Joy de vivre

Nayyar paired Joy with the attractive and screen-friendly newcomer, Sadhana, and the wide-eyed Azra. Sadhana's Audrey Hepburn fringe became the talk of the town, so did Joy's chocolate boy looks. In this breezy comedy about a bachelor who simultaneously loves two cousin sisters, Mohammad Rafi sang some lilting songs for Joy.

All through his career, Joy's popularity was propped by the sonorous songs that complemented his frat boy image. After all, who can resist jukebox favourites like Bahut shukriya and Aap yun hi agar from Joy and Sadhana's second film together, Ek Musafir Ek Haseena?

Despite a slew of O P Nayyar melodies, Ek Musafir… was initially rejected at the box-office. But a quick re-edit by director Raj Khosla made it more audience-friendly and the film gained in strength week after week.

From 1963, Joy teamed up with Sadhana's immediate rival, Asha Parekh, to collaborate on a hat-trick of musical hits. It was Joy's family banner, Filmalaya, which discovered both Sadhana and Asha. Joy was signed by Nasir Hussain to act opposite Asha in his first colour-saturated song-studded love story, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963).

Phir Wohi... became emblematic of Joy's image and was a silver jubilee hit.

Then came Pramod Chakravarthy's Ziddi, where Joy enjoyed himself taming the shrewish Asha. The film had even an elephant thrown in for good measure.

At the height of the craze for shooting abroad, Joy declared his love for a kimono-clad Asha fluttering an embroidered fan and false eyelashes in Chakravarthy's next, Love In Tokyo. Chakravarthy's gambit to cash in on Ziddi's success paid off. The film had audiences refusing to do a Sayonara as they returned for repeated viewings.

Parallel to Joy's treacle train of successes with Asha ran a vinegary train of disappointments with Saira Banu. Of the five films Joy and Saira did together --- Door Ki Awaaz, Aao Pyar Kare, Saaz Aur Awaaz, Yeh Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hain and Shagird -- only Shagird hit bull's eye.

Joy showed a fine flair for comedy as Johar's love guru in this golden jubilee hit. He also had a ball playing Casonava to village belle Saira.

The twin cause of Joy's decline was his decision to turn producer-director with Humsaaya and the entry of a younger Rajesh Khanna as the new romantic icon.

In a bid to earn legitimacy as an actor -- he had only acted in fluff fare so far -- Joy decided to give himself a meaty double role in Humsaaya. It was an earnest and expensive effort in which Joy played a spy who doubles as Chinese girl Mala Sinha's husband (also played by Joy) without taking his girlfriend, Sharmila Tagore, into confidence.

He spent lavishly on the production and blew up a bomb on stunts -- including a risky shot of a series of trucks being blown up -- that nearly cost him his life. He even got a lease of unexpected publicity when Mala Sinha and Sharmila Tagore broke into a cat fight on the sets and let the fur fly!