Famous as the first ‘Showman’ of Indian cinema, had Raj Kapoor been alive today, he would have celebrated in grand style his turning 100 this month. Facing the movie cameras after putting on the grease-paint and an attire which was a take on that of the inimitable Charlie Chaplin, he essayed the part of a hero when the country had just assumed its seat among newly independent nations.
Son of leading actor of the day, Prithviraj Kapoor, Ranvir Raj Kapoor had learnt the nuts and bolts of film-making the hard way. As a hand in assisting director Kidar Sharma, the young Kapoor had earned himself a slap for combing his hair on the set of a film instead of being on the job.
Raj’s siblings were illustrious actors, too. Both Shammi and Shashi Kapoor need no introduction. Idealism was alive and well when Kapoor started his career and his films drew inspiration from it. The characters he essayed were known as Raju, a common man who believed in the goodness of others.
Kapoor’s story would be incomplete without the mention of his two contemporaries and friends, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar. If the former thrived on mannerism and style, the latter was credited with introducing “method acting” to India and went on to becoming a thespian, but there was no peer jealousy.
The trait of goodness marked out Kapoor’s roles in almost all his films. As a callow youth stepping in unsuspectingly amidst the concrete jungle or a gang of dacoits, Raju was often duped. The girl he pined for and who had identical feelings for him often misunderstood his simplicity. But in the last reel of the film he got back all that seemed to have slipped out of his grasp owing to the same goodness which initially had been his undoing.
‘Anari’ opposite Nutan and ‘Teesri Kasam’ with Waheeda Rehman remain significant landmarks of his career. In both, his roles ooze innocence and goodness though they were not RK Studio films.
Kapoor’s films never jaded and the audience returned for more. First in black-and-white and, thereafter, in colour, these films were usually produced and directed by him under the banner of RK Films and shot in a studio bearing the same name.
A simple story line, which sometimes had Dickenson undertones, with the leading ladies, usually in white, singing melodious numbers carved out Kapoor’s captive audience. Appearing as a romantic lead opposite Raj Kapoor was often a milestone in the career graph of a heroine.
And Kapoor liked to present these glamour girls to the audience in a dark theatre in a state where their images would visit them later, again and again. He knew every trick in the book to get them wet though ‘Jagte Raho’ was an exception.
It was the same for Nargis in ‘Shree 420’, pouring passion drenched in rain, or Padmini in ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ or Mandakini beneath a waterfall in ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’. One must not. forget the wet Zeenat Aman in ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. Aman was inarguably the most unconventional of R.K heroines. Her face was scarred by make-up with Kapoor’s intent to concentrate the attention of the audience on her svelte figure cannot at all be ruled out.
Female form and the camera focussed on it was Kapoor’s game-plan to ensure hits. But it did not work out the way he had planned though ‘Mera Naam Joker’, a critically acclaimed film turned out to be the biggest flop of the RK Films. Kapoor was brought down to his knees by this failure at the box office. In the next, Shankar-Jaikishan, who had given RK films so many memorable numbers, was dispensed with and Lakshmikant- Pyarelal replaced them in ‘Bobby’.
‘Bobby’ was a launchpad for his son Rishi and a new teenage girl, Dimple Kapadia. It marked the beginning of teenage love stories on screen in India; it had come to stay in Indian filmdom and its pilot was Raj .Kapoor. ‘Bobby’ gave Kapoor’s creativity a new lease of life. His finances were back on the rails.
There would be no looking back thereafter. ‘Jawani Diwani’, ‘Kaal Aaj Aur Kal’ and ‘Dharam Karam’ followed but did not quite stand out though all were popularised by foot tapping music. ‘Prem Rog’, starring Rishi Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure, with Raj’s sibling and yesteryear dancing star Shammi Kapoor, essayed significant roles in a story line based on widow remarriage.
Raj Kapoor seemed to have regained his touch in it. ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ had Kapoor’s son Rajeev as the male lead together with another newcomer ‘Mandakini’. It was a Kapoor’s magnum opus. It became a landmark Hindi commercial film. Kapoor’s films portrayed strong female characters, but he was always in the hero’s role. ‘Sangam’ was an exception with Rajendra Kumar in the role of the “third man” , Though it was Raj in the screen name of
Sundar who gets the girl in the end.
Incidentally, Kapoor got the girl in all the films under the RK Films banner in which he acted as a hero. A winner in life and on screen, the role of the weeping lover whose beloved goes to another man was an anathema to him.
Known for emotional link ups with his heroines, Kapoor’s name was never away from the gossip columns. But it was always Nargis, his first heroine, who was the only woman entrenched in his heart.
Kapoor, who was not keeping well, collapsed as he was on the point of receiving the Dada Saheb Phalke Award from President Venkatraman. The first citizen of India walked down the podium to give it to the first Showman of the country; Kapoor passed away soon thereafter.
In an interview, the actor-director had said that he was just beginning to understand cinema. He had sent up a prayer to let him live a little longer to continue film-making, the profession he loved best. It was not granted. But the mode and manner of its refusal was in keeping with the way Raj Kapoor led his life and made his films; it was grand. (IPA Service)
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