Creative artistes need an equivalent outlet to express basics and Kishore Kumar was no different. The episodes of his life were gradually transforming him into a man with a past. His emotional sufferings only made him go closer to himself. In his solitude thus, he found his pastime.

“So many things have happened in my life that I feel all wrung out now, as though I have lived not one life but many and each chapter of it has left me with a crying need to say something, express some conclusion. And the only way open for me to do that was via making my own films." 1

The 1960s saw him as the lonely wayfarer but on his terms. A stark reminder that the journey of life is essentially a lonely one. This thought occupied the maximum of space in his uncluttered mind, so much so that he would sit down one day surrounded by numerous blank sheets of paper. On one such blank sheet, he wrote at the top: “Door Ka Raahi" 2

He went on writing unabated that day till he was satisfied of the proximity his script offered towards discovering the real Kishore Kumar. As he was through with the rough draft, he began the film. That was 2nd January, 1966, at Karjat with Ganga, Asit Sen and Abhi Bhattacharjee 3 and at a time when his wife was still hopeful of a life. Ganga was in fact the only compromise he had to make in an otherwise uncompromising venture. Madhubala wanted her sister and Kumar wanted a Madhubala look-alike to relieve the moments.

The script was quite different from the final film as it emerged during its release. He selected Sumita Sanyal, a popular Bengali actress of the era, recorded a song and shot a few scenes with her only to shoot off a tangent yet again. Main ek panchi matwala, recorded at Bombay Labs and the first ever playback song of son Amit too did not get to see the light of the day. The song initially was juxtaposed in a series of nursery rhymes in the Grundig Tape Recorder which Kishore Kumar made his son listen to on his sporadic visits to Bombay 4. With years of such chopping and changing in every conceivable aspect of filmmaking, he could ultimately steer his pet to the desired conclusion.

With Door Ka Rahi, Kishore Kumar probably started the habit of utilizing the precincts of his house for shoots. Streams and fountains would make their forays into his premises. He had permanently employed a few construction workers who were always kept on their toes through an alternate cycle of dismantling and erecting structures. The house on the hills, made famous by the bonfire with Ashok Kumar in the wheelchair, was originally the garage at Gouri Kunj, now dismantled and converted.

The film was made in fits and starts as the fancy seized him. Most of the film was shot on the bucolic locales in Maharashtra with mother Gouri Rani Devi accompanying the crew in some cases. For the climax though, along with the lonely wayfarer’s final journey, he too browsed through the snows of Kulu and Manali for the shooting. Falling prey to unbridled passion, he became extremely quixotic during the shooting schedules and made it a habit to go outdoors during the monsoons. That people would question his sanity, gladdened him and egged him on. Distributors came forward on the strength of the story and its music and fled with equal alacrity as Kishore Kumar gave a thumbs down to their “box office ingredients". After all, Door Ka Raahi was a “slice of life" film. A slice of his life.

Partially inspired by George Steven’s 1953 venture Shane 5, again an Alan Ladd starrer, Door Ka Raahi was a promise to himself in face of unprecedented despondency. A promise of a long escape to a supreme unending place surrounded by a haven of peace and tranquillity. Inspiration........

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