Perhaps if the discipline of film history was practiced with the same vigour as that of film-making in India, we would have a more specific sense of what the teenaged Yash Chopra experienced while his Punjabi family migrated from Lahore to Delhi and then to Mumbai because of the Partition. Instead, we are forced to extrapolate those emotional experiences from the texture of his directorial oeuvre. But this is very rich territory, with the sentimental chords of the lost-and-found theme surviving seven decades, impressively morphing in tandem with new beats, new times.

Dhool ke Phool (1959)

Net gross R1 crore, Hit*

Released in the year of Satyajit Ray?s Apur Sansar and Guru Dutt?s Kaagaz ke Phool, Chopra?s black and white d?but film was nurtured by his big brother?s banner BR Films, which had established itself with Naya Daur, where traditional technology holds its own against new machinery. The younger Chopra also took up a challenging story, centering around an illegitimate Hindu child who is separated from his birth parents and raised by a Muslim man. His tangled history was resolved by Mohammed Rafi in the following song, with a timely yet eternal appeal: Tu hindu banega na musalamaan banega, Insaan ki aulaad hai, insaan banega.

Waqt (1965)

R3 crore, Blockbuster

Late last month, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, our ?oldest practicing film director? had announced that the upcoming Jab Tak Hai Jaan would be the last he would direct. Everyone is now talking about the poetic irony of the title. In any case, Chopra reminisced about the past on the occasion: for Waqt, he had conceived a story of lost-and-reunited siblings starring Shashi, Shammi and Raj Kapoor. But Bimal Roy pointed out that ?the movie was about separation and here I was casting three real brothers so anyone could recognise them?. Utlimately Shashi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt and Raj Kumar took the lead in BR Films? first colour film, which was also one of India?s first multi-starrer films. And Asha Bhosle sang the Waqt song that matches our theme here: Aage bhi jaane na tu, peechhe bhi jaane na tu. Jo bhi hai, bas yahi ek pal hai.

Deewar (1975)

Rs 4.25 crore, Super Hit

Amitabh Bachchan, the Angry Young Man, truly arrived this year. Sholay was very obviously the biggest hit of the year (and of the century, by some yardsticks). But Deewar held its own as well, boasting Vijay with the tattoo, Mera baap chor hai, squaring off against Ravi?s, Mere paas maa hai! Academic interpretations heavily tilt in favour of Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen?s view that the film repeats the ?traditional? proposition that kinship laws must prevail over legality at a very sensitive political and cultural moment: the year the Emergency was declared. But the many contexts in which the maa dialogue continues to be used testify to the ongoing life of many interpretations. The Salim-Javed script also thrives as a powerful teaching tool at film schools today. Anurag Kashyap?s Gangs of Wasseypur is just one of the latest films to frontline a debt to Deewar.

Chopra would not only go on to help

cement Bachchan?s olympian stardom with films like Trishul (1978) but also, when the actor appeared to have run out of luck in the 21st century, help him regain the high ground by producing films like Mohabbatein (2000).

Silsila (1981)

Rs 3.5 crore, Below Expectations

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, Chopra also reminded everyone that his most gossip-fuelling film had an original cast of Smita Patil and Parveen Babi. When he went to Rekha and Jaya Bachchan instead, he asked both of them, ?for obvious reasons?, ?Please koi gadbad mat karma.? This film unarguably remains on any top ten list of art imitating life in India. It?s also a testament to Chopra?s ability to maintain cordial working relationships with most people in the clique-oriented Hindi film industry. The most notable ?break-up? in his professional life obviously took place when he set up a banner to rival big brother BR?s. It is reported that a reconciliation took place even on that front, before BR Chopra?s death.

Veer Zaara (2004)

Rs 40 crore, Super Hit

Chopra?s role in the making of India?s first mega star persona was impressive enough. That he also played a significant part in the making of the second one provides a telling reflection of his unusual insight into India?s box office. After successfully casting Shahrukh Khan as an anti-hero in Darr (1993), and then as a romantic lead in Dil to Pagal Hai (1997), with the classic Yash Raj tag line: ?Somewhere, someone is made for you,? Chopra called upon King Khan to lead an emotive Indo-Pak drama delving right back into the Partition seed story. Eve has risen as an equal to Adam by now, even if she?s still embraced in chiffons.

Remaining connected to the separation anxiety of his youth throughout his oeuvre, Chopra nevertheless broke free of many shackles in his film-making career. By transitioning from anarchic family production into the very professional Yash Raj studio, for example. And also by becoming India?s tourism ambassador in Switzerland. This reviewer has definite plans to cavort across that pastoral wonderland, while humming, Mujhko bhi yeh khabar hai ke tum nahin ho, kahin nahin ho, Magar yeh dil hai ke keh raha hai ke tum yahin ho, yahin kahin ho.

*Nett Gross numbers from boxofficeindia.com