Five takeaways from Raj Kapoor's craft on 29th death anniversary
For today's filmmakers, here is how Raj Kapoor used to do it
(By Abdullah Ejaz) – On Indian cinema’s true showman, Raj Kapoor’s 29th death anniversary today (Friday), we dish out some of the lessons that filmmakers across the world can learn off his journey to better as storytellers.
Can’t have the best shot if actors not comfortable
Rishi Kapoor fondly shared an anecdote in an interview that during the shoot, the showman of Hindi cinema had his way of making his newcomer actors feel comfortable. Among other leading ladies who started their careers with the Indian version of Charlie Chaplin was Dimple Kapadia. She was launched by the father of commercial Hindi cinema against Rishi Kapoor in his first film as the leading man in Bobby.
Rishi Kapoor told Anupam Kher who happened to be moderating a talk with Raj Kapoor’s sons, that he had his ways of making actors feel comfortable because he believed he wouldn’t get the shot that he wanted otherwise.
Trivia: Rishi Kapoor used to address his father as ‘saab’
‘Khan saab, is the shot ok for you?’ He used to ask his sound ‘dada’ who knew that it was the director’s “code word” for needing another take. Rishi candidly said that Raj Kapoor used to take liberty with him, being the father, asking for sound ‘dada’s’ approval on his take only to scapegoat him to put other performers at ease.
From Raj Kapoor’s set diaries, here is one tip for nascent filmmakers.
Filmmaker is a one-man circus
Randhir Kapoor, eldest of Raj and Krishna’s (married maternal cousin Krishna Malhotra in 1946) sons, once said that the man was a one-man circus and that what his legacy speaks of even today.
“He didn’t depend on anyone else,” Randhir said in an interview.
It just happened that he had great musicians, technicians and writers who contributed to his work, he said, adding that he didn’t mean to belittle great music composers and singers of that time, but the basic germ was that of Raj Kapoor’s.
Trivia: RK Films logo is inspired by Raj Kapoor holding Nargis in his arms in Barsaat
Background score of Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (Raj Kapoor won Filmfare award for best actor in the leading role) helped conceive tune for the everlasting song Jena Yahan Marna Yahan.
From writing table to music sittings, the filmmaker was a one-man studio.
Flops can become cults
“Mera Naam Joker was his favourite film,” Randhir (actor, director, producer associated with RK Films) once said.
For many who quote the film thinking that it was one of his most commercially satisfying ventures, the film was the biggest flop he had seen until then. Mera Naam Hai Joker served the biggest blow a film could to RK Films at the time.
“Today Mera Naam Joker is the biggest profiting point in my organization,” Randhir said.
He went on to say that after it flopped, the industry was really nice to him (Raj Kapoor), all the top actors came to him and offered to help “resurrect” RK Films but he took a new boy and a girl in Bobby and fought right back.
Any aspiring filmmaker who is far removed from the tides that a box office floats amidst, should enjoy any success that is bestowed and ready for the next failure because it is in the neighbourhood if not next door. It is there.
Mera Naam Joker was late Kapoor’s most ambitious project known to his family and it tanked but today it is a cult. If you’ve made a good film, the audiences will grow to acknowledge it.
Trivia: Rishi Kapoor is more commonly referred to as an actor who debuted with Bobby whereas his first film was Mera Naam Joker; he played the younger character of his father. Raj Kapoor, sitting at the dinner table one night, had asked his wife for permission to cast Rishi in Mera Naam Joker and Krishna conditionally allowed if his studies weren’t affected. Rishi laughed at a ceremony as he once narrated this with his mother sitting in the audience and said: "Mom, it never made any difference. Studies were never there."
What used to make him angry? A bad shot
Raj Kapoor’s sons recalled in an interview that he used to get irritated over a bad shot. "Bad shots made him angry," the brothers agreed.
One has to have emotionally invested in his script, the characters and the story to be able to pull it off with as less of paper-to-reel deviation as possible. If a bad shot is not bothering you, you need to find some other story to tell because it simply is not moving you.
Ranbir Kapoor said in an interview with BBC Asia that he knows his grandfather through his films only as he was only six when he passed away. In another interview, late Kapoor’s grandson said that he sure does want to make a film on the legendary, larger than life Raj Kapoor but he’d not keep the plausible darker side of the human being from the audience.
Utmost investment in work
”He only discussed work nothing else. He didn’t ask me how I am what I’m feeling. He lived for his work. He spoke, he ate, he laughed, he drank, he did everything for his work only,” Randhir said.
He was an educated lawyer who didn’t love anything above films, according to the family.
Anything can become tedious if not well done and to do it well done, one needs to be wholeheartedly invested in it.
Late Kapoor, son of Prithviraj Kapoor (had three sons; Raj, Shashi and Shammi) who acted in his first film at the age of 10, continued to work for 12 years before setting up his production house at the age of 24, could not have done it if it wasn’t for the sheer love of cinema that called for utmost investment.
Late Kapoor collapsed at a Dadasaheb Phalke award ceremony in 1988 and was pronounced dead at AIIMS in Mumbai out of asthma complications. He was to receive the recognition that night.
As for his last project, he had signed Pakistani actress Zeba Bakhtiar opposite Rishi for Henna which was later directed by son Randhir and released in 1991.
