I have watched a lot of Shammi Kapoor movies; and I have liked most of those movies, at least a good part of each of those movies. Even in his bad movies, I end up liking him, at least in parts.
Considering all the movies in which he played the lead, it would be difficult for me to come up with a list of top ten movies; however I can name 3 movies that are my absolutely favourite SK movies. Again, difficult to say which is my most favourite of these – I like all of them a lot and can watch them again and again and can’t bring myself to call one of them better than the other two.
If you are a Shammi Kapoor fan, you would have watched all these movies – a few times over, in fact. If you are not a SK fan, and don’t know why people like him so much, chances are you have not watched these movies. I would recommend these movies to people who want to know what Shammi Kapoor magic is all about!
I am writing about these three movies in the chronological order of the years in which they were released because there is no way for me to list them by order of preference. All three are completely different from each other and yet each one has the three most important ingredients that one expects in a Shammi Kapoor movie, in abundance! They have romance (absolutely the best – he was the King of Romance), humour (he could really make you laugh) and wonderful music (here too, SK excelled, he brought romance and humour in the songs like no one else).
Junglee (1961) – the one that made “Yahoo” big!
This is a very good romantic comedy with delightful music. Shammi Kapoor was looking his best in this period. At the start of the movie – in fact till the point he falls in love – he is an unsmiling, unfeeling brute – he plays that part well too and playing a brute he makes you laugh!! This was Saira Banu’s first movie and she looks very beautiful; she never looked like this ever again. The three other women who contribute in a big way in making this a lot of fun are – Lalita Pawar as Shekhar (Shammi Kapoor)’s very strict and unsmiling mother, Shashikala as his sister who is in love with a poor man (Anoop Kumar) and is scared of her brother & mother and Helen, who actually is there only for the “Suku suku” song, but she is just wonderful (as usual) in that song.
The romance is pretty amazing – Shekhar the brute gets stuck in a cabin during a snow storm with Rajkumari (Saira) and falls madly in love with her there. The romantic scenes in the cabin and later on when they are returning home are, simply put, SK at his romantic best.
As for the humour – its funny from start to end – including that fight at the end. Apart from the main funny parts, there are small funny scenes that are very well done.
Professor (1962) – the one SK should have won a film fare for
In many of his movies, he would dress up and pretend to be an old man – either to tease the girl, or to fool her father or something else, he would then get caught and would have to many times run away. In professor though, he dresses up as an old professor to get a job and successfully manages to get people to believe that he is the old professor as well as the professor’s young nephew. He finally exposes himself to save a life.
Shammi is terrific as the old professor – he changes the way he carries himself, how he stands, how he walks, how he talks – everything. In fact, as the old professor he seems like a completely different person from his young nephew. I think he really deserved an award for his performance in this movie.
This movie is more funny than romantic, though there are some good romantic scenes too. And while this movie definitely belongs to Shammi Kapoor, I simply adore Lalita Pawar in this! In fact, for me at least, this is more a Lalita Pawar movie than a Kalpana movie. Some other actress could have easily played the role played by Kalpana but I don’t think anyone else could have done Lalita Pawar’s role. She is just fabulous as the strict aunt who can’t help herself fall in love with the professor. The scenes between Lalita Pawar and Shammi Kapoor are absolutely wonderful – both of them have such wonderful expressions and timing!! Even remembering their scenes, I find myself smiling…
Music is created by the same team as that of Junglee (Shankar-Jaikisan, Hasrat & Shailendra, Lata-Rafi) and I think the music won the film fare award, however I like Junglee's music more...Amongst the songs, my favourite is “Mai chali, mai chali” – the situation, the picturization, Rafi-Lata’s voices and again SK completely lost in the song – again it seems like he is doing it for real and not for the camera at all… “Khuli palak me zoota gussa..” is another song that is all SK!
Teesri Manzil (1966)– A rocking murder mystery!
This is a good murder mystery that has comedy, rocking music and the best romantic pair of Hindi screen – Shammi Kapoor – Asha Parekh! This also has Helen doing one of her best songs “Oh Hasina” with SK! The movie is superbly directed by one of the best directors of the era – Vijay Anand and has music by a music director who went on to create some wonderful music after this movie – R. D. Burman. This movie gave a platform to RD to create his kind of music and boy, did he make the music rock!! Of course Majrooh wrote the lyrics that were perfect for the music; perfect for the characters.
The funny parts are absolutely hilarious!! The fun starts on the Delhi railway station. The way SK enters the railway station; you can see he is all the fun about to happen! From this point onwards, till the point where Anil (SK) has to write a letter to Sunita (AP), Anil and Sunita rock you and also make you laugh a lot. SK is at his best in this movie. Of course, he also has Asha Parekh opposite him here, who herself can add tremendously to the comedy to make it fun unlimited! These two together are absolutely wonderful! Both of them are great at the comedy and both of them are absolutely the best when it comes to songs!!
