Even though the acting is fantastic in Tanuja Chandra’s movie “Dushman,” it also features wonderful music with songs by Lata Mangeshkar and Jagjit Singh. In a special interview with Zoom, the director shared her experience of working with the legendary Lata. Keep reading!
Many people, including myself, think that Tanuja Chandra’s movie “Dushman” is Kajol’s best performance so far. It was inspired by John Schlesinger’s 1996 thriller “An Eye For An Eye,” but “Sangharsh,” the Hindi version, made some clever changes to the original script.
In the original, the mother (Sally Field) seeks revenge against her daughter’s rapist and murderer. However, in “Dushman,” it is the twin sister (Kajol) who seeks retribution, while the mother (Tanve Azmi) seeks closure to the tragedy. “Dushman” also added a romantic angle with Sanjay Dutt playing a blind soldier wooing Kajol, accompanied by some beautiful songs composed by Uttam Singh.
The music in “Dushman” is what made it memorable. Tanuja Chandra, the director, shared her experience, saying, “In my debut film, ‘Dushman,’ which completed 25 years this year, I had the crazy good fortune to work with absolute Hindi film industry stalwarts.”
She worked with legends like Mahesh Bhatt, Sachin Bhowmick, Anand Bakshi, Jagjit Singh, veteran editor Waman Bhonsle, and the great Lata Mangeshkar. Tanuja expressed her initial apprehension about working with such stalwarts but was pleasantly surprised by their support.
Tanuja particularly mentioned her experience working with Anand Bakshi on the lyrics: “Working on the songs for me was such a privilege. I adored Bakshi Saab.”
Regarding working with Lata Mangeshkar, Tanuja shared, “It was our music director, Uttam Singh, who asked Lataji to sing for us. I was full of nervous anxiety when she came to the recording studio, but I had a wonderful time despite being a beginner.”
In a unique occurrence, both Lataji and Jagjit Singh sang two different versions of the same haunting song “Chitthi na koi sandes” in “Dushman.” Tanuja recalled, “When Jagjit Singh came to record ‘Chithi na koi sandes’ for us, I, as a director, ran out of instructions to give. He knew what we needed, and I merely listened in awe. I can hardly get over my good luck, working with brilliant people in ‘Dushman,’ my very first film as a director.”