No doubt Rajesh Khanna is brilliant in both the roles of the father and the son, but there is no scene where they come together on screen as the father dies young and the son appears much later. It was writer Gulshan Nanda who suggested the double role angle and the rest as they say is history. The story of the film was initially conceived as a two-hero film with the first hero dying before interval. The film which changed the fate of Rajesh Khanna forever catapulting him to dizzying heights of superstardom also sealed the Rajesh Khanna-Kishore Kumar ‘jodi’ and for the next twenty years they continued to give one musical hit after the other till Kishoreda died in 1987. The charisma which made him a Superstar is very much there to see and the film is very enjoyable. It is difficult to imagine that this was Khanna’s debut film as his acting is very natural and expressions are spot on. Being a film of the sixties and being the debut film for both the hero and heroine, there are lots of songs and some of them became very popular. How and where does the second Rajesh Khanna fit in and what exactly did happen to the murdered Khanna forms the crux of the film. Revealing anything more about the plot would mean spoiling the fun for anyone wanting to watch. And Babita is convinced that he is her lover who had only disappeared.
The plot takes an intriguing turn as he finds out that he is supposed to have been murdered some time back and is even shown the grave where he has been buried. To get to the bottom of this, the two leave for India but to his surprise everyone recognizes him but thinks he is a ghost. The film starts in Africa where Rajesh Khanna staying with his friend I S Johar starts getting visions of a woman and a place in India in his dreams. His heroine Babita also made her debut with this film. Though Chetan Anand directed ‘Aakhri Khat’ reIeased first in 1966, the murder-mystery romantic thriller Raaz was technically the first film signed by Rajesh Khanna. Here is a brief description of the story and his character in these films. From 1967 to 1985, there are eleven films where Rajesh Khanna donned the ‘dual avatar’.
Today is Rajesh Khanna’s fifth death anniversary and this blog-post is a tribute to this charming, endearing and amazingly gifted actor who defined ‘superstardom’ in the most unique and unprecedented way. His repertoire of ‘double roles’ has an interesting mix of characters where he got to play father and son or identical twins but for the most part he played look-alike characters who just crossed path by destiny. He also belongs to the select band of actors who started their career with a double role. Superstar Rajesh Khanna is one of the handful of actors who got the opportunity to play ‘double role’ in more than ten films in his career. At the same time it offers the actors to test their own acting prowess as well. A possible reason could be that our industry is dominated by the star-system whereby it is the charisma and persona of the star that is embedded in the psyche of the audience and hence the fascinating idea of seeing their favourite actor/actress in more than one role in the same film has always caught the fancy of the fans. Hollywood and World Cinema have generally stayed away from exploring the possibilities of such stories. The concept of ‘Double Roles’ remains an enigmatic genre and unique to Indian cinema.
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