In the Indian cinema world, Raj Kapoor is remembered as the first show man, who made a special identity in the hearts of the audience through his films. Born on 14 December 1924 in Peshawar (now Pakistan), when Raj Kapoor failed in a subject in the matriculation examination, he said to his father Prithviraj Kapoor, ‘I do not want to read, I want to work in films, I want to become an actor. I want to make films.
On hearing Raj Kapoor, Prithviraj Kapoor’s eyes shone with joy. Raj Kapoor started his cine career as a child artist with the film ‘Inquilab’ released in the year 1935. As an actor, the film ‘Neelkamal’ released in 1947 was his first film. Raj Kapoor’s story of working in the film Neelkamal is quite interesting.
Prithviraj Kapoor advised his son Raj to work as a clapper boy in Kedar Sharma’s unit. At the time of shooting of the film, he often used to go to the mirror and comb his hair. While giving the clap, he would try to somehow his face comes in front of the camera.
Once during the shooting of the film Visakanya, Raj Kapoor’s face came in front of the camera and in a hurry, the beard of the actor got entangled in the clap board. It is said that Kedar Sharma called Raj Kapoor to him and slapped loudly. However, Kedar Sharma regretted this overnight. The next day he signed Raj Kapoor for his new film Neelkamal.
Raj Kapoor wanted to do something else with acting in films. He in the year 1948 R.K. Films were established and produced ‘fire’. The film ‘Awara’, released in 1952, proved to be an important film of Raj Kapoor’s cine career. The success of the film gave Raj Kapoor international fame. The film’s title song ‘Awara Hoon or Gurdish Mein Akash Ka Tara Hoon’ became very popular in the country and abroad.
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Raj Kapoor’s cine career was well liked with her pairing actress Nargis. Both of them first appeared in the film Barsaat released in 1948. After this, the two actors also worked together in many films like Andaz, Ana, Awara, Anthoni, Ashiana, Ambar, Ah, Dhun, Papi, Sri 420, Awake Raho and Chori Chori. The cine audience rarely forget the unforgettable view of the love affair of Nargis and Raj Kapoor in the song ‘Pyaar Hua Iqrar Hua’, filmed under a umbrella in the rain in Sri 420.
Raj Kapoor gave many hidden talent a chance to move forward through his films. These include big names like composer Shankar Jaikishan, lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra and Parshwiyak Mukesh. In 1949, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri as lyricist through Raj Kapoor’s film ‘Barsaat’ and Shankar Jaikishan started his career.
In the year 1970, Raj Kapoor produced the film ‘Mera Naam Joker’ which was badly rejected at the box office. Raj Kapoor was deeply shocked by the failure of his film Mera Naam Joker. He also suffered a lot of economic loss. He decided that if he produces the film in future, he will not work as the lead actor. If Mukesh is called the voice of Raj Kapoor, then there will be no exaggeration in it. Mukesh performed playback for him in all the films starring Raj Kapoor. After Mukesh’s death, Raj Kapoor said, ‘I seem to have lost my voice.’
Raj Kapoor got a lot of honor in his cine career. Raj Kapoor was also awarded the Padma Bhushan Award in 1971 and the highest honor of the Hindi film world in the year 1987. As an actor, he was awarded the Filmfare Award twice while he was awarded four times as a director. In the year 1985, the last film ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ directed by Raj Kapoor was released. After this, Raj Kapoor got busy producing his ambitious film ‘Hina’ but his dream did not come true and on June 2, 1988, he said goodbye to this world.
