The Kapoor Brothers.

   

      Bollywood is the pride of Indian Cinema.When I make this statement it does not mean that I undermine the other regions of the Indian film society.What I mean here is Bollywood has always been a few steps ahead, in importing new technologies from wherever they are invented and infusing them into the big screen, before other Indian film industries could make such a move. Moreover when other regions could think only of black and white films,Bollywood came out with quite a number of color films in the Nineteen Sixties itself.This blog has rarely gone into the Hindi movie world, for want of creditable access to Hindi films, due to my selective Hindi movie watching schedule.
   The reason for this was that most of the areas in Tamil Nadu other than Chennai,were not screening Hindi movies in theatres from the middle of Nineteen Seventies.However Tamil audience had once cherished a special fascination for Bollywood films, purely for their aesthetic richness, in terms of quality exposure to  enchanting components of romance and action and reverberating music.The Hindi heroes starting from Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Rajendra kumar, Sanjeev Kumar down to Dharmendra, Rajesh Kanna Dev Anand, Amitab,Shatrugan Sinha and the Kapoor brothers, all were adored in Tamil Nadu, as darlings of Bollywood.But among these the Kapoor brothers displayed a special charm and charisma because, though they all emerged from the same Prithvi Raj kaboor dynasty,each of the three brothers made a distinct appeal in romance and action and created a variety of sensations among the audience.
   I should modestly acknowledge the fact that I have not seen even countable movies of Ranbir Raj Kaboor,Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor.I have just watched two films of Raj {Sangam and Mera Naam Joker} and three films each of the other two brothers.{An Evening in Paris, Brammhachari and Andaaz of Shammi Kapoor and Sharmilee, Aa Gale Lag Ja and Deewar of Shashi}.But a sample of rice is enough to rate the quality of the pot full of rice.Assessments are based on a kind of spark between two interacting forces.It is this spark that gets released in different dimensions and brings different people together.
     Each of the three Kapoor brothers has created a cinematic flame and not a spark, particularly in their concept and display of romance and action.The all giving but forlorn face of romance was omnipresent in Raj Kapoor's show of the fall of love, in the two films that I watched.He was one who would love only for love,however unrequited it was.The pitch of pathos was a predominant factor, pulling the nerves of the audience into a soul searching but agonizing experience. Raj Kapoor was indeed a lovely, tormenting force of romance and the tormenting experiences of the audience while watching Raj singing a heart piercing song, in the melting voice of Mukesh, could create cathartic moments for every one.The actor Raj and the singer Mukesh, were the grand masters of dejected love and they both casually carried on the load of sorrow and gracefully passed it on to everybody, watching and listening to them.Great were the days and greater were our exalting hours at the theaters.
     Shammi was an invigorating tornado of love.His nimble bodily movements and characteristic gestures would make the audience dance with him."An Evening in Paris" shot almost completely in the  Capital of France was an energizing action bonanza with romance and gorgeous visual display, captivating the audience imagination as an inexhaustible treat.The glamour parade of Sharmila Tagore and the stylish villainy of Pran were the other positive notes of this big budget film.The music of Shankar Jaikishan  was the major crowd pulling force of the film. Shammi would almost thrust circus moves on his limbs, in most song sequences and romantic scenes.It was this physical vigor that sustained his position as hero and made his role play endearing to the audience.As a widower with a kid in Andaaz and as a lover and caretaker of children in Brammachari, he made his roles remembered.He was a hero with unstinting gusto and a kind of mischievous innocence in looks, that could made him reflect shades of romance in a rare form.
     Shashi,the youngest of the three was a combination of charm,style and intelligence that could effectively make him a deviant of the Kapoor breed. No doubt, he had a little bit of his immediate elder Shammi. But he had an inbuilt ingredient of subtlety in his approach, with which  he carved  a specially identifiable niche for himself, in the line of Dev Anand. His calculated articulation of dialogues was quite symbolic of a probing,introspective mindset, that singularly helped him hone his style of acting, frame by frame.Of his three films I watched,Aa Gale Lag Ja was a delicate romantic tale with profound intricacies in narration.Paired with Sharmila Tagore, Shashi Kapoor brought out a new dimension in man-woman relationship with a refreshing psychological perspective of accidental pre-marital sex, that was necessitated for reviving the life of a person in an ice bound region.
   The success of the film called for its remake in Tamil as Uthaman starring Sivaji Ganesan and Manjula. While his  earlier film Sharmilee was an action thriller with Rakhee playing dual roles, his Deewar with Amitab as his elder brother was a block buster cop and gangster story, which was also made into Tamil as Thee. Shashi was chic and brilliant both in  police and military uniforms.Of the three brothers, Shashi certainly had an Anglican touch in fixing his profile into characters.I always loved to see more of his films but owing to political compulsions in Tamil Nadu and changing circumstances in Tamil cinema, my wish remained unfulfilled at a time when even TV watch was not available in many homes, until the mid Nineteen Eighties.
    Of the three brothers,the eldest lived comparatively a shorter life and he could not see even Seventy.Whereas the other two brothers,interestingly died in their Seventy Ninth year, just before seeing eighty.Tamil cinema has also come upon  brothers like M.G Chakrapani and M.G.Ramachandran,T.K.Shanmugam and T.K.Bagavathi,Chaaruhasan and Kamalahasan and the now popular Surya and Karthik. But the Kapoor family was a unique lamp post for Bollywood, marking effervescence and efficacy of branches of a single tree, standing up proudly and enhancing the image of Hindi cinema, through the creditable contribution of four heroes starting from the Kapoor patriarch Prithviraj.But the three Kapoor brothers not only made their father proud, but also heightened the grandeur of Hindi Cinema, by spreading their wings of acting with awesome colors and characters.This belated tribute that closely follows the death of the youngest of the Kapoor brothers, also carries genuine apologies from me, for having forgetfully delayed a timely tribute from my blog, to Prithvi Raj Kaboor &sons .
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