Why Raj Kapoor was the one true raja of Bollywood
No one could match Raj Kapoor in mingling laughter with tears.
Mehboob Khan was shooting an intense scene of Andaz. The sequence had Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Noticing the method and calculative pattern of Dilip Kumar’s acting, Raj Kapoor decided to simply follow his instincts. An inimitable low-key dialogue delivery by Kumar paled in front of Raj Kapoor’s sarcastic smile. Though Dilip Kumar won encomiums for his performances, he later refused to face Raj Kapoor in Sangam in 1964.
If Dilip Kumar was about method and polish, Dev Anand stylised yet fluid, Raj Kapoor was a born actor. He came from a stage background of Prithvi Theatre. Yet, he understood the language of cinema well. Considering Charlie Chaplin his idol, Kapoor was always a natural actor. Rarely did he indulge in melodrama and theatrics. Satyajit Ray felt Raj Kapoor was a better actor than a director.
Prithviraj Kapoor recommended Raj Kapoor to Kidar Sharma to assist him. Raj Kapoor began to assist the eminent director. But he was fond of facing the camera. So one day, he applied makeup on his face and appeared on the floors. Annoyed, Kidar Sharma slapped the young Kapoor. So taken aback and hurt was Raj Kapoor that tears rolled down his cheeks. Seeing his expression, the next day, Kidar Sharma launched Raj Kapoor as a lead actor in Neel Kamal.
At the age of 25, Raj Kapoor started his production, RK Films. He made his debut as a director with Aag. Though critically acclaimed, the movie flopped. Then, Raj Kapoor mingled entertainment with passion, lyricism and social content in Barsaat, Awara and Shree 420. They were rip-roaring successes. He also produced and acted in offbeat films such as Boot Polish, Aah and Jagte Raho. A follower of Nehruvian socialism, he was very upset when Jawharlal Nehru did not make an appearance in RK Films’s satire, Ab Dilli Door Nahin.
No one could match Raj Kapoor in mingling laughter with tears. In this aspect, his pathos touched more hearts than the planned tragedy of Dilip Kumar. Raj Kapoor knew well he was not versatile like Dilip Kumar. He was also not debonair and romantic like Dev Anand. So he opted for serio-comedy, which no other actor of his era experimented with.
Raj Kapoor first performed a double role in Chandulal Shah’s Papi. In this film, he displayed histrionic abundance and adopted a body language that was rhythmic. In fact, he did sing a song in his own voice, tuned by SD Burman. If Shanker Jaikishan was the musical soul of Raj Kapoor, Mukesh and Manna Dey were his perfect playback singers. Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt and Vijay Anand had the best music sense as directors. From Sangam, Raj Kapoor took to editing. KA Abbas, Ramanand Sagar and Inder Raj Anand wrote memorable scripts for him.
As a director, Raj Kapoor had excellent tuning with all his co-stars and technicians. It was the conceiving of Raj Kapoor that inspired Radhu Karmakar to divide close-ups and mid closes as Raj Kapoor looked at himself in a mirror and kissed his hands in Shree 420. The great cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, appreciated the technique with which Kapoor focused on Rajendra Kumar and Vyjayanthimala during the song Dost Dost Na Raha in Sangam.
He never gave unnecessary prominence to himself. No wonder he made it a point that Subrata Mitra cinematographed Teesri Kasam.
Kapoor was heart-broken after Jagte Raho, Teesri Kasam and Mere Naam Joker flopped. Mera Naam Joker, an autobiographical experiment, remains his best effort as director, actor. His mental pandemonium was superbly echoed through the song Jane Kahan Gaye Woh Din. V Shantaram termed it a lesson in song picturisation.
After Mera Naam Joker, Raj Kapoor never faced the camera in films he directed. His later directional ventures – Bobby, Satyam Sivam Sundaram and Ram Teri Ganga Maili – were too commercial.
If Nargis was his lucky mascot in about 15 films, Nimmi, Padmini, Vyjayanthimala and Simmi were also his favourites. He considered Dimple Kapadia like a daughter. It was at his special request that Frank Orel made a special appearance in Around The World, India’s first 70mm film.
As a character actor, Raj Kapoor showed flashes of brilliance in Kal Aaj Aur Kal, Dharam Karam, Khan Dost and Abdullah. To Raj Kapoor, one of his great moments was the live interaction with Charlie Chaplin at his villa in Montreax in 1954.
Kapoor was part of the first Indian film delegation to Venice, Moscow and Peking in 1954. The Raj of the masses of his nation, he is still a demigod in the Soviet Union and China.
During the shooting of Teesri Kasam, he would often tell Subrata Mitra, “Fatur hoe gelam go (I have become a pauper)”, in Bengali. It was a joke. After his demise 30 years ago, Subrata Mitra uttered the same lines and wept.