The mystery, the intrigue and the investigation too are quite well done. SK & AP are very well supported by Premnath, Prem Chopra, Laxmi Chaya, Iftekar and of course Helen!!
As for the music – its good, in fact its great and each song is just fantastic! I can’t think of another movie in which each song rocks like in this one! And each song is picturized in a way that no other movie song is ever picturized before. The songs are great to hear, but they are even better to watch.
The only sombre song, “Tumne Mujhe dekha” is probably the most romantic. SK is very soulful in this. Of course when one finds out that, this was the first thing he shot after he started shooting again after Gita Bali’s death, one admires it even more.
Other songs are all a lot of fun to watch. “Oh hasina” with SK and Helen, is, I think one of her best! She of course is very graceful, light on her feet and simply beautiful! The song’s picturization, the angels, how the camera moves and the continuity, I think make this one the best dance songs ever put together on Hindi movie screen.
Next comes, “Aaja Aaja” – and what can one say about this one? Its true RD magic – with Rafi and Asha Bhosale going “Aa aah aja, aaaha aja” and SK-AP burning up the dance floor – no one but RD could have made this song for sure!! In fact, no one but RD could have made the music of “Teesri Manzil”!
“Deewana mujhasa nahin” is a simple, SK-AP fun song. The lead up to the song is also fun.
“O mere sona re” – while I love all the songs from this movie, this is definitely my favourite! The way AP teases SK in the lead up to the song, the way she starts the song, the way she troubles him for good part of the song is something one can watch again and again and again… – oh and the bag! His handbag is there throughout the song! Another extremely well made song! And no pair other than SK-AP could have done this song.
“Dekhiye sahibo” – The location is a fair – and the song is sung on merry-go-round and giant wheel. SK going completely wacky and AP providing the appropriate anchoring!
One can watch these movies again and again. One can also listen to the music of these movies again and again – and when one does, can’t help remember SK in all these songs…
Considering all the movies in which he played the lead, it would be difficult for me to come up with a list of top ten movies; however I can name 3 movies that are my absolutely favourite SK movies. Again, difficult to say which is my most favourite of these – I like all of them a lot and can watch them again and again and can’t bring myself to call one of them better than the other two.
If you are a Shammi Kapoor fan, you would have watched all these movies – a few times over, in fact. If you are not a SK fan, and don’t know why people like him so much, chances are you have not watched these movies. I would recommend these movies to people who want to know what Shammi Kapoor magic is all about!
I am writing about these three movies in the chronological order of the years in which they were released because there is no way for me to list them by order of preference. All three are completely different from each other and yet each one has the three most important ingredients that one expects in a Shammi Kapoor movie, in abundance! They have romance (absolutely the best – he was the King of Romance), humour (he could really make you laugh) and wonderful music (here too, SK excelled, he brought romance and humour in the songs like no one else).
Junglee (1961) – the one that made “Yahoo” big!
This is a very good romantic comedy with delightful music. Shammi Kapoor was looking his best in this period. At the start of the movie – in fact till the point he falls in love – he is an unsmiling, unfeeling brute – he plays that part well too and playing a brute he makes you laugh!! This was Saira Banu’s first movie and she looks very beautiful; she never looked like this ever again. The three other women who contribute in a big way in making this a lot of fun are – Lalita Pawar as Shekhar (Shammi Kapoor)’s very strict and unsmiling mother, Shashikala as his sister who is in love with a poor man (Anoop Kumar) and is scared of her brother & mother and Helen, who actually is there only for the “Suku suku” song, but she is just wonderful (as usual) in that song.
The romance is pretty amazing – Shekhar the brute gets stuck in a cabin during a snow storm with Rajkumari (Saira) and falls madly in love with her there. The romantic scenes in the cabin and later on when they are returning home are, simply put, SK at his romantic best.
As for the humour – its funny from start to end – including that fight at the end. Apart from the main funny parts, there are small funny scenes that are very well done.
Music – Hasrat & Shailendra's lyrics, Shankar Jaikisan’s music and Lata-Rafi’s voices – they weave the magic you expect from them. I love following 4 songs very much –
- Yahoo! Chahe koi mujhe Junglee kahe – this song has historical importance in annals of Hindi movies. SK has done this song with such abundance – going completely “junglee”! – The song has incredible energy and it seems so honest, he does not seem to be doing it for the camera at all.
- Mere yaar shabba khair – a lovely Lata-Rafi duet, with beautiful words – SK at his romantic best – especially in the last antara – “her din ke baad raat hai, ek din to theher jaati”
- Suku Suku – While Shammi Kapoor has done many funny songs, this is one of his funniest. Rafi sings in the way that suits Shammi the best! Helen is as graceful and beautiful as ever, and SK is his wackiest best!
