No I Did Not Go To The Funeral.. For Me My Sir Is Still Alive At Ashirwad, a photo by firoze shakir photographerno1 on Flickr.
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My last meeting with Sir was at Lilavati and as a person who knew Mr Rajesh Khanna since his Sauten days , than there was a huge gap, and I met Mr Rajesh Khanna in the aircraft years later I was wearing a newspaper suit a copy of the same suit that I had made for Govinda in Gambler for his hit song Meri Marzi and now I was wearing the newpaper suit for the premiere of Eena Mena Deeka a film starring Rishi Kapoor Vinod Khanna and directed by David Dhawan who was in this chartered aircraft too.. and I was working with Me Nitin Manmohan producer the banner Neha Arts, the most eponymous that give hits like Bol Radha Bol Insaf Mahasangram.
Mr Rajesh Khanna was the guest for the premiere and once upon a time very close to Manji or Mr Manmohan a great villain his best friend and father of Nitin Manmohan my boss and Hemant Panchmiya his elder brother .
He was fascinated with my look and as we knew each other he told me to look me up in Mumbai and I did.
I began doing sirs clothes after the untimely death of designer Moez but I did his clothes as a goodwill gesture and to learn something from him.
I did the look of his incomplete film by Ashok Tyagi and Vijay Sirohi DonKe Bad Kaun.. this was the tme I got very close to Sir his moods his nostalgia d his trips down Bollywood memory lanes.
When he was going for the family reunion with Akshay Kumar and the rest of his family to Goa he made me make a few Bermuda shorts and a few jeans he was happy like a child that has found his favorite lost toy.
Than he met my grand daughter Marziya Shakir on Bakra Eid and she added a missing joy to his person , she became his grand child too, he pampered her with chocolates and told her stories I shot these private moments and shared it with people on the net.
Than I finally did the black tuxedo for Balkis Havells fan ad, he had insisted he did not want me to change his old measurements , I politely told him ,it would not work, he had lost oodles and his framework had metamorphosed but all he said make the trousers Duck Style adding 3 extra buttons I did.
The pleated shirt was too huge on him so I made him a new one.. and could hardly do anything to the Tuxedo..from collar size 16.5 he had become 14 after his illness and swollen feet, but he did the fittings and and as the Unit and direction took his video I shot his stills as my collection of memories.
After the left we both cried .. he had pulled it off with aplomb.. and Bala his trusted Man Friday bought me thanda limbu pani.
After he came back from the shoot he called me told me to bring my grand kids.. but he was seriously disturbed , and I thought of going away my little one Nerjis Asif Shakir had just learnt to walk, Marziya Shakir 4 years normally shot his pictures too on my camera but seeing the change I hastily fled he blessed my grand kids and that was the last time.
So I was not ready to brave the rains and follow the cavalcade the funeral cortege going to the crematorium I did not want to document his last journey from home .. for me he is still at home a lonely man living with his fame his illusions his dreams and the poetry of his life.
Yes he loved me a lot. He loved my grand kids a lot.
Legends dont die they leave their fooprints on the sands of Time.
