Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar shared a bond beyond Cinema
Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar shared a bond beyond Cinema
Not many may be versed that
Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar shared a bond beyond Cinema.
The Showman of the Hindi Cinema as he was credited on June 2, 1988, suddenly slipped into coma and later breathed his last after battling with life and death.
Although, his family was by his side in those last days, his best friend Dilip Kumar was also informed about his condition.
At that time around Dilip Kumar was in Pakistan for an event but on hearing the sad news, he rushed back to Delhi to be by his best friend’s side. The thespian of the Hindi Cinema wasn’t the least aware that this was the last time he was meeting his ‘Laale Di Jaan’, a title he gave him endearingly.
Dilip Kumar could not believe his eyes that Raj Kapoor had slipped into Coma, and he tried every bit to revive him. To bring him back to consciousness, the Naya Daur actor reminded the Sangam superstar of all that their childhood held in Pakistan.
Going down memory lane, Dilip Kumar held Raj Kapoor‘s hand and talked over their ancestral home in Peshawar, the kebabs, and how he had brought kebab ki khushboo with him from Pakistan just for his friend.
In Dilip Kumar’s autobiography, Rishi Kapoor himself wrote a note about his father’s last meeting with the Devdas actor. Both of them are helpless, one lying on the bed and the other trying to make him live just to fulfill that one wish together!
Rishi Kapoor, in his note, wrote, “I remember very clearly how he (Dilip Kumar) walked into the room where Papa was lying unconscious and drew a chair close to the bed on which he sat holding Papa’s hand. He began telling Papa, ‘Raj, aaj bhi main der se aaya. Maaf kar de mujhe..‘ I know you like to be in the limelight and have all the attention on you. Enough is enough. Get up and sit and listen to me. I have just come back from Peshawar, and I have brought the aroma of chapli kebabs to temp you. You and I will go together and will walk through the bazaar, like we used to and enjoy the kebabs and rotis. Raj, wake up and stop acting, I know you are a great actor.”
In conclusion Rishi wrote a hearbreaking good bye from a friend to another friend, “…(Dilip Kumar said) Raj, mainu le jana hai tusi Peshawar de ghar de aangan wich.’ His voice was now choking and tears were shedding over from his eyes as he spoke.
With that breaking voice, a last wish was left unfulfilled, and while Dilip Kumar looked at Raj Kapoor, for the last time, everyone in that hospital room knew that the Showman was not returning to them ever again.
Raj Kapoor breathed his last on June 2, 1988.
News Edit K.V.Raman
