A brief on Raj Kapoor’s ‘professional’ bond with his family-Prithviraj to Prem Chopra
A brief on Raj Kapoor’s ‘professional’ bond with his family-Prithviraj to Prem Chopra
It is ofttime ennounced that there should be no mixup in a celebrity’s professional and personal life. But what if the actor is a trailblazing actor like Raj Kapoor?
And even if reams have been scripted on him afore his centenary that is on December 14, 2024,it is a fascinating study to look at how he ‘used’, cinematically and professionally, his family members and those from his wife, Krishna Raj Kapoor’s side.
Raj Kapoor the filmmaker did not even ‘spare’ his (non-actor) grandfather! In the memorable court case shown in Awara (1951), Dewan Basheshwar Nath Kapoor played the judge in the famous sequence that also brought together Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj as, respectively, the errant father and his vagabond son!
Apart from Awara, Prithviraj also was Raj’s on-screen father in
Kal Aaj Aur Kal. This film, released on July 1, 1971 saw three generations of Kapoors again together, with Randhir Kapoor, Raj’s son, playing the third generation.
Interestingly, Babita, who played Randhir’s love, was also his girlfriend in real life and they married on November 6 that year. In both films, there was a dramatic confrontation amid father and son over ideologies.
Ofcourse, Raj was also a part of some plays staged by his father’s Prithvi Theatres.
Raj Kapoor never cast Shammi Kapoor in any of his films as their lead personae were completely different. It was only after Shammi’s second innings began that he cast him in Prem Rog (1982) as a senior character artiste. Raj had no film with Shammi’s first wife, Geeta Bali, under the RK banner, but they co-featured in the 1950 hit, Bawre Nain.
With Shashi Kapoor, however, the case was different. In both Aag (1948) and Awara (1951), the 1938-born youngest brother of Raj Kapoor played his brother’s childhood and left an indelible mark, especially in the latter film. In 1978, he played the lead (besides lending his voice in a song) in Raj’s dream project, ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ which the actor-filmmaker is said to have originally planned in the 1950s with Lata Mangeshkar and himself!
Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor, along with Ritu Kapoor (Raj’s daughter), were brought in to portray three passing children in the rain in the hit song, ‘Pyar hua ikraar hua’, with the significant sentiments expressed by the lovers—‘Tum na rahoge hum na rahenge / Phir bhi rahengi nishaaniyan’. The film was Shree 420 (1955) and Raj and Nargis enacted the duet.
Randhir later made a double debut as actor and director in Kal Aaj Aur Kal, a then-topical generation gap story. Later, Raj cast him in Dharam Karam (1975), his production that was Randhir Kapoor’s directorial. Raj and Randhir, again after
Kal Aaj Aur Kal, played father and (separated) son. Randhir next featured in Biwi O Biwi (1981), an Archies-like comedy produced by the RK Films banner.
Following this, out of economic reasons, Randhir was made a producer under the sister concern, RK Films & Studios, for what turned out to be Raj’s swan song as director, Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), which turned out to be Raj Kapoor’s biggest hit ever. And shortly before Raj’s death in 1988, Randhir was to again produce Henna, a part of which was conceived amidst Raj Kapoor’s lifetime. Randhir later took over as director of this 1991 hit.
Rishi enacted Raj Kapoor’s adolescence in the magnum opus, Mera Naam Joker (1970). As for a younger son debuting before Randhir, it is said that Randhir then too was too overweight for the part and so Rishi came in, winning the National Award for Best Child Actor!
Rishi then played the lead in Bobby (1973), a ‘small’ film made to offset the losses incurred with Mera Naam Joker and Kal Aaj Aur Kal. The fresh film, Hindi cinema’s first teenage love story, turned out to be a blockbuster that remains RK Films biggest-ever hit. Rishi was also chosen as the leading man of the hard-hitting socials, Prem Rog and Henna. In all these women-centric films, Rishi scored high as an actor.
For Henna, however, Randhir had been Raj’s first choice, later Rishi, and after Ram Teri Ganga Maili, even youngest son Rajiv Kapoor.
Ritu never acted in any film, keeping up the tradition of the Kapoor women never doing films until Karisma Kapoor broke it, leading to a split, as per buzz, between parents Randhir and Babita, who backed her.
Rajiv Kapoor was the only son whom Raj Kapoor never ever launched. But the actor owed the only hit of his 14-film career to his father in Ram Teri Ganga Maili. After that, he was also Raj Kapoor’s choice for Henna, but after Raj Kapoor’s demise, Rishi, a top star, was chosen as a business decision.
Vishwa Mehra, also known as Mamaji, was in many ways the backbone of early
RK movies. The production-in-charge of the banner (Aag, Barsaat, Awara) was also instrumental in Raj Kapoor opting for Shankar-Jaikishan over Ram Ganguly in the landmark Barsaat
(1949), when he revealed to his nephew how major was S-J’s role in Ram Ganguly’s music for Raj’s debut as filmmaker, Aag (1948).
Vishwa did the small role in many a RK film (Aag, Barsaat, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Kal Aaj Aur Kal, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Biwi O Biwi, Prem Rog and Ram Teri Ganga Maili) and was best noticed as Bhimu in Jis Desh…, for most of these were walk-on parts.
The three brothers of Raj Kapoor’s wife Krishna all became a part of an RK film when roles suited their persona. Premnath played the key role of Raj’s benefactor in Aag, followed by the role of a womanizer who is Raj’s close friend, in Barsaat, the real breakthrough for the RK banner. Then came a cameo in the song ‘Naiyya meri majhdhaar’ in Awara.
After this hat-trick, Premnath was back only as the golden-hearted fisherman in Bobby during his character actor innings, followed by Dharam Karam as a hoodlum who wants his son to be a decent, law-abiding man.
Rajendra Nath achieved maximum fame as a comic actor and became a part of Mera Naam Joker, Biwi O Biwi and Prem Rog. Of these, the first role was that of a circus surgeon, while the last was part-serious.
Narendranath, the youngest brother, was more known for villainy and did the negative role of Ranjit, son to his real-life brother Premnath, in Dharam Karam!
Although Raj Kapoor never worked with Premnath’s son Prem Krishen, he got Monty Nath, the younger son, to play small roles tinted with grey in Prem Rog and Ram Teri Ganga Maili.
Krishna’s sister, Uma got married to Prem Chopra, a journalist(Times of India) -turned-actor, who accomplished great fame as a villain and later character artiste. Raj cast him as the baddie in Bobby (1973), telling him that people will remember his limited role and his one-liner, “Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra”. Said Prem, “Krishna and his wife are sisters and that’s the only reason Raj Kapoor could persuade him to accept that tiny cameo. But Raj-saab said, ‘If the film is a hit, you will always be remembered.’ How right he was! A million spent on self-promotion would never have given him the mileage and popularity this film gave him and continues to do so! Till today, almost 50 years after its release, whenever goes to a public function, he is asked to speak the line! And to think that even on the first day of shooting he was pretty disturbed that he had no other dialogue!
News Edit KV Raman
