Shammi Kapoor, the 77-year-old yahoo hero of the 60s Shares his personal moments , an anecdote surfaced throwing light on the understanding Raj Kapoor had about his younger brother’s nature and his nascent love for the celluloid.

“When my father got summons from the Principal of Don Bosco where I was enrolled to come and see the school authorities and take note of the errant ways of his ward, who bunked classes to go to cinema theatres, he (Prithviraj Kapoor) asked Rajsaab to go and inquire,” Shammi Kapoor, who was in pune to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ongoing Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), recalled.

“My brother Raj Kapoor came to my school and heard the complaints against me from the principal. After listening to the teachers he simply called me and asked me collect my books and come home with him.”

Going down the memory lane, Shammi Kapoor said, “as I got into the car and came home, Raj told our father what transpired at the school”. So what were the corrective measures for Shammi mooted by Rajsaab?

Nothing. He simply declared that since his love for theatres was not approved by Don Bosco, he should go to a new school.

Original Name:  Ranbir Raj Kapoor
Nick Name:  Raju
Commonly Known Name:  Showman of Bollywood
Date of Birth (Birthday):  14 December, 1924
Date of Death:  2-6-88
Hair Color:  Black
Birth Place:  Peshawar
Religion:  Hindu
Education:  Non Matric
Marital Status:  Married
Languages:  Hindi, English

Family Background
Father’s Name:  Prithavi Raj Kapoor
Mother’s Name:  Ramsarni (Rama) Devi nee Mehra
Brother(s):  Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor
Sister(s):  Urmila Sial
Spouse:  Krishna Malhotra
Son:  Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor
Daughter:  Reetu Nanda, Reema

Film Background (Filmography)
Film Career:  He was a very popular actor as well as producer, director
Debut Film:  Inquilab
Famous Movies:  Kim, Vakil Babu, Gopichand Jasoos, Abdullah, Naukri, Satyam Shivam Sundaram: Love Sublime, Chandi Sona, Khaan Dost, Dharam Karam, Do Jasoos, Mera Desh Mera Dharam, Kal Aaj Aur Kal, Mera Naam Joker, Sapnon Ka Saudagar, Around the World, Diwana, Teesri Kasam, Dulha Dulhan, Sangam, Dil Hi To Hai,Ek Dil Sau Afsane, Aashiq, Nazrana, Chhalia, Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai, Shriman Satyawadi, Anari, Char Dil Char Raahein, Do Ustad, Kanhaiya, Main Nashe Men Hoon, Parvarish, Phil Subha Hogi, Sharada, Chori Chori, Jagte Raho, Shree 420, Aah, Dhoon,Paapi, Amber, Anhonee, Ashiana, Bewafa, Awaara, Banwra, Bawre Nain, Dastan, Jan Pahchan, Pyaar, Sargam, Andaz, Barsaat, Parivartan, Sunehre Din, Aag, Amar Prem, Gopinath, Neel Kamal, Chittor Vijay, Dil-Ki-Rani, Jail Yatra, Valmiki, Gauri, Hamari Baat, Inquilab
Film Awards:  Prix award (1957), Padma Bhushan(1971), Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1987) and so many other film fare film awards
Other Facts:  Started fim career as clapper boy assisting kiddar sharma in Nilkamal (1947)
Other Achievements:  He had his own film production house – R.K. Banner

Raj Kapoor one of India’s greatest showman in the silver screen is remembered once again on 2nd June on his 18th death Anniversary.

Kapoor entered the film industry as a clapper boy and went on to become one of the shining icons of the Indian silver screen.

Here’s a look at the journey of one of the greatest showman of Indian Cinema.

Known as Showman of Hindi Cinema, Raj Kapoor was born on 14 December 1924, in Peshawar, now in Pakistan.

He started his acting career at the age of 11 with the film Inquilab.

He made it to the big league with his lead role in Neel Kamal in 1947.

At the age of 24 in 1948, Raj Kapoor established his own studio, RK Films, with his first directorial venture, “Aag”.

Raj Kapoor directed several films and acted in most of them.

He became immensely popular in Russia after “Awaara” and “Shri 420″ as the movies achieved unprecedented success in that country.

With “Awaara”, Raj Kapoor created for himself the image of a Chaplinisque tramp, an allegory for the innocent post Independent Indian.

This caricature was used once again in “Shri 420″.

The Chaplinisque image was used again in his magnum opus “Mera Naam Joker” in 1970, which was about a clown, who laughs at the outside world and cries within.

This most ambitious project of his flopped at the box office.

After “Mera Naam Joker”, Raj Kapoor’s films took a turn toward sensuality, and he bounced back with “Bobby” in 1973.

Raj Kapoor depicted the story of common man in his films and they appealed to every section of the society.

While his “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” examined physical beauty versus Inner Beauty, “Prem Rog” was based on widow re-marriage.

Music was the soul of Raj Kapoor’s films, and they became popular not only in India, but abroad too.

He won many awards during his career in Hindi movies.

In 1985, his “Ram Teri Ganga Maili” won him the best movie and best director awards.

He was nominated for the 1953 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for “Awaara”.

In 1971, he got the Padma Bhushan, and in 1987, he won the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his invaluable lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.

Raj Kapoor died on 2nd June, 1988 due to Kidney failure.

At the time of his death, Kapoor was making “Heena”.

The script was ready but he was not there to direct it.

