Ehsan Fazili
During my first visit to Delhi with my uncle, when I was a student of the Sri Pratap College, Srinagar, one of the rare opportunities was to watch the movie “Hum Kisise Kum Nahin” in its release year at the Golcha cinema on the road leading to Jamia Masjid. All of its high number of 15 songs, including the title song as well as “Bachna Ae Haseeno….” were equally popular and heart throbbing, for the youth those days. Cinema then was the only source of entertainment, though Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar had also started working with telecasts limited to few hours daily in which Bollywood movie would be a Sunday weekly feature. The songs from “Hum Kisise Kum Nahin” were echoing all around mostly on the Radio in market places, passenger buses, these being an addition to other innumerable filmy songs since the inception of Bollywood. But every new entry would be an addition to the golden era of feature films spanning over 1960’s and 70’s.
For Rishi Kapoor, who passed away on Thursday, the 1977 movie was yet another feather in his cap after he had taken to the silver screen with “Bobby” early in 1973. Though inhibitions were attached to cinema then, it was becoming popular among the youth. The smiling Kapoor scion, grandson of Prithviraj and son of Raj Kapoor, has been proud of his legacy for their contributions to the entertainment world as his father was known for the belief that “the show must go on”. Rishi had also made honest confessions, which have been discovered through his interactions with the media that the cinema was “fooling people (audience”) while referring to lip-synced songs in feature films. For many it has been the actor (Rishi Kapoor) in his case than the playback singers (Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar) for the popular songs—- the title song Hum Kisise Kum Nahin and Bachna Ae Haseeno—behind the popular songs.
Many years before watching his movie in old Delhi’s Golcha cinema, the actor had been popular in Kashmir for his shooting sprees in the picturesque natural beauty of scenic spots of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, Mughal gardens, Dal lake and mountainous ranges around. After his role as a child in “Mera Naam Joker”, he made his debut with “Bobby” in 1973. He had also appeared in a rare scene as a child with two others in his father’s “Shree 420” with Nargis pointing towards the children… … phir bhi rahengi nishaniyan…in the famous song “Pyar hua iqrar hua….” of 1955. As a teenager then, going to High School in early 1970’s, the songs from “Bobby” had resounding effects on my ears. The songs from “Bobby” echoed all around as nearly a dozen of (us) students walked daily on the walkway through paddy fields and the link-road to and fro the school (Bandipore area in north Kashmir). A lone petite shop on the link-road outside a hamlet, displaying toiletries like soap cases and combs etc akin to peasants’ lives, presented a miniature entertainment—– reverberating Bobby songs from a transistor and (make-up items) with “Bobby” stamped items. There was another blockbuster “Khel Khel Mein” in 1975, reverberating the songs like “Khullam Khulla Pyar Karengay…..”, shot in the scenic Pahalgam, which continued to reverberate with his personality as a man behind these heart-throbbing songs.
Like other Kapoor family members he had developed love for Kashmir and had been frequent traveler to the valley with personal family relations with many people allied with Bollywood-tourism sector. This led to the names like “Bobby hut” in Gulmarg known for the Bobby song “Hum tum ek kamray mein bandh hou….”, which continues to remind visitors of the Bollywood’s golden era legacy. A Bobby hut is also known in Pahalgam where Raj kapoor would stay during his Kashmir visits.
The Kapoor scion has made honest confessions with love to one and all in his biography “Khullam Khulla” only three years ago in 2017. True to its title, the book has portrayed his life, growing as a humane person and actor in the shadow of his father, so transparently as he had been in his personal life.
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