- Ehsaan Tera hoga – beautiful lyrics, Rafi’s soulful voice and Shammi’s expressive eyes – sheer magic! This is one the best romantic songs ever!
Professor (1962) – the one SK should have won a film fare for
In many of his movies, he would dress up and pretend to be an old man – either to tease the girl, or to fool her father or something else, he would then get caught and would have to many times run away. In professor though, he dresses up as an old professor to get a job and successfully manages to get people to believe that he is the old professor as well as the professor’s young nephew. He finally exposes himself to save a life.
Shammi is terrific as the old professor – he changes the way he carries himself, how he stands, how he walks, how he talks – everything. In fact, as the old professor he seems like a completely different person from his young nephew. I think he really deserved an award for his performance in this movie.
This movie is more funny than romantic, though there are some good romantic scenes too. And while this movie definitely belongs to Shammi Kapoor, I simply adore Lalita Pawar in this! In fact, for me at least, this is more a Lalita Pawar movie than a Kalpana movie. Some other actress could have easily played the role played by Kalpana but I don’t think anyone else could have done Lalita Pawar’s role. She is just fabulous as the strict aunt who can’t help herself fall in love with the professor. The scenes between Lalita Pawar and Shammi Kapoor are absolutely wonderful – both of them have such wonderful expressions and timing!! Even remembering their scenes, I find myself smiling…
Music is created by the same team as that of Junglee (Shankar-Jaikisan, Hasrat & Shailendra, Lata-Rafi) and I think the music won the film fare award, however I like Junglee's music more...Amongst the songs, my favourite is “Mai chali, mai chali” – the situation, the picturization, Rafi-Lata’s voices and again SK completely lost in the song – again it seems like he is doing it for real and not for the camera at all… “Khuli palak me zoota gussa..” is another song that is all SK!
Teesri Manzil (1966)– A rocking murder mystery!
This is a good murder mystery that has comedy, rocking music and the best romantic pair of Hindi screen – Shammi Kapoor – Asha Parekh! This also has Helen doing one of her best songs “Oh Hasina” with SK! The movie is superbly directed by one of the best directors of the era – Vijay Anand and has music by a music director who went on to create some wonderful music after this movie – R. D. Burman. This movie gave a platform to RD to create his kind of music and boy, did he make the music rock!! Of course Majrooh wrote the lyrics that were perfect for the music; perfect for the characters.
The funny parts are absolutely hilarious!! The fun starts on the Delhi railway station. The way SK enters the railway station; you can see he is all the fun about to happen! From this point onwards, till the point where Anil (SK) has to write a letter to Sunita (AP), Anil and Sunita rock you and also make you laugh a lot. SK is at his best in this movie. Of course, he also has Asha Parekh opposite him here, who herself can add tremendously to the comedy to make it fun unlimited! These two together are absolutely wonderful! Both of them are great at the comedy and both of them are absolutely the best when it comes to songs!!
The mystery, the intrigue and the investigation too are quite well done. SK & AP are very well supported by Premnath, Prem Chopra, Laxmi Chaya, Iftekar and of course Helen!!
As for the music – its good, in fact its great and each song is just fantastic! I can’t think of another movie in which each song rocks like in this one! And each song is picturized in a way that no other movie song is ever picturized before. The songs are great to hear, but they are even better to watch.
The only sombre song, “Tumne Mujhe dekha” is probably the most romantic. SK is very soulful in this. Of course when one finds out that, this was the first thing he shot after he started shooting again after Gita Bali’s death, one admires it even more.
Other songs are all a lot of fun to watch. “Oh hasina” with SK and Helen, is, I think one of her best! She of course is very graceful, light on her feet and simply beautiful! The song’s picturization, the angels, how the camera moves and the continuity, I think make this one the best dance songs ever put together on Hindi movie screen.
Next comes, “Aaja Aaja” – and what can one say about this one? Its true RD magic – with Rafi and Asha Bhosale going “Aa aah aja, aaaha aja” and SK-AP burning up the dance floor – no one but RD could have made this song for sure!! In fact, no one but RD could have made the music of “Teesri Manzil”!
“Deewana mujhasa nahin” is a simple, SK-AP fun song. The lead up to the song is also fun.
“O mere sona re” – while I love all the songs from this movie, this is definitely my favourite! The way AP teases SK in the lead up to the song, the way she starts the song, the way she troubles him for good part of the song is something one can watch again and again and again… – oh and the bag! His handbag is there throughout the song! Another extremely well made song! And no pair other than SK-AP could have done this song.
“Dekhiye sahibo” – The location is a fair – and the song is sung on merry-go-round and giant wheel. SK going completely wacky and AP providing the appropriate anchoring!
One can watch these movies again and again. One can also listen to the music of these movies again and again – and when one does, can’t help remember SK in all these songs…
