August 14th ,2011 Indian film industry lost one of its most beloved actors- Shammi Kapoor.
Entire industry paid homage, showcased his immense popularity. This 79 year veteran had a career spanning over 50 years.
His personal life was like rollercoast rides with peaks and lows in personal and professional life.
At the peak of his career, he suddenly lost his wife Geeta Bali.Family turmoil with young kids, left Shammi disillusioned and aloof. His career took a sharp dip from a level when he was regarded as one most successful stars of the ara after front liners of Dilip,RajKapoor,DevAnand.
In one of the interviews ('Shammi Kapoor unplugged')he revealed his desire ever was to work with Ashok kumar, the opportunity he never got in a film but sometime in 1980's an offer to do a Paan Parag commercial with Dadamuni(Ashok kumar) impulsively made him accept the offer to fulfil his dream.The commercial advertisement made both product and Shammi popular again.
The incident , Shammi kapoor narrated was of a family visit to Honkong where crowd cheered his brothers Raj & Shashi Kapoor. But as reached airport, crowd screamed at him as Paan Parag.
Raj according to Shammi's own words was dismayed and reacted what di he do to his glorious successful films like Teesri Manzil, Junglee, Professor, Tum sa nahi dekha. His PanParag ad had erased his image with this name. Shammi was always impetuous and respected Raj's advice,yet he just wanted to work with Ashok Kumar
Signature Film: Brahamchari
Shammi Kapoor’s death saddens his childhood friends
The elders of Dhaki Munawar Shah still reminisce the good days they spent with Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor.
The house of the legendary Kapoors at Dhaki Munawar Shah, in the heart of the Peshawar City, is still known as “Kapoor’s house” and the dwellers recall that before partition, Prithvi Raj, father of Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, used to live in this house along with other family members.
In late 1930, Prithvi Raj went to Bombay and started his acting career. He was followed by his son Raj Kapoor.
“I used to play with Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor and had friendly association with them,” recalls Muhammad Yousaf, an octogenarian who resides in neighborhood of Kapoor’s house. Shashi Kapoor was much junior at that time and therefore I did’nt have association with him, he added.
Yousaf said though he had no contact with Kapoors after migration to India, but the death of Shammi Kapoor has saddened him. “In fact he was my childhood friend,” he murmured.
During our childhood there was no concept of Hindu-Muslim and we used to play together in streets and even eat meal at each other houses.
There was no restriction in visiting each other houses and people of that time were very loving and relations between neighbors were very cordial. Another man Yaqoob Khan who was a schoolfellow of Raj Kapoor and an erstwhile milk-seller said he had studied with Raj Kapoor in a primary school and later both got admission to Khalsa Dharam School at Khyber Bazar, Peshawar to seek education in higher grade.
Fawad Ismail, a city dweller, informed APP that his father Muhammad Ismail who died recently, was not only a class fellow of Shammi Kapoor, but also his desk fellow in a primary school at Dhaki. “My father told me that he and Shammi Kapoor studied together in primary school of Headmaster Devan Dena Naath. The school building was later acquired by Muhammad Aashiq who made it his residence”, Fawad Ismai added.
Fawad said death of Shammi also saddened him because he regarded him as friend of his father. In early sixties, my father (Ismail) along with some other friends, including trader’s leader Haji Haleem Jan, Gama Pehalwan (paternal uncle of Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan) and Abdul Manan went to India and met the Kapoors who welcomed their Peshawari friends with open arms and played host to them, Fawad said. “My late father was very happy that Kapoors had not forgotten their childhood friends, and that their love for their native city-Peshawar-and its people was intact,” Fawad said with sense of pride.
“Being a human being, Shammi departs, but his memories will remain alive in the minds of his fans and people of his birthplace,” commented Yaqoob.—APP
Source: an article from Pakistan Observer.
His Son aditya pays homage to his father:
Late legend Shammi Kapoor's son Aditya Raj Kapoor says his father "wrote the manual for our future generations" but yet he would like to be compared to his mother Geeta Bali for his acting.
"At the age of 76 he played my career guide and mentor. My father allowed me to go where I wanted away from home and do whatever I wished. Today, I've allowed both my children the same freedom. My father wrote the manual for our future generations," said Aditya.
"Nothing can compare with my father. I recently told my dad I look, walk and talk like him. But for my acting I want to be compared with my mother. I can only try to be a good human being. Besides that I want to build a memorial for my parents. My first mother grew up in penury and died before she could enjoy a good life. Today my parents are united."
Shammi Kapoor, known for hits like Dil Deke Dekho and Teesri Manzil, died Monday after kidney failure.
Aditya fondly remembers his father as someone who allowed him to chart out his own life and says that he followed his dad's footsteps by letting his children chase their dreams.
"There's a black-and-white photograph we put up for the chautha. That's the first picture I remember of my dad taken when we moved into the house where I now live. We moved in when I was three years old after his first flush of success with the release of Tumsa Nahin Dekha. Looking at that photograph, I remembered how much fun I had going for the shooting with him," said Aditya.
"When I was driving down to the cremation ground with his body, people had put his songs on loudspeakers. Chahe mujhe koi junglee kahe was being played for the final send-off.
"People peeped into the ambulance, threw flowers inside and said, Yahoo. I realised my father's mantra only after he died. Shammiji ka mantra Yahoo tha. At that moment I had the full and complete realization of what it meant to be Shammi Kapoor's son," he added.
Aditya was sent to Lawrence School in Sanawar when he was only six-year-old.
"Dad came every year for the Founders Day. Pran saab and Sunil Dutt saab also came because their children were also there. Sanju and Pran saab's daughter Pinky in fact came to meet me yesterday. Pinky was my local guardian-sister in Sanawar. When I wanted more money, I had to take her permission.
"My mother Geeta Bali, an almost-uneducated woman, came to see me at boarding school more often than my father. My mother had given up her career and my father's had just started. So she had more time to visit me. My mother was the original Sridevi. She passed away when I was 9."
Those were not easy years for Aditya.
"Mom was gone. Dad had become so successful he had no time for me. Superstars today have organised lives. In my father's time, fans used to barge into our home at any time. I was left with no space that I could call my own with my father," said Aditya who gives credit to his step mom Neela Devi for putting his life on track.
"She (Neela Devi) devoted her life to my father, decided not to have any children of her own because me and my sister were already there. Neela Devi was the best bandage on my tender wounds. She turned me from a wounded anguished rebellious howling animal to a human being."
Aditya never stopped missing Geeta Bali, though.
"My first and second mothers were different persons. Do you know, my second mother was a fan of Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali. She once went for an autograph. Geetaji wrote, 'Remember 'M' remember 'E', put them together and remember 'Me'. Geetaji almost blessed Neela Devi as though she knew what was going to happen.
"Geetaji was very adