Deepa Gahlot - Shammi Kapoor: Legends of Indian Cinema

SHAMMI KAPOOR

THE DANCING HERO

SHAMMI KAPOOR

THE DANCING HERO

Deepa Gahlot

Deepa Gahlot, 2008

Photographs courtesy: National Film Archives of India, Ronee Naterwala and P.K. Nair

Photographs: p. ( i ) Shammi Kapoor in Junglee; p. ( ii ) Asha Parekh, Helen, Praveen Chaudhury and Shammi Kapoor

ISBN 978-81-8328-103-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by

Wisdom Tree

4779/23 Ansari Road

Darya Ganj

New Delhi 110002

Ph.: 23247966/67/68

Published by Shobit Arya for Wisdom Tree; edited by Manju Gupta; designed by Kamal P. Jammual; typeset at Marks and Strokes, New Delhi-110002 and printed at Print Perfect, New Delhi-110064

CONTENTS

Editors Note vii

Introduction

The Beginning of a Dynasty

The Turning Point

The Rebel Arrives

Junglee and After

Tragedy Strikes

Phase Three

Filmography

Shammi Kapoor in Coffee House

Editors note

It is never easy to be the son or the daughter of a famous father or mother! And when to that is added a famous older brother, the situation becomes doubly fraught. When Shammi Kapoor decided that he, in his turn, wanted to follow the profession of his father and brother, he had a tough act to follow. But follow it he did. He scaled the heights to superstardom in his own manner with seemingly effortless ease. He became the darling of the masses, especially the young. His casual, reckless approach to life was in tune with a period when the country was opening up to Western mores: Elvis Presley had swept the world and Shammi Kapoor took up the challenge in a new India. He became known as the Rebel Star because he wanted to sweep out the old and usher in the new.

Gone was the gravitas of the Kapoor family. Here was a scion of the great Prithviraj Kapoor who discarded the grand manner, put on his dancing shoes and carried the audience along on the wave of a song.

To get that initial break was not easy, despite the Kapoor aura. He spent four years with Prithvi Theatres, playing Shakespeare and the classics. As many as 18 successive flops before destiny smiled! It was pure chance but he took it and launched on a glittering journey. He dropped the earlier Errol Flynn manner and appearance he had adopted and switched to the young with-it look slacks, duck tail, cowboy boots, a flamboyant swagger. Romance took on more than a hint of sexuality in all the exuberant song and dance numbers. This handsome dancing star often had new young actresses as his partners Asha Parekh, Saira Banu, Sharmila Tagore, Mala Sinha, who started on their own starry careers opposite the irresistible Shammi Kapoor. The sixties, as Madhu Jain writes in her book on the Kapoor dynasty, could be said to belong

SHAMMI KAPOOR

viii

to Shammi Kapoor, adding, the older brother created an institution, the younger became one. His yahoo heard first in the hit Tumsa Nahin Dekha became his signature after Junglee and entered the folklore of Indian cinema. Two years ago when he was presented a Lifetime Achievement award in Mumbai, the applause and cheers that greeted him proved that his aura had not faded despite his disappearance from the screen.

Deepa Gahlot , who has observed and written about the cinema for many years, pays homage to one of the Indian cinemas favourite sons in this book. She writes about him with affection and enthusiasm and in doing so, brings alive a carefree, joyous era of the Hindi cinema.

Aruna Vasudev

Series Editor

EDITORS NOTE

ix

Introduction

When the rebel star burst on to the

scene, he broke the mould of the

upright, soft-spoken gentlemanly

hero. The dancing, leaping,

whooping, teasing, romantic hero

that Shammi Kapoor portrayed,

changed the idea of romance

forever. His yahoo! exuberance

and mischief made romance look

like fun and carried away the

suffering, brooding Dilip Kumar-

style.

Shammi Kapoor in Teesri Manzil

Hindi cinema had done away with the intense post-

Independence period. Modernisation was knocking, urban

centres were booming and the young generation of the sixties

was looking for a change of pace. The light musical romance

that had come to be associated with Nasir Hussain, found the

perfect face in the form of the dashingly handsome Shammi

Kapoor. Why just the face, Shammi Kapoors strapping frame

was made for exuding energy. With a succession of young,

chirpy, kittenish heroines in tow, when he danced, every limb,

every muscle danced along with his light, seductive eyes.

Joy Mukherjee, Jeetendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Rishi

Kapoor, Govinda, Shah Rukh Khan and all the dancing heroes

owe a debt to Shammi Kapoor. If it wasnt for him, perhaps,

tough guys would still be tripping over two left feet.

Long after the roguish romantic hung up his dancing

shoes, each successive generation of moviegoers discovered

and was enchanted by the Shammi Kapoor musical. As the star