When I reached out to the every-forthright Moushumi Chatterjee for her thoughts on the passing away of her Roti Kapada Aur Makan co-star and director she was her refreshingly no-nonsense self. “Look, everyone says good things about people who die. It is true that Manoj Kumar was an excellent director with an unbeatable music sense. But I had a bad experience regarding the song Hai hai yeh majboori. See, you have to be convinced you have to use your common sense, the gaana which you are asking about, the language was cannot go with Zeenat’s character, she was an urban sophisticated character. The language in the song Teri do Takiya di naakri…it was suited to my character Tulsi who was rustic and Punjabi. If you see my other song in the film Mehngai maar gayi with me and Premnathji. It wouldn’t be suited to Zeenat, no? Now what happened was, during that time I was pregnant with my first daughter. It was my first baby and it was not planned, I didn’t want to abort the baby. Chandra Barotji (assistant to Manoj Kumar) thought I was not interested in the film. Since I was married to Hemant Kumar’s son, I was not ambitious, I was disinterested. So he was a little bit upset with Moushumi Chatterjee. He is no more. I can’t talk only nicely about him because truth is truth, truth many people can’t take nicely .”
As Manoj Kumar was upset with Moushumi, she claims she was not given a trophy at the jubilee function of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan. “Shashi Kapoor himself, who is also no more, he told me at the jubilee function of Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, that everyone was getting a trophy except me. I attended the function and as Shashi said, I was the only one not given a trophy. I was very nice and innocent. Shashi said that everybody thought you are not interested in your acting career. Look, I was never very ambitious. But I worked hard, balancing my responsibilities as a daughter-in-law, wife, mother and actress. Family comes first, as it should for everyone. But I worked hard and by God’s grace, in spite of the rumours spread to sabotage my career, I gave hits all through my career. I never allowed my films to suffer for my pregnancy. The song with Premnathji ‘Mehngayi maar gayi’, at that time also I was 5-months pregnant, I sang in that too, two-three such songs that people advised me not to. I did not compromise while I was working. When producers had to compromise or adjust a bit, and if that affected the films during my pregnancy I would return the signing amount.”
In spite of her grievance, Moushumi admits Manoj Kumar was a maestro of movie making. “He was an excellent director, very skilled director and he did his homework m very nicely and rest he had a very good assistant(Chandra Barot), his camera sense was excellent. I remember he shot a full scene in one take. There was one word in a scene that was coming out with a heavy Bengali accent. Chandraji said we will fix it in the dubbing. But Manojji was adamant that I get it right during the shooting, no matter how time it took. That was the kind of director he was, a perfectionist.”
