash Chopra alone, who replaced those fists of fury and that cynical baritone with heart-stopping poetry of love and longing that caressed the heart as it soothed the soul. Both Kabhie Kabhie – which incidentally was shot alongside Deewar – and Silsila were emotion-charged cries from the heart of a true-blue romantic.

The eighties found him suddenly out of sync with a time when violence and lowbrow fare and mindless multi-starrers passed off as mass entertainment. In an effort to move with the times, he did try and experiment – Faasle, Mashaal, Vijay – but they bombed. Typically, at the fag end of a disastrous decade, it was a love-story Chandni (Rishi-Sridevi-Vinod Khanna) that brought him zooming back. Lamhe, that followed, was a hugely celebrated critical success, which was followed by an unusual love-driven thriller. Darr introduced a new anti-hero in the shape of Shah Rukh Khan – the new permanent fixture in the YRF camp. A super smash, Yashji – like he earlier did with the Big B – next transformed this intense young actor with fiery eyes, rat-a-tat dialogue delivery and volcanic energy into a romantic hero par excellence when he oversaw his son Adi’s maiden directorial venture Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge that went on to break most records in the book. He quickly moved in for the kill with another show-stopper – Dil To Pagal Hai. SRK with Madhuri, Karishma and music to drive you nuts, this romantic triangle (with the usual YRC trademark moments) consolidated the YRC-SRK jodi big time! He returned with another spectacular cross-border romance Veer Zara (SRK, Preity, Rani) and then took a break to return for his swan song, so fittingly and poignantly titled Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

Along the way, Yash Chopra produced tons of other films, gave breaks to several young, new directors and created an amazing revenue-model that brilliantly synergised art with commerce. Today as we salute the memory of this die-hard romantic who so successfully blended punjabiyat, old-world values with rare aesthetic sense – as demonstrated through his love for Sahir, Javed Akhtar, Gulzar and Urdu poetry – and yet unfailingly connected with every generation past or present, we remember what he always taught us …
…that true love (like Yash Chopra) never dies.