The Roshans

Think music composers of yesteryear and chances are that the name Roshan wouldn’t figure on the top of your mind. For the present generation and even a generation before that, the surname Roshan is but obviously a byword for superstar Hrithik Roshan and, at best, his father-filmmaker Rakesh Roshan. But, as the Netflix documentary ‘The Roshans’ delves into the lives of four men of the Roshan family, all of them of exceptional talent, you learn more than a thing or two about who the original Roshan was. The first episode dedicated to the family patriarch, the late Roshan Lal Nagrath, is a revelation. Not because it unfurls any hidden family secrets, but reminds you how those lilting melodies — ‘Mann re tu kahe na dheer dhare’, ‘Rahein na rahein hum, mehka karenge’, ‘Yeh ishq ishq hai’, ‘Zindagi bhar nahi bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat’ — you have often hummed came from his musical prowess. There are so many OMG moments. ‘Nigahein milane ko jee chahta hai’, ‘Dil jo na keh saka’… — he composed these, too! The list is endless. As we get over the overwhelming feeling of admiration, also stemming out of our ignorance of not knowing enough about his music, the very first episode turns out to be extremely satisfying.

One of the chief things that emerges from this four-part mini-series on the Roshans, is that, despite being part of so many memorable films via music, direction, production and performance, their contribution to Hindi cinema was not celebrated enough. Part of the pleasure of watching this kind of show is the straight-up access: apart from the Roshans themselves — Rajesh, Rakesh, Hrithik and close family — everyone from Shatrughan Sinha, Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Karan Johar, the Akhtars, Javed, Farhan and Zoya, Abhishek Bachchan, singers Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpuri, Sudha Malhotra, Usha Mangeshkar, Kumar Sanu, Sonu Nigam, and several others are all here, speaking about their relationship, professional and personal, with the Roshans.

You’ve heard of “Prestige TV”: the term for quality long-form film-making, cinematic production values, A-list acting and complex screenwriting. But in the Netflix non-fiction universe, Prestige TV is a far more literal term. It stands for self-produced and self-congratulatory celebrity documentaries with infinite access that explore the sanitised prestige of fame. The symptoms: prestigious movie and music legacies, prestigious anecdotes, prestigious lives, prestigious prestige. You get the gist. Or maybe you didn’t. Think of the line from Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige (2006): “Making something disappear isn’t enough, you have to bring it back”. This hagiographic genre is all about bringing things back. Some call it the magic of movies, others call it a nostalgia grab.