Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor (pronounced [raːdʒ kəˈpuːɾ]) (14 December 1924 – 2 June 1988) was an Indian actor, film director, and producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors and filmmakers in the history of Indian cinema, and has been referred to as The Greatest Showman of Indian Cinema and as the Charlie Chaplin of Indian Cinema.

Born in Peshawar as the eldest son of Prithviraj Kapoor of the Kapoor family, Raj Kapoor starred in and produced many films for which he received multiple accolades, including three National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards in India. He was inspired by Charlie Chaplin and played characters based on The Tramp in films, such as Awaara (1951), Shree 420 (1955) and Mera Naam Joker (1970). His performance in Awaara was ranked as one of the "Top-Ten Greatest Performances of All Time in World Cinema" by Time magazine in 2005. His films Awaara (1951) and Boot Polish (1954) competed for the Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951 and 1955's editions respectively.

His films were global commercial successes in parts of Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Soviet bloc. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971 for his contributions to the arts. India's highest award in cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was bestowed to him in 1988 by the Government of India.

Early life and background

Raj Kapoor was born as Ranbir Raj Kapoor on 14 December 1924 at Kapoor Haveli, a large house then owned by his grandfather in the Qissa Khwani Bazaar neighborhood of Peshawar, British India into a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family who belonged to the sunar community. He had an Arya Samaji upbringing. His parents were Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarni Devi Kapoor (née Mehra). The Kapoor family hailed originally from Samundri, Samundri Tehsil, Lyallpur District, Punjab Province, British India. He was the eldest of six children in the family. He was the grandson of Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor, great-grandson of Dewan Keshavmal Kapoor, and great-great-grandson of Dewan Murli Mal Kapoor, and was part of the Kapoor family. His brothers were the late actors Shammi Kapoor (1931–2011) and Shashi Kapoor (1938–2017). He also had a sister named Urmila Sial (1935–2001). Two other siblings died in infancy. Kapoor's family later on moved from Peshawar to Bombay for residence and for education. As Prithviraj moved from city to city early in his career during the 1930s, the family had to move too. Raj Kapoor attended several different schools like Colonel Brown Cambridge School in Dehradun, St Xavier's Collegiate School in Calcutta and Campion School in Bombay.

Extended family

He is the nephew of actor Trilok Kapoor, who is the younger brother of his father. His first cousin was director Vijay Kapoor who was the son of Trilok Kapoor and actor Subbiraj who was his father's sister's son. His father's cousin was film producer Surinder Kapoor, whose children are producer Boney Kapoor and actors Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor. His father's maternal first cousins were actors Kamal Kapoor, Ravindra Kapoor, and Nandkishore Kapoor. Kamal's grandson is filmmaker Goldie Behl. His maternal first cousin, Juggal Kishore Mehra, was a singer, whose step-granddaughter, Salma Agha, later became an actress and singer.

Career

Debut and struggle (1947–1948)

At the age of ten, Raj Kapoor appeared in a Hindi film for the first time, in 1935 film Inquilab.

Some early success came with the lead role in 1947 with Kidar Sharma's romantic drama Neel Kamal opposite Begum Para and Madhubala. The film proved to be a semi-hit at the box office, but his other releases, such as Jail Yatra, Dil Ki Rani and Chittor Vijay didn't do well. In 1948, he founded his own banner R. K. Films and made his directional debut with the musical drama Aag in which he starred alongside Nargis, Premnath and Kamini Kaushal. The film was an average grosser, but received positive reviews from critics.

Stardom (1949–1964)

Several films released in 1949 had a major influence on Kapoor's career. His first release Sunehre Din flopped commercially, but the next one Parivartan emerged a commercially successful venture while his third release, Mehboob Khan's romantic drama Andaz, which also starred Dilip Kumar and Nargis, went on to become highly successful at the box office. This was followed by Barsaat, which he also directed and produced. The film went ahead of the former, eventually emerging as the highest grossing Indian film of all time, breaking the record of Kismet. It ran in Kolkata's Paradise Cinema for almost two years. The huge box office success of Andaz and Barsaat made Kapoor one of the leading male stars of the time along with Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand.

The following year, he starred in Sargam and Dastan opposite Rehana and Suraiya, respectively. Kapoor also acted in the 1950 film Pyar, which was not a hit movie and not a popular movie, and did not receive critical acclaim. In that film, the singers were Kishore Kumar, Geeta Dutt, and Shamshad Begum. The film had a total of nine songs, with Kishore Kumar singing five songs which were two solos and three duets. The three duets Kishore had was two duets with Geeta Dutt and one duet with Shmashad Begum. Geeta Dutt singing six songs, which were two duets with Kishore Kumar and four solos, and Shamshad Begum singing only one song which was only one duet with Kishore Kumar. This movie marked the first, and last time Kishore Kumar sang for Raj Kapoor, and it was rare for only one male singer to sing in one film as in most of his films, more than one playback singer sings for him in his films, and Raj Kapoor's major playback singers for him were Mukesh and Manna Dey.

Kapoor had only one release in 1951 which was his own directional, the crime drama Awaara co-starring Prithviraj Kapoor and Nargis. The film opened to highly positive response from critics as well as the audience and proved to be another major success for the actor. Its soundtrack composed by Shankar–Jaikishan was the best-selling Hindi film music album of the 1950s and became popular in foreign markets as well, especially in the Soviet Union, China, Turkey and Afghanistan. Awaara also earned Kapoor a fan-following in Soviet Union where the film had approximately 100 million admissions and remains the third-most watched foreign film in the country. In 1952, he reunited with Nargis for psychological drama Anhonee and crime noir Bewafa. While Anhonee was a success, Bewafa only managed average returns. This was followed by a minor setback, the next year as none of his films, including Aah and Dhoon worked at the box office.

After having no major appearance in 1954, he made a comeback in 1955 with the comedy drama film Shree 420, co-starring Nargis and Nadira, which garnered critical acclaim and emerged the top-grossing film of the year. Its songs, such as "Mera Joota Hai Japani", a solo by Mukesh, "Pyar Hua Iqrar Hua", a duet by Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar, and ""Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh", a duet by Dey and Asha Bhosle, topped the year-end annual list of Binaca Geetmala and made its soundtrack the fourth best-selling Bollywood album of the 1950s. Shree 420 was released in the Soviet Union in 1956 and it took 2nd spot at the Soviet box office charts that year. Despite being imported at an unusually high price, it was the most successful foreign film of the year at the Soviet box office, drawing an audience of 35 million viewers. At the 3rd National Awards, it won National Award for Second Best Feature Film in Hindi. The following year, he starred in Anant Thakur's Chori Chori and Sombhu Mitra's Jagte Raho (which he also produced). Although underperforming commercially, the latter received acclaim and its Bengali version won Certificate of Merit at the 4th National Film Awards. Chori Chori and Jagte Raho also proved to be the final film appearances of Nargis opposite Kapoor.

After delivering a moderate fare with Sharada in 1957, Kapoor delivered two successful films, the next year - Phir Subha Hogi and Parvarish, both co-starring Mala Sinha. In 1959, he collaborated with Hrishikesh Mukherjee for the comedy drama film Anari, which also had Nutan, Motilal and Lalita Pawar in the lead. The film took number one spot at the box office that year and was a blockbuster for Mukherjee whose last directional Musafir received lukewarm response from audience. The soundtrack of Anari became one of the best-selling Hindi film album of the decade. Especially the song "Kisi Ki Muskurahaton Pe", a solo by Mukesh, was very popular. For his performance in the film, Kapoor won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor.