Greatest Showman 2

Continuing with last weekend blog on Raj Kapoor. Last time I have covered his life’s journey on one aspect of his professional life, ie being a film maker (producer & director). Today I will be covering his journey as actor, and some other aspects of his life.

As an actor he was highly influenced by  the greatest comedian Charlie Chaplin, and in so many of his films he portrayed the character of a simpleton, where you could see Chaplin’s mannerism. Other than playing simpleton , he also portrayed the other character also very well. I am listing below , some of his memorable performances

1. Awara- This can be considered as his one of the best performance. He enacted the role of a youth, who was abandoned by his father before his birth, as his mother was kidnapped by some dacoits. He fell into the hands of wrong elements and gets involved in underworld activities. Basically he is good at heart. After he met his childhood friend, he wants to reform but he could not. His girl friend is brought up by his real father. He confronts his father so many times because both of them do not know their actual relationship. The father is not agreeing for his relationship with his ward. Their confrontation scenes are fabulous. This picture was acclaimed world wide and especially in Soviet Union, and the song ” Awara Hoon” became cult song in Soviet Union.
2. Jaagte Raho- In this movie he played a role very contrary to his image, till that time no one could imagine that he can also act in serious role. He plays a role of villager, who comes to Bombay for work. As he is feeling thirsty he enters one building, which is having multiple small apartments at each floor.Some one sees him and shouts thief has entered our building. He hardly spoke any dialogue in this movie, except for the climax, where he is standing on top of water tank, and addressing people who have come to catch him. This performance won him many international recoginition.
3. Chori Chori- In this movie he played the role of reporter, who meets a runaway girl, who is running away from her father to meet her boy friend in different city. This movie was based on Hollywood film ” It happened  one night”. This was again remade in 90s as ‘Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin”. He performed superbly in the role of reporter who falls in the love with the runaway girl.
4. Anari- Here he performs a role of simple man, who is working in a Pharmaceutical company. He accidently meets owner’s niece, but she pretends to be servant of the house, and on her saying servant starts acting as her boss. When he comes to know the real truth, he is devastated. In the climax he is arrested for sending wrong consignment of medicine into the market. This performance also won him many acting awards including his first Filmfare award as best actor.
5. Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai-In this he played a role of simple villager, who earns his living as singing in fair etc (this tribe is known as Bhand). He gets involved with dacoit gang, in their camp how he gets involved with Chief’s daughter and how that is resented by no. 2 in the gang.The main crux is how he reforms the gang and ask them to surrender.This role also won him Filmfare’s best actor award.
6. Teesri Kasam- Here he plays a role of bullock cart operator, who brings one Nautanki dancer from station to the village. No one could have imagined that Raj Kapoor can performed so well in this type of role.
7. Sangam- His own production, in which he played the role of Air Force Pilot, the girl whom he loves and admires actually loves his best friend. The girl gets married to him, how he suspects her afterwards is the story. Nice love triangle.
8. Mera Naam Joker- This movie was in three sections, he played the role of Joker in 2nd & 3rd section. He wonderfully portrayed the role of joker and its dilemma. People always remember the way he acted in two songs specially- Jaane Kahan Gaye Woh Din and Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan.

Some other films where he performed very well were Baawre Nain, Aah, Phir Subah Hogi, Parvarish, Chhalia, Barssat, Kanahiya and many more. In the later stage of his career , he even played the character roles, and some of the notable films were Dharam Karam, Abdullah, Do Jasoos.

Coming to his personal life- he got married to Krishna Malhotra in May 1946, Krishna’s brothers also acted in films afterwards, they were Premnath, Rajendranath and Narendranath and her sister is married to actor Prem Chopra. Raj Kapoor’s both brothers Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor were also leading men in Hindi films. Raj and Krishna had 5 children, three sons Randhir ( who later became actor & director), Rishi Kapoor (who also became actor ) and Rajeev Kapoor (also an actor). Among his sons Rishi Kapoor journey as actor has been fantastic. His eldest daughter Ritu  got married to  Rajan Nanda (Escort group Chairman), who expired recently. His younger daughter Rima is married to investment banker Manoj Jain. Randhir kapoor, his son, got married to actress Babita and their 2 daughters are also actress Karihsma and Kareena. Rishi kapoor got married to actress Neetu Singh and their son Ranbir Kapoor is also an actor, and their daughter Ridhima is married but not connected with bollywood industry. Raj Kapoor’s youngest son Rajeev got married and later divorced, details are not available. So there are four generations of Kapoor family  are connected with Bollywood, starting from Prthiraj Kapoor(his father), then his sons and his grand children.

Raj Kapoor had a longtime romantic relationship with actress Nargis with whom he starred in 16 films. Although neither ever publicly admitted to this.

He was a fine judge of film music. many of his songs he commissioned are evergreen hits. He could get his music directors to give their best for his films, as to satisfy him was herculean task. It has been said that recording of the song ” Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi” from Awara almost took 24 hours, as he was not satisfied with one particular beat in this song and till the time musicians satisfied him, he went on asking for re recording.It has also been said that he was pioneer in starting dream sequence in the film, which he started with Awara. In this film dream sequence, which was full of songs, he almost spent Rs 1.5 lakhs when total cost of the movie was Rs 5 lakhs. He is also remembered for his strong sense of visual style.

A postage stamp, bearing his face, was released by India Post in Dec 2001. To honour him, a brass statue of his was unveiled at Walk Of Stars at Bandra Bandstand in Mumbai in March 2012.

In Soviet Union, Raj Kapoor is considered as one of the three known symbols of Indian culture, others being Shiva and Yoga.

Waiting for your comments/views/feed backs.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

15th Sept, 2018.

PS – I could not write my blogs for last 2 days, because of Ganpati festival.