Shammi Kapoor, son of Prithviraj Kapoor and younger brother of Raj Kapoor, it seems, didn’t want to act or be in theatre or movies. He wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. And so he went to a college to study further instead of joining his father’s theatre. We all should thank that college and the curriculum of that time! Because those things bored him and after two years he went back to his father and asked whether he could join the theatre. I am sure, his father must have felt relieved.
He finally started acting in movies in early 50s. Obviously, being the son of such a famous actor and brother of someone who had already started making waves, the expectations must have been very high. But none of his movies seemed to work; he made some 18-19 flop movies in the 50s. I have only seen one of these early movies – a movie called “Mem Sahib”, starring Meena Kumari, Kishor Kumar and Shammi Kapoor. And Shammi Kapoor was the villain in this movie. I think by this time, he had tried various roles and was open to try out any role, even that of the villain. In those days, it was not so easy to play a villain and then be accepted in a positive role. And of course, Hindi movies have done this to many a good looking men – Pran, Prem Nath and Prem Chopra – all good looking men slated to the “villain” category for years and years. (Even for that matter, Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna played the bad guy in their earlier movies, but they could move out of that mould successfully) So Shammi Kapoor could have very easily been one more in this category. He says that he wanted to leave the show business and go and manage tea estates in Assam. So I guess, he must have been feeling quite disappointed, disillusioned and dejected by his experience in movies till then.
But finally, in late 50s he got the kind of role that was meant for him in a movie that was definitely his kind of a movie. “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” was released in 1957, and it finally gave the hindi movie lovers the real Shammi Kapoor. We should be grateful to Nasir Hussain for casting Shammi Kapoor in the lead role in this movie. But before him, we should thank Dev Anand for walking out of this movie and forcing Nassir Hussain to look for a replacement. This movie it seems, was supposed to launch Amita in the big league. But people went crazy over Shammi Kapoor instead!! And when you see this movie, you can understand why. “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” is totally his movie. He looked so young & handsome, had amazing expressions and could move with such amazing grace. And all those wonderful songs – he made each one his own!!
After “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” there was no looking back for him. Instead of playing the roles in the earlier, predefined fashion (something he had tried earlier and failed miserably), he now started playing these roles in the style that came naturally to him. He brought a high level of energy and a different kind of intensity to the hero’s characters. That energy, that exuberance and the rhythm that he moved with, set him completely apart from all other actors of that time. He was the change that audiences loved. And after “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” was successful, people were more than willing to make movies for him, movies that were “his” kind of movies.
And of course, he was a very good actor. Somehow, I think, that never really got acknowledged. Maybe, critics of that time couldn’t appreciate someone who was so different from the established style of acting of the day? Or maybe it was because of the trend that only people who make serious and sad movies were (and still are to a large extent) seen as “good actors”. Watch him in Professor where he could show two different characters one old and one young so distinctly different. Its very interesting to note how he carried himself as the old professor, his expressions as the old person. Or watch him in Brahmachari – he is so natural with the kids! You can actually feel his love for them…
He finally started acting in movies in early 50s. Obviously, being the son of such a famous actor and brother of someone who had already started making waves, the expectations must have been very high. But none of his movies seemed to work; he made some 18-19 flop movies in the 50s. I have only seen one of these early movies – a movie called “Mem Sahib”, starring Meena Kumari, Kishor Kumar and Shammi Kapoor. And Shammi Kapoor was the villain in this movie. I think by this time, he had tried various roles and was open to try out any role, even that of the villain. In those days, it was not so easy to play a villain and then be accepted in a positive role. And of course, Hindi movies have done this to many a good looking men – Pran, Prem Nath and Prem Chopra – all good looking men slated to the “villain” category for years and years. (Even for that matter, Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna played the bad guy in their earlier movies, but they could move out of that mould successfully) So Shammi Kapoor could have very easily been one more in this category. He says that he wanted to leave the show business and go and manage tea estates in Assam. So I guess, he must have been feeling quite disappointed, disillusioned and dejected by his experience in movies till then.
After “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” there was no looking back for him. Instead of playing the roles in the earlier, predefined fashion (something he had tried earlier and failed miserably), he now started playing these roles in the style that came naturally to him. He brought a high level of energy and a different kind of intensity to the hero’s characters. That energy, that exuberance and the rhythm that he moved with, set him completely apart from all other actors of that time. He was the change that audiences loved. And after “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” was successful, people were more than willing to make movies for him, movies that were “his” kind of movies.
I have seen many of the movies from his golden days. And I can see these again and again and again. They are timeless, ageless; funny and graceful. They can be enjoyed by one and all. His movies are light hearted romantic comedies with very good music. And he was a hero, who could dance with amazing grace and could make the romantic songs completely believable; someone who didn’t mind looking funny or doing crazy things. He didn’t seem bothered about how he was looking. He of course looked great (he was so handsome), but his looking good was not only about the looks. He seemed like a very genuine, nice and at the same time fun & interesting person. And he didn’t ever looked posed; he looked very natural doing whatever he was doing; there was such sincerity in his performances. When he was singing a romantic song to the heroine, or mouthing a romantic dialog, he looked at her like no one else existed or mattered. When he was funny, he was just so funny, in a very crazy and lovable way. He had a very flexible face, a face that expressed so much.
Earlier romantic movies were normally a lot more subdued; there were many tragedies. Even if they had happy ending, hero – heroine rarely had so much fun. And of course there was no hero who could make romancing a heroine look so much fun; or make songs so much fun either.
Oh, his songs!! NO one, but no one – throughout the history of Hindi movies till date, could or can do songs like him. The way he moved with the rhythm, when dancing but even when he was not dancing, it was just wonderful! Even his expressions changed with rhythm!
Whether it was a comedy song (like “Tumse achcha kaun hai” from Jaanwar or “Suku Suku” from Junglee) or a very charged, romantic song (like “Is rang badalti duniya mei” from Rajkumar or “Hum aur tum aur yeh sama” from Dil Deke Dekho); whether it was a dance number (like “Yaar chulbula hai” from Dil deke dekho or “Aaja aaja” from Teesri Manzil) or a fun, romantic duet (like “Oh mere sona re sona re” from Teesri Manzil or “Na rutho rutho na” from Jawan Mohabbat), he made each and every of his songs worth watching; worth watching again and again!
Mohd. Rafi was his perfect voice. And there must have been a very good understanding between Rafi and him, for each song to not just sound so wonderful but to look like it was sung by Shammi Kapoor himself, with all of his nuances. But basically his songs are in a completely different class altogether.
One thing about songs of this time – they have a lot more close ups than today’s songs – and still lip-syncs are perfect. Another thing about these songs, it seems like there were less number of cuts, sometimes there are no cuts in the complete stanzas. All this was really amazing, and it seems even more so, when we see today’s songs that have thousands of people dancing, very few close-ups and cuts every few seconds, if not practically every second.
And of course, he was a very good actor. Somehow, I think, that never really got acknowledged. Maybe, critics of that time couldn’t appreciate someone who was so different from the established style of acting of the day? Or maybe it was because of the trend that only people who make serious and sad movies were (and still are to a large extent) seen as “good actors”. Watch him in Professor where he could show two different characters one old and one young so distinctly different. Its very interesting to note how he carried himself as the old professor, his expressions as the old person. Or watch him in Brahmachari – he is so natural with the kids! You can actually feel his love for them…In many of his movies the heroine was someone new, someone who was not an established actress. But I guess, that helped add a different kind of innocence to those movies. The heroines who debuted against him were I think, Asha Parekh (Dil Dekhe Dekho), Saira Bano(Junglee) and Sharmila Tagore (Kashmir ki Kali). I am not sure if Professor was Kalpana’s first movie or not… I think amongst all of the different heroines he acted with, the one who suited him the best; suited his kind of movies the best was Asha Parekh. She herself being a very good dancer, I am sure helped for his songs. Also, she seemed to have the same fun element in her; she seemed to have the right spirit, energy, and understanding of music & rhythm. The two of them also seemed to have a very good understanding and an ease working with each other. She seemed like the perfect heroine for his movies… I wish they had made more movies together. Their songs are amongst the best ever to watch.
His wife, Geeta Bali and he never acted as Hero – Heroine in a movie. He met her while making a movie (Rangeeen Ratein) in which he was the hero, but she was only making a special appearance. Of course, she was a famous actress before he became popular, but it would have been great to watch them together in a movie, I think. She herself was very graceful and a good dancer.
One more “I wish we had” – His nephew Rishi Kapoor is another amazing dancer, but though they acted together in some of the RK movies, we never got to see two of them dance together. They didn’t act in the movies where the whole families were dancing, not just the hero-heroines or just the young people. It would have been so cool….
I became a Shammi Kapoor fan when I watched “Dil Deke Dekho” sometime in 80s, when I was in school. As I saw more of his movies, I only liked him more and more. But when I found out that he was the founder of “Internet User Community of India”, I became his fan all over again. And earlier I was fan of Shammi Kapoor, the actor. But then when I saw such different dimentions of him, I became fan of Shammi Kapoor, the person. Most people in India at that time didn’t know anything about the Internet. For him to be interested in it, and get to know it so well and setup a community for Internet users, I felt (and still feel) was quite amazing. Now days, everyone is on the Internet, all the famous people, are on twitter and can connect with their fans. But he did this way back in 90s, when it was not a trend and it was not so simple. And he replied to fan emails. I wrote him once in late 90s and got a prompt reply from him. I was absolutely thrilled to get his reply!!
He is a person who moves with the times; is up to date with today’s technology and tools. He is on Twitter now and he also publishes a weekly called “Shammi Kapoor unplugged”. Each one of these is a 3 to 4 minutes video recording in which he shares his memories with his fans. But he has not been well for some time now and he is not twitting and “Shammi Kapoor unplugged” is not getting posted every Monday/Tuesday, the way it used to. I hope he will get well soon. Like his many, many fans I too am praying for his good health and wishing him speedy recovery.
<28 Mar 11> - Adding the link to his fan page on facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/shammi
<28 Mar 11> - Adding the link to his fan page on facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/shammi
