As one of the biggest box office grossers of the ‘80s releasing in December 1989, Rajshri Productions MAINE PYAR KIYA directed by Sooraj Barjatya was a game changer along with QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK winning hearts just a year before in 1988. Both the films featured new faces as loving birds making a major breakthrough in Hindi cinema and their soundtracks became the biggest soundtracks of those times fast vanishing from the shelves going into repeat productions.
In the past decades you must have read several stories related with MAINE PYAR KIYA, its songs, the making, its craze among the youth, the famous ‘friendship’ caps, stickers of its cult dialogues (that could be seen everywhere) and a lot more. But here is something you probably might not have heard or read before - as a personal sharing about the era lived as a young school going student back in the late ‘80s.
MAINE PYAR KIYA had many youthful props used in the film, but there was one that didn’t get much attention or limelight in comparison to all others. It was the bicycle (cycle or bike) used by Salman Khan in many key sequences and songs with a distinctive handle like never seen before. You can see the bicycle and its unique handle in the picture shared along the article (also featuring the director), which was really something new in the world of cycles in those times introduced in the film itself as a smart and subtle product placement supporting its youthful look and feel.
Those were the days when sports cycles had just got introduced with dropped round handles for which we had to bend and hold it in the posture of racing cyclists. Being new entrants in the market, these were costly and had a big reputation of an elite kind of product far superior than others. A high end variant of these also had gears as I recall along with some exclusive features.
Somehow I managed to get a blue colour sports model made by ATLAS by the name of ‘Concorde’ with dropped round handles spending all my savings and a little borrowed money from friends before the film’s release.
Within a month of my buying the new sports cycle, MAINE PYAR KIYA reached the theaters and we all went crazy after the film and its adorable stars, watching it in repeat viewings bunking the school classes. Still remember the electrifying ambience in the first night show in Delhi’s LIBERTY cinema’s upperstall, when we entered along a great rush and saw “Aate Jaate” already playing on the screen with the titles.
The film had a great craze even before its release because of its hugely famous soundtrack and each and every song had its own pull asking for a second and third viewing which was a norm in those days of ‘cost friendly cinema made for the common man’
So we also saw it twice or thrice in the first week itself and then in one of those shows I suddenly got stuck watching the sports cycle owned by Salman in the film, which was of the same colour and make as mine, but with a different handle. Getting excited looking at the similarities, I at once decided to convert my cycle into the one seen in the film by borrowing some more money.
Next morning, I was there at the nearest cycle shop as soon as they opened the shutters and asked them to replace the dropped round handle of my brand new cycle with a straight one as seen in the film. The owner of the shop was pretty surprised and asked me to think over it again as it was an expensive cycle and was sure to lose its resale value if the original handle was changed. But I was on a Salman Khan-Maine Pyar Kiya high at that particular point of time, and asked him to do it at once, which again was not possible as the not so common straight handle had to be ordered from the company.
Anyhow, I managed to get it replaced the very next day and then became the proud owner of the unique
MAINE PYAR KIYA cycle of the same blue colour with a straight handle exactly as seen in the film.
In no time the cycle got famous all over the locality and friends often took it for a short ride in the evenings posing as Salman Khan. For a couple of months, we all kept enjoying both the film and the cycle rides singing songs like “Mere Rang Mein”, “Dil Deewana Bin Sajna Ke” and “Aaja Shaam Honey Aayi” in particular.
But then probably getting influenced by the then famous advertisement of ONIDA TV and its tag line “Neighbour’s Envy – Owner’s Pride”………. someone stole it from our verandah in one unlucky afternoon, as in those days families used to sleep for a few hours between 2 and 6pm in the daytime.
The sudden, unexpected theft made us all sad for days to come remembering our famous blue coloured MAINE PYAR KIYA Atlas Concorde cycle and its proud rides. The same excitement was never felt again, even when another of my friend bought a new one with a different colour. And today I fondly relive those days watching the film and its hit songs again after a time period of three long decades.
Really enjoyed writing about that era and hope you enjoyed this nostalgic journey back in time too remembering one of the most successful love stories of Hindi Cinema. Would soon try to share another instance related with such famous cult classics, that unfortunately are no more there in existence in the present era.
Tilll then Keep Living Cinema with
HIS BLESSINGS
Bobby Sing
bobbytalkscinema.com
16th April 2019
