Raj Kapoor-The Show man of Indian Films

 Raj Kapoor, (1924-1988) is a ever remembered hero in the history of indian film movies. He is famous as 'Show man of Indian films', 'Charlie chaplin of India' etc. He Started his film career  as early as 12 years of his age. he remained there till his death in1988 at his 66th year. Some of his Hindi movies are concidered among best Bollywood films.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Achievements of late Raj Kapoor are astonishing. He has won prestigious ‘ film fare awards ‘ eight times!(Film fare –is a magazine devoted for Film news and that is giving annual awards for best actor, actress, playback singer, music director, etc, considering the films produced in that year. These awards are considered most prestigious in India)He was awarded Awarded Dadasaheb Phalke award for life time achievements

His early films AWARA and BOOT POLISH were nominated for PALME award at Famous Canne Film festival in 1951 and 1954respectively.

BIRTH AND LIFE

Born on Dec14, 1924, in Peshawar, presently in Pakistan.

Father- then famous actor-Prithviraj Kapoor

Mother- Ramasarni Devi Kapoor (Rama)

Brothers: Shashi Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor

Sister : Urmila Siol

Wife : Krishna Kapoor, formerly known as Krishna Malhothra, of Jabalpur.

Marriage took place in 1946 when Raj was Just 22 years old.

Children: First Son – Randhir Kapoor (1942)

First daughter- Ritu (1943) Now Famous as Ritu Nanda, Founder Chairman

                          Of famous Ritu Nanda Institute, to train Life insurance agents

Second son - Rishi Kapoor- (1952)

Second Daughter- Reema Kapoor (1956)

Third Son- Rajin Kapoor (1962)

His first and second sons are in the film field itself, as . Actors and Directors

Today’s celebrities in bollywood-Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor are the grand children of Raj Kapoor, though he didn’t like ladies of his family entering film field.

FILMS BY RAJ KAPOOR

This legendary figure acted for the first time in INQUILAB (freedom) film in 1935, when he was just a 12 year old boy. Since then, he continuously worked in films as actor, producer, director, etc.The video above, thakfully borrowed from Utube, gives glimpses of many films by him.

Brief history of his filmy life is as follows

1935-as a boy actor in INQUILAB

1947- AS hero in –‘Neel Kamal’ with beautiful Madhubala as heroine. It was her first film also

1948- Established his own banner for film production as R.K.FILMS at Mumbai, at the age of just 24...Same year, he produced film ‘AAG’ (fire) with NARGIS as heroine. She was his heroine in his six films

1949 – Played hero role in film ANDAAZ directed by Mehboob Khan. Here he got good success as hero.

1949- Produced and directed the film- BARSAAT

1951- Produced and directed famous film AWAARA (wanderer) .The film got very good appreciation and was screened in countries like Soviet Russia.

1955- Produced and directed the film –SRI-420 (Mr.420) which also was well appreciated.

1956- Produced and directed the film- CHORI-CHORI

1960- Produced and directed another famous hit film JIS DESH MEIN GANGA BEHTI

HAI (the country where the river Ganga flows) with beautiful south Indian actress Padmini played the leading role.

1964- He produced and directed his first colour movie-SANGAM.This is the film with a story of triangle love. Another beauty queen Vyjayanthimala was the heroine here. Rajendra Kumar was second hero. For this film, he did shooting in different parts of the world, like Switzerland, etc. In this film, he acted as young hero.

1970- Released his most ambitious film MERA NAAM JOKER (my name is joker) –which tells the sad, digusted story of a circus joker. This film was of four hours length.

It had fine music and songs, as of his most other films. It included Russian circus artists. In spite of his best efforts, the film failed in box office as Indian viewers could not appreciate the seriousness in the story. But Raj firmly held that it was his best film

1971- Produced and directed the film ‘ KAL AAJ AUR KAL ’ (Yesterday, today and tomarrow) whish tried to establish how time passes.In this he acted with his father Prithviraj and son Randhir Kapoor.Form this film onwords, he started playing supporting roles.

1973-Produced and directed the film ‘BOBBY’ by introducing Dimple Kapadia as heroine.This romantic film, though artistically not good, hit the box office.

1978-Made the film ‘SATHYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM’ INTRODUCING Padmini Kolhapure , as little actress and Zeenat Aman as heroine. This also minted money.

1982- Made another commercial film –‘Prem Rog”-box office success

1985- Prodcued his last film-‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’(O Ram Your Ganga river became dirty”) introducing Mandakini as heroine.

By this time, he had started working on another ambitious film ‘HENNA’ Theming the crucial story of artificial divison of humaity into different political countries. He could not complete the film. Later, his son Randhir completed the film and released it in 1988.

He was awarded prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1988.

He died out of serious asthma in 1988.

Raj’s films are known for their melodious and meaningful songs and music.,humanitarian touch;hindi videos of his films are also available.

For some more details, have a look at the following link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Kapoor

Further links to my other hubs about indian films and film artists are given below. All those have photoes