Raj Kapoor: Some little known facts on the great Showman’s birthday

Raj Kapoor has been considered the greatest showman of Indian, particularly Hindi cinema. Here are some lesser known facts about the great actor, director:

1. At the age of 24, Raj  Kapoor became the youngest film director of India  in 1948  to make Aag, a blistering film way ahead of its time about a man whose face is horribly disfigured by fire. Many  years later he tackled the same theme in Satyam Shivam Sundaram. This  time it was Zeenat Aman with a scarred face. Both Aag and SSS  were major flops , putting Raj Kapoor’s  RK Studios in the red. Moral of the story:  do not disfigure matinee idols. Indian audiences do not like it.

2. Satyam Shivam Sundaram  released in 1978 was  to be made much earlier with Lata Mangeshkar….yes, the Nightingale …playing the lead as a woman whose voice reflects  the beauty of her soul. Lataji who had experience as an actor during her childhood decided against donning the greasepoint. Raj Saab decided  he won’t make the  film without his muse. But changed his mind many years later. Lataji sang the soul stirring songs of Satyam Shivam Sundaram to immortality.

3. Music was the soul of Raj Kapoor’s cinema. It is an open secret among the close confidantes of RK that  he composed many  of the evergreen melodies, and let his  official  composers take credit for them. When asked why he didn’t take credit for his songs Raj Saab said, “I don’t want to take away the meal of my artistes.”  Years later Sanjay Leela  Bhansali followed the same model of  ghost-composing his songs. Now of course Bhansali  takes credit for  the music score  of his film, something that Raj Saab never did.

4. Lata Mangeshkar was Raj Kapoor’s muse. He openly acknowledged her  and Mukesh as the two voices of his cinema. Mukesh was RK’s ghost-voice  in every film that Raj Kapoor directed or acted in. Holi and Diwali and Raj  Saab’s birthday on  December 14 the Mukesh family had to be there at the Kapoors’  residence in brand new clothes. Mukesh would get new clothes for the entire family for all the three occasions at  Raj Saab’s place. The  friendship between Mukesh’s  and Raj Kapoor’s family has  continued over the years.

5. Raj Kapoor shared a beautiful relationship with Nargis. She was his leading lady in all his directorial ventures from Aag in 1948  till Shree 420 in 1955. After this,  they parted ways as Raj Saab couldn’t offer Nargis marriage that she wanted. Her last appearance in an RK Film was  in Jagte Raho where she did a cameo as the woman singing Jago mohan pyare in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice who offers water to a parched Raj Kapoor.