During early 80s I used to be a regular visitor at PJ Hindu Gymkhana, Marine Drive. Those days, I actively played the game of Table Tennis at the state and national level. And my practice sessions used to be three days a week at this Gymkhana, which was a perfect place for sports like Table Tennis, Tennis, Badminton & Billiards. But, what was more attractive was the huge waiting hall after entering this gymkhana. After reaching the Gymkhana around 4.30 pm, we players used to relax a while over a cup of tea/ coffee before getting ready for our respective practice sessions. It was the time to interact with other past and present sports persons from different games.
Anant Thakur
Whether they were Eknath Solkar, Salim Durani former Indian cricketers, Uday Pawar, Sanjay Sharma, Leroy D’sa former Badminton players , some top billiards players or our own TT players, we really enjoyed sharing each other’s experience. But, besides them, there also used to be some very enthusiastic senior sports lovers like Mr. Telang a former Mr. Bombay , who used to give us some tips about weight training, Mr. Vasistha a Cricket umpire and not to forget Mr. Anant Thakur, a voracious reader , who went through all the daily newspapers and shared his thoughts with in that group. Mr. Thakur had all the details of our matches played those days, as he used to go through the reports in detail from all the newspapers in Mumbai in different languages. Looking at his knowledge about cricket and other topics, I once asked Mr. Vasistha about his background and I was shocked to know that Mr. Thakur had not only played Club level cricket with many top cricketers , but used to be a regular visitor at the tent during important Inter club finals. He had also directed bollywood films. He specifically mentioned about the hit bollywood film ‘Chori Chori’ starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis, which was directed by him.
My curiosity to know more about him increased and I wanted to find some time to have a personal chat with him. In the year 1985 after taking a break from TT, when I was doing my Journalism, I felt that it was the right time to meet him personally for a one to one chat. It happened one day, with prior appointment, when he reserved time for me occupying the corner table right inside the waiting hall. After talking about cricket at Shivaji Park during his young days, he freely spoke about his films. Mr. Anant Thakur remained active as a film director during the period 1948 to 1960. So, it as a pleasure to know about his journey in film making. Those days, he lived in Mahim near Paradise Cinema and his retired life comprised of regular visit to Petit Library, South Mumbai and from there to the Gymkhana .He used to catch the Bandra local at a fixed time in the evening around 6.30-7 pm.
During our interaction, I came to know that his first film was ‘Pugree’ starring Shashikala, Kamini Kaushal , Gope Wasti and others, followed by ‘Paras’ the 1949 film starring Rehman, Kamini Kaushal, Madhubala, Sapru and K.N.Singh . Then he directed films like ‘Kale Badal’ in 1951, , ‘Baghi’ in 1953 which had music by Madan Mohan . But, his real big hit was popular Raj Kapoor – Nargis starrer ‘Chori Chori’ in 1956. Later, he directed a film ‘Superman’ along with Mohammed Hussain in 1960 with Jairaj , Nirupa Roy and Helen in the lead. Mr. Thakur had also directed an award winning Marathi film ‘Pawnakathcha Dhondi’ in 1966 starring Suryakant and Jayashree Gadkar, which won the National award for best Marathi film of that year.
Mr. Anant Thakur was a disciplined man and believed in starting and completing the shooting schedule of his films in time. “No matter who were the stars, once they come to know that the captain is strict, they report in time,” he had said, while talking about his experience with renowned artistes. Speaking about the success of his Marathi film ‘Pawnakathcha Dhondi’, he said, “ Actually, this film faced competition from Basu Bhattacharya’s film ‘Teesri Kasam’ and hence we lost the Swarna Kamal. “
Mr. Anant Thakur is no more. But, his memories are still fresh in my mind. Today, while going through his photo ( clicked by me) in my collection, it took me down memory lane…. to share something about this simple but disciplined multi-talented personality.