Tribute to Legend Hindi Film Actor Shammi Kapoor Saheb on his Bday

आज भी उपरोक्त गाने के बोल भारतीय हिंदी फिल्मों के मशहूर कलाकार की यादें ताजा कर देतें हैं.

The most popular dancing star of Indian film industry was born today. The yahoo boy who won the hearts of many young girls & guys with his extraordinary dancing & acting skills. Yes of course, he is the son of great Prithvi Raj Kapoor. Yes, he is none other than Shammi Kapoor.

He was born on 21st October, 1930 in Mumbai-Maharashtra. Blue eyed young man with height of 6ft created an exemplary image with his talent. His real was Shamsher Raj Kapoor. Shammi was the second of the three sons born to Prithviraj (the other two being Raj Kapoor & Shashi Kapoor), both successful bollywood actors. Kapoor had a short stint at Ruia College after which he joined his father’s theatrical company Prithvi Theatres. He entered the cinema world in 1948, as a junior artiste. He made his debut in Bollywood in the year 1953, when the film Jeevan Jyoti was released. It was directed by Mahesh Kaul and Chand Usmani was Kapoor’s first heroine.

Kapoor met Geeta Bali in 1955, during the shooting of the film Rangeen Raaten, where he was the leading actor and she played a cameo. Four months later, they married and had a son, Aditya Raj Kapoor, on 1 July 1956, Mumbai, a year after they were married. Five years later, in 1961, they had a daughter, Kanchan Kapoor started out with serious roles but with Filmistan’s Nasir Hussain directed Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) opposite Ameeta and Dil Deke Dekho (1959) with Asha Parekh, he attained the image of a light-hearted, and stylish playboy.

With Junglee (1961) his new image was cemented and his subsequent films were all in this genre. Mohammed Rafi was frequently chosen as his playback voice. In his early career in the fifties, he acted with established heroines: with Madhubala in films such as Rail Ka Dibba (1953) and Naqab, with Nutan in Laila Majnu, with Shyama in Thokar and with Nalini Jaywant in Hum Sab Chor Hain. In the 1960s however he was often paired with new heroines such as Asha Parekh, Saira Banu, and Sharmila Tagore, all of whom had very successful careers.[6] Of all his heroines, he said that Sharmila Tagore, Rajshree, and Asha Parekh were easy to work with Sharmila Tagore and Saira Banu made their Bollywood debuts with Shammi Kapoor in Kashmir Ki Kali and Junglee respectively[8] He and Asha Parekh were paired together in four films, including the murder mystery Teesri Manzil (1966) and the romance film Jawan Mohabbat.

In the early fifties Kapoor accepted serious roles in films such as Shama Parwana (1954) with Suraiya, comedy flick Mem Sahib (1956) with Meena Kumari, and thrillers like Chor Bazar (1954), as well as in the tragic love story Mirza Sahiban (1957) opposite Shyama.[9] He gained more widespread popularity with the successful films Tumsa Nahi Dekha (1957), Ujala and Dil Dil Deke Deko (both 1959). In the first half of the 1960s, Kapoor was seen in successful films like College Girl, Basant, Singapore, Boy Friend, Professor, Dil Tera Diwana, Vallah Kya Baat Hai, Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, Bluff Master, Janwar and Rajkumar. In 1968, he received the first Filmfare Best Actor award of his career for the film Bramhachari. He made a unique place for himself in the industry as he was the only dancing hero in Hindi films from the late fifties till early seventies. He used to compose dancing steps by himself in the songs picturised on him, and reportedly never needed a choreographer. This earned him the name of Elvis Presley of India.

His pairing opposite Southern heroines tended to be commercially successful. He played opposite B. Saroja Devi in Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya and Preet Na Jane Reet, with Padmini in Singapore (1960 film), and opposite Vyjayanthimala in College Girl and Prince (1969 film).[12] In the late sixties, his successful films included Budtameez and Sachaai with Sadhana, Latt Saheb with Nutan and Tumse Achha Kaun Hai with Babita.

In the 1970s, Kapoor’s weight problem proved an obstacle when playing the romantic hero, and the last such film he played in was Andaz (1971). He would later move to character roles and acted in films like Zameer, Hero, Vidhaata, Hukumat, Batwara, Tahalka, Chamatkar, Namak and Prem Granth. In 1974, he directed Manoranjan and in 1976 Bundal Baaz.

Shammi turned into a successful supporting actor in the 1970s, playing Saira Banu’s father in Zameer (1974), when he had been her leading man a decade earlier in Junglee (1961) and Bluff Master (1964) and playing Amitabh Bachchan’s foster father in Parvarish. He also directed Manoranjan (1974), a movie inspired from Irma La Douce and in which he played a supporting role himself and Bundal Baaz (1976) starring Rajesh Khanna, but neither were successful commercially though got critical acclaims and were hailed as classics and to be ahead of its time. In the 1980s and 1990s, he continued to play supporting roles in many films and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in Vidhaata (1982). He got the opportunity to do some films in other languages such as Bengali and Tamil in the nineties. 

He did a social melodrama serial called Chattan aired on Zee TV for more than a year in the 1990s. He eventually cut down on film appearances by the late 1990s and early 2000s and made his appearances
in the 1999 Salman Khan and Urmila Matondkar starrer Jaanam Samjha Karo, 2002 release Waah! Tera Kya Kehna and the delayed 2006 release Sandwich. His last appearance as a character actor was in the delayed 2006 film, Sandwich. He made his last appearance in Imtiaz Ali’s directorial venture Rockstar co-starring his grand-nephew Ranbir Kapoor, the grandson of his brother Raj Kapoor.

Film director Shakti Samanta directed Shammi Kapoor in six hit films like Singapore, Pagla Kahin Ka, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali, AnEvening In Paris and Jaane Anjane and quoted in an interview “I foundShammi to be a thoroughly good man. Even in his heydays, he was humble.

Shammi Kapoor was the founder and chairman of Internet Users Community of India (IUCI). He had also played a major role in setting up internet organizations like the Ethical Hackers Association. Kapoor also maintained a website dedicated to the Kapoor family.

Awards
• 1968 – Filmfare Best Actor Award for Brahmachari
• 1982 – Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for Vidhata[
• 1995 –Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award
IIFA Awards
• 2002 – Invaluable Contribution To Indian Cinema at the IIFA
Bollywood Movie Awards
• 2005 – Lifetime Achievement Award[25]
Zee Cine Awards
• 1999 – Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement
Star Screen Awards
• 2001 – Star Screen Lifetime Achievement Award
Other Awards
• 1998 – Kalakar Awards – Special Award for “contribution in Indian Cinema”
• 2001 – Anandalok Awards Lifetime Achievement Award
• Living Legend Award by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI
• 2008 – Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Indian
cinema at the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF).
• Rashtriya Gaurav Award

He even won the most prestigious Dada Saheb Falke Award for his marvelous film career in Indian Cinema. He left us on 7 August 2011, actually he was suffering from chronic renal failure. But he is still in the memory of millions of music lovers.

आज भी शम्मी जी शारीरिक रूप से तो हमारे बीच नहीं रहे परन्तु उनकी फ़िल्में तथा उन पर फिल्माए गीत के बोल सुनकर ऐसा अहसास होता है कि वे यहीं कहीं हैं. जरा निम्न गाने के बोल पर गौर फरमाएँ:

एहसान तेरा होगा मुझ पर दिल कहता वो कहने दो
मुझे तुमसे मोहब्बत हो गई है, मुझे पलकों की छावं में रहने दो
चाहे बना दो चाहे मिटा दो, मर भी गए तो देंगे दुआएं

Courtesy:
S.S.Dogra-Journalist
(Managing Editor- www.dwarkaparichay.com)
M:9811369585