His son Randhir Kapoor took over the task, and the film, was a major commercial success.

Ruddy-cheeked and light-eyed, Raj Kapoor was unmistakably Destiny’s blue-eyed boy
It got him many film roles and the talented Kapoor made sure he left a mark in each of them.

This boy wonder started multi-tasking from the age of 24 when he produced, directed and acted in Aag (1948).

He had the unique ability to marshal talents like writer K A Abbas, lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri, music maestros Shanker-Jaikishan, singer Mukesh and numerous actors and make them work at their optimum.

He gifted names like Nimmi, Dimple Kapadia, Rishi Kapoor, Padmini Kolhapure and Mandakini to the film industry.

As a romantic actor, his onscreen romance with Nargis, fuelled by larger-than-life stories of their off-screen relationship, was a glorious chapter in the cinematic history of Hindi cinema.
But the roles Kapoor played best were those of a messiah of social change and of the impassioned advocate of universal love.

Born Ranbir Raj Kapoor on December 14, 1924, in Peshawar to thespian Prithviraj Kapoor and his wife Rama, Kapoor failed his matriculation examination. Drawn towards cinema, he started working as an assistant on the sets of Dilip Kumar’s first film, Bombay Talkies’ Jwar Bhatta.

After a few inconsequential roles, Kapoor got his break as hero in 1947, in Kidar Sharma’s Neel Kamal opposite Madhubala. The next year, he was already married and had plunged into directing his debut, Aag (1948), the dark, brooding meditation on love.

Raj Kapoor first showed his scene-stealing abilities in Mehboob Khan’s Andaz (1949), where he costarred with Nargis and Dilip Kumar. Kapoor played Nargis’s flamboyant but suspicious husband with aplomb. Flamboyance was his forte in other early successes like Dastaan and Sargam as well.

Kapoor was only 25 when his directorial venture Barsaat won him recognition as one who enjoyed a direct connection with the masses. Moreover, the self-obsessive pain of Aag paved the way for a more universal empathy evidenced in the way he captured mountain maid Nimmi’s anguish in Barsaat.

The actor-director enjoyed rare creative control of his image and his work. His next venture Awaara (1951) was a fascinating and psychologically adept look at a man caught in the centre of a nature-versus-nurture debate.

His knack for romance is revealed in the famous sequence where an angry Kapoor slaps Nargis after she calls him awaara. He is angry at her for being so attractive and assured, at himself for not quite being able to come to terms with his feelings of inadequacy prompted by his dubious background, at his libido for wanting her and at his ego for living in constant dread of a probable rejection.

Awaara, when released in Russia as Brodigaya, achieved unprecedented success and the song Awaara hoon became a Russian favourite.

Kapoor’s RK banner flew high with Shri 420 (1955), the story of a hobo (Kapoor) caught between material aspirations (as represented by the sharp Nadira) and the higher self (as represented by schoolteacher Nargis). The tramp of Shri 420, who doffed his battered bowler hat to Chaplin, touched a universal nerve.

The popularity of this tramp with a golden heart grew to gargantuan dimensions after Kapoor portrayed almost saintly extensions in Anadi (1959) and Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960); and, later, in Deewana (1967), Sapnon Ka Saudagar (1968) and Mera Naam Joker (1970).

Kapoor’s Sangam (1964) saw a love triangle centering around a man (Kapoor), his wife (Vyjayanthimala) and their best friend (Rajendra Kumar). His ability to see and empathise with each character’s emotional viewpoint spoke volumes about his sensitivity as a director. Sangam’s thunderous success triggered off a vogue for foreign locales (Love In Tokyo, An Evening In Paris) in Hindi films.

After Sangam, a now-rotund and 40-plus Kapoor looked lacklustre in films like Around The World opposite much younger heroines like Rajshri and Hema Malini. But the actor was too obsessed with his pet project, Mera Naam Joker to realise he should be eating and drinking less.

In the ambitious Mera Naam Joker, Kapoor seemed undecided about the film’s scope — should the tale about a clown’s tragic love story strive for intimacy or restrict itself to spectacle or, maybe, strive for a bit of both? The film failed to live up to the high expectations of the audience.
Any other man would have lost heart after such a debacle, but not Kapoor. Despite creditors beating at his door, he refused to keep the lid on production expenses and defiantly made Bobby (1973) with two newcomers, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia.

Even if one is not predisposed towards young love stories, one enjoys Bobby for the sheer beauty of its visuals, the exuberance of youth and Kapoor’s ability to transcend the generation gap when communicating to his audience.

Bobby’s stellar success was not duplicated by Kapoor’s next, Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978). Kapoor valiantly attempted to recycle Aag and convince us that, in love, a beautiful soul is of paramount importance. But his camera’s predilection for heroine Zeenat Aman’s curves told another story.

Raj Kapoor’s sensitivity towards his female protagonists found more favour in Prem Rog (1982), a film about widow remarriage, and Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), where he employed a woman as a metaphor for a once pure, but now defiled, country.

At 60, he had lost none of his ability to push the audience’s emotional throttle. On June 3, 1988, Raj Kapoor, who had been suffering from asthma, finally succumbed.

The script of Henna was ready but Kapoor was not there to direct it. In keeping with the theme of his life (as articulated emphatically in Mera Naam Joker) — the show must go on — his eldest son Randhir directed Heena for the RK banner.