‘Get up acting stop’, superstar ‘showman’ in coma, Dipil was shedding tears sitting nearby
Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.
The two cinema veterans, Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar’s friendship were as deep as their last meeting was as emotional. In 1988, when Raj Kapoor was struggling between life and death, he went into a coma. His family was with him, but the presence of a person deepened the feelings of that room, this person was Dilip Kumar. Dilip Saheb had gone to Pakistan for a program at that time as soon as he heard about his beloved friend’s condition, immediately returned to Delhi. Dilip Kumar, who called Raj Kapoor as ‘Lale Di Jaan’, had the same desire in his heart, to see his most strange friend once again.
Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar’s last meeting
Rishi Kapoor has mentioned this poignant moment in his book. He told how Dilip Saheb, in the hospital room, sat down with Raj Kapoor, pulling a chair, held his hand and tried to bring him to his senses. Dilip Kumar said, ‘Raj, even today I have come with fear. Forgive me … get up, sit and listen to me. ‘ Dileep said, ‘I have just returned from Peshawar and have brought you the fragrance of chapali kebab… Let’s go to the market, as if they used to run earlier. The pain was clearly visible in his voice. He tried to take Raj Kapoor into those golden memories by talking about his childhood stories, kebabs, rotis and the streets of Peshawar, as if the old smell would wake him up again.
Dileep regrets
He further said, ‘Raj, get up and stop acting, I know you are a great actor.’ It was not a common relationship, there was a deeper friendship than film bonding, but this call remained incomplete. Raj Kapoor said goodbye to this world on 2 June 1988. The tears flowing from Dilip Kumar’s eyes and his words were, ‘Raj, I have to take you, you have to take Peshawar de Ghar De Agan Witch….’ A friend’s last defeat was in his broken voice. An incomplete desire, a separation friendship, and the end of an era. The showman went away, but the story of his last meeting is still immortal in the history of cinema.
Childhood friendship was deep than every relationship
Dilip and Raj Kapoor were childhood friends. Both were born in his ancestral city of Peshawar and when he grew up, he studied at Khalsa College, Bombay. He later spent a few days in Bombay Talkies in his early days, where he worked under the intensive guidance and supervision of veterans like Devika Rani, owner Shri Shashadhar Mukherjee, producer and superstar Ashok Kumar’s elite company. Raj Kapoor and Dilip Saheb loved each other as much as their siblings, but both of them shared thoughts, feelings and secret aspirations with each other in their families. In one of her posts, Saira wrote, ‘If Raj was in London and called Deepil and said that she was called to the city here for some important work, then Raj used to leave no stone unturned to come back immediately, this was love and respect for each other. In our wedding, Raj ji and Shashi kept dancing all the way from Saheb’s house to my house.
