The idea of this exclusive and important article came from a discussion thread at Facebook, pointing towards 'Stars' aging more than 50-60, still playing young heroes in their films even in the year 2018. The names are quite obvious and you very well know them all as seriously aware readers and true movie lovers.
However the discussion took me back to The LEGEND, who logically refused joining this questionable ‘age-defying’ group just in the second decade of his illustrious career and showed the guts to accept it openly, setting a daring example of his own for the coming generations.
The man was the one and only, RAJ KAPOOR – The Showman and here is how he displayed an immensely gifted understanding of the medium, accepting his growing age and changing onscreen persona in the time span of just two decades.
So this is not about any hits or flops of his career. But simply about how he perfectly knew ‘The Eternal Truth of Change’ and had a blessed vision to declare it on screen too….. in style.
Post a few ventures in 1947, Raj Kapoor made his directorial debut (also playing the lead) in AAG in 1948 at the age of only 24, becoming one of the youngest directors of Hindi Cinema. Next he delivered several cinematic gems, as an actor-director and producer in the following two decades before making SANGAM (RK's first project in colour and the first Hindi film with two intervals), that released in 1964.
Now if you notice, the gap between 1948 and 1964 is of only 16 years and the man had completed just 40 years of age at the time of its release. Still Raj had the vision and guts to include a comical song in SANGAM as “Main Kaa Karun Raam, Mujhe Buddha Mil Gaya” referring to himself as a Buddha, an old man….. in a humorously teasing remark made by his onscreen wife Vyjayanthimala (who was 12 years younger than him in reality).
And that is ……. what I would like to call as a highly matured, sensible as well as bold insertion by the actor-director with no other parallel in the industry till this very date.
In fact that was an exclusively class example of maturity and acceptance of life as it is (at the age of 40) without any silly, misguided assumption to be honest.
The showman respectfully proved the same doing just 4-5 films as lead hero post SANGAM before revealing it all in his autobiographical MERA NAAM JOKER in 1970. And then started accepting roles suiting his age post its debacle along with continuing making classics as BOBBY, SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDERAM, PREM ROG and RAM TERI GANGA MAILI (without featuring in them as an actor).
In short, post just 16 years of his acting career Raj Kapoor had no hesitation of being called a Buddha in his own film (in 1964), stopped doing lead roles as a young hero in just two decades (till 1970) and then started playing his age on screen, without featuring in his self-produced directorial ventures till the end (that were only 10 in number).
That in fact is one of the key reasons (apart from his exceptional creative skills) why Raj Kapoor is called a TRUE LEGEND….. more so because Legends don’t follow any silly trends..... but they make the trends of their own.
HIS BLESSINGS
(P.S.: Reportedly Lata Mangeshkar refused and was reluctant to sing this song due to its supposedly ‘raunchy’ feel. But she later agreed and sang it with just the right expressions. Eventually the term ‘Budhha Mil Gaya’ became so popular in that era, that it was later also adapted as a title of another film in 1971 directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.)
