RISHI KAPOOR | Sept 1952 – April 2020

Man of easy charm & comic timing bids adieu

Avijit.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

1.5.2020

Rishi Kapoor, who stormed into young hearts and stardom with the bubblegum blockbuster Bobby (1973), and who reinvented himself in the new millennium deftly navigating fluctuating popular trends and fickle public taste, passed away in a Mumbai hospital on Thursday. The actor, who was battling leukemia, was  67. “He remained jovial and determined to live to the fullest right through two years of treatment across two continents,” his family said in a statement.

Rishi arrived at a time when Rajesh Khanna’s reign of romance was fast on the fade. Amitabh Bachchan and action were the new box-office currency. With his chocolate looks and red lips, Raj Kapoor’s second son appeared to be on the wrong side of vogue. But Rishi didn’t fight the tide; rather he found ways to survive and thrive.

Rishi acted in romantic thrillers (Khel Khel Mein) and love yarns of different shades (Kabhi Kabhie, Laila Majnu, Sargam, Prem Rog, Tawaif, Saagar, Henna). He danced better (Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahi, Karz) than most of his contemporaries. A lesser actor would have got lost in masala multi-starrers (Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb) but Rishi’s easy charm and comic timing helped him sail him through these megahits. And yes, his movies were synonymous with chartbusting tracks, generally composed by R D Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

With passing time, he abandoned the mannerisms that had prevented his growth as an actor. In the coda of his career, when character actor parts were more etched out, Rishi Kapoor found a second wind. A garrulous Bollywood producer (Luck By Chance), a gay dean (Student of the Year), a loathsome trafficker (Agneepath), a middle-class maths teacher who dreams of buying a car (Do Dooni Char), a spirited grandfather (Kapoor & Sons) and an aging Muslim laywer battling for honour (Mulk) — he played each part with gusto investing them with a sense of the real.

Always in step with the times, Rishi was a regular on Twitter

Rishi wrote in Khullam Khulla, the autobiography he co-authored with Meena Iyer, “My second phase as a character artiste is particularly gratifying because I could disprove certain misconceptions that people have about senior actors.”

Few Bollywood autobiographies — barring those by Dev Anand and Naseeruddin Shah — are so unsparingly honest. Rishi spoke about fearing his father before coming to admire him, his bouts with alcohol, depression and chauvinism. He wrotehowhehadobjectedtoRajeshKhanna —whom heinitially disliked — being considered for Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram, and admitted to a drunken fight with fellow actor Sanjay Khan. He admitted how he had gone to Javed Akhtar’s home to bait him after Imaan-Dharam scripted by Salim-Javed had flopped and expressed regret at not being able to help R D Burman when the down-and-out music maestro asked for work late in his career.

Kapoor was born on Sept 4, 1952 in Bombay’s no. 1 film family. “I have a vault filled with priceless memories, and a unique vantage point since birth. I have seen four generationsof Kapoors atwork—from my grandfather, my father, uncles and brothers, to Karisma, Kareena and Ranbir (his son),” he said in his autobiography.

Hewas a natural at acting.In his debut role as a boy besotted by his attractive school teacher in his father’s Mera Naam Joker, Rishi projected the right degree of infatuation with heartbreak. Bobby was made primarily by RajKapoor totideover the lossessuffered after theflopping of Joker. The love story, which sloshed the eternal rich vs poor theme with a bunch of irresistible numbers and teen glamour, became a monster hit. Songs such as Hum tum ek kamre mein band hon — now revived with gleein thesetimesof social distancing — were frowned upon by ageing India butlappedup by the young and the loveless. Kapoor and his co-star Dimple Kapadia became the vanilla of the season. The film shaped Rishi’simageof a romanticstar. In a career spanning nearly five decades, the actor starred in over 150 films forming a trendy romantic pair with Neetu Singh, who later became his wife. He also directed the flop, Aa Ab Laut Chalen.

Always in step with the times, Rishi Kapoor was a regular on Twitter.