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FOR many moviegoers Pyar Mein Twist, starring Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia, may just be another of those middle-aged love stories with a little more oomph and fun than Baghbaan. But for those who had witnessed the hype and hysteria created by Raj Kapoor’s late classics Bobby (1973) some 32 years ago, it was really past forward with lovers of the youth coming together once again to snatch the little bit of love that life can give them before it is time to move into the good night. Although Raj Kapoor’s ambitious autobiographical venture Mera Naam Joker (1970) won several awards, including the Best Director Award from Filmfare, it crashed at the box office. And this, in spite of its four-hour length, two intermissions and three leading ladies — the suave Simi Grewal, the buxom Padmini and Russian circus star Eduard Sjereda. It seemed all was over for the great showman. But a couple of years later, he was back trying to recreate the Nargis-Raj Kapoor magic that had never failed. Rishi Kapoor who had played the plump young and awkward Raju in Mera Naam Joker was to be the lead actor of his new love story and the search was on for a girl who would be the right substitute for Nargis. The grapevine was busy even in the slumbering 1970s’ Chandigarh. I recall veteran theatre man Bhag Singh telling me that his young daughter had appeared for a screen test. "Raj Kapoor is looking all over the country for a virgin in her teens. He wants an untouched girl for what sensation it will be when she is touched for the first time on screen," he said. The City Beautiful gals, of course, did not fit the bill but a sensation was created nevertheless with Bombay-bred Dimple Kapadia. The reason for the choice was perhaps that she resembled Nargis a little although she was much prettier. Film magazines started the buzz that she is the out-of-wedlock daughter of Nargis-Raj and denied it at the end of the stories. But the excitement was built and when Rishi, with puppy fat shed, held Dimple who sang the Goan number `85Mere sahiba pyar mein sauda nahin, the young and the old were under a spell. Raj Kapoor even replayed the scene when he had first gone to approach Baby, alias Nargis, for a role in Aag. When Rishi knocks at his nanny’s door, Dimple comes out of the kitchen her hands full of besan that rubs off onto her hair. And the nation was charmed beyond expectations at the recall of love at first sight. Nargis and Raj had given one hit after another after Aag. Their films like Barsat, Awara and Shri 420 are cine history. The last little appearance she made in Raj Kapoor’s Jagate Raho singing Jaago jaago Mohan pyare... is still engraved in many a heart. This was not to be for Rishi and Dimple because things happened all too soon. Dimple chose to quit films to play wife to the then superstar Rajesh Khanna saying, "After all I am Mrs. Rajesh Khanna." Rishi moved onto Neetu Singh to be his leading lady and, later, wife. Destiny, however, worked otherwise. Dimple and Kaka fell out with each other and she came back to films and now many years later she was to play the love game with her first co-star. Thrilled at the role, Dimple says: "It the story of two souls who are attracted to each other in the autumn of their lives and the subsequent reaction of their children." Yes, that is what Pyar Mein Twist that had earlier been called Pal Tham Gaya is all about. The film, of course, has its highs and lows but what works still is the Dimple-Rishi chemistry doing a slow dance in a Morrocan restaurant, eating pani-puri at Juhu beach or eloping, reminiscent of Bobby, to escape the wrath this time not of parents but their children. Yes, the twist in the tale has something of Marquez’ Love in the Time of Cholera. Rishi is superb and Dimple offers an elegant foil and old-timers tap their toes at the remix number, Khulam khula pyar kareinge ham dono. This was a peppy number filmed on Rishi and Neetu in Khel Khel Mein (1975). And when tipsy-old Rishi starts snoring after making advances to his lady love on a moonlit night, middle-aged folks like this writer break into peals of laughter along with Dimple thinking never mind the aching joints and tired lungs it is perhaps never too late to live and love. The good night is after all still many years away.
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