New Delhi: Between playing heartbreaker and He-Man, Dharmendra mastered another kind of role. The dad in the family entertainer, whether a comic caper or an action drama. And it was never better than when his sons Sunny and Bobby Deol were keeping him company on screen.
When Dharmendra joined forces with his sons in Apne (2007) and the Yamla Pagla Deewana franchise (2011-2018), the result was crowd-pleasing Deol magic. Where other father-son jodis stumbled — from Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan in Sarkar and Paa to Pankaj and Shahid Kapoor in Mausam and Jersey — the trio pulled off box-office success.
The first Dharmendra-Sunny-Bobby outing was Apne, a sports and redemption drama built around boxing. The news of the father and his two sons finally sharing the screen had people flocking to theatres, especially in North India, and Apne became a commercial hit. The music by Himesh Reshammiya, then at his peak, was the icing on the cake — not just the film’s title track but also the romantic number Dekhoon Tujhe to Pyar Aaye.
The emotional family drama, punctuated in crucial scenes by the sad refrain Apne toh apne hote hain, had Dharmendra playing Baldev Singh, a former boxer who falls from grace after being falsely accused of doping. The film wove a melodramatic story of a father and his two sons, Angad (Sunny Deol) and Karan (Bobby Deol), as they strive to fulfil his dream of becoming champion boxers.
In what was a treat for Dharmendra fans, the film even used footage from Main Intequam Loonga (1982), where he had played a boxer, to show a younger Baldev. While Sunny and Bobby’s performances were middling at best, Dharmendra was effortless as the man unable to let go of his unfulfilled dreams and his anger at Angad’s refusal to carry his legacy forward.
The veteran actor’s comeback itself got rave reviews. The Times of India pronounced that “Dharam is still quite garam”, praising him as “a dad who is torn between the love for his sons and the pain of disgrace.” Hindustan Times concluded it was a “punchnama that entices you to rush up to the screen and give Dharmendra a big bear hug. Welcome back, paaji.” On YouTube, the film has about 34 million views.
Also Read: Jeevan Mrityu made Dharmendra-Rakhee hit pair. It was a corruption-revenge saga of the 70s
An unfinished sequel
After the emotional heft of Apne, the Deols switched gears. Yamla Pagla Deewana was all con jobs, slapstick comedy, and knowing winks at Dharmendra’s past roles. The first film was released in 2011, with sequels in 2013 and 2018.
Even the title came from a song in an old Dharmendra film — Main Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana, sung by Mohammad Rafi for the 1975 hit Pratigya. Dressed in a cop’s uniform with a red dupatta around his neck, Dharmendra clowned around in that song while Radha (Hema Malini) looked on from inside a hut. The Yamla Pagla Deewana franchise channelled that same mischief.
The first instalment had Paramveer (Sunny Deol) returning to India to find his biological father (Dharmendra), having been separated from him at birth. But rather than a reunion with a benevolent patriarch, he discovers that both his father, Dharam Singh Dhillon, and brother, Gajodhar (Bobby Deol), are conmen.
The premise carried into the sequels in different permutations and combinations until it was stretched thin. By the third film, the shtick had lost its sheen, and it bombed at the box office.
But in 2020, fans got something to look forward to when Apne 2 was announced. The film ran into delays, but this August, director Anil Sharma said the script was finally ready.
The Deols, he added, were raring to go: “When I narrated the story to Dharam-ji, he cried. When Bobby heard the script, he hugged me… all three of them wanted to do a film together.”
It’s a wish that will remain unfulfilled. Just before Dharmendra’s death, a poster of the film Ikkis, slated for a 25 December release, came out, showing him as the father of a Param Vir Chakra hero. The caption read: “Fathers raise sons. Legends raise nations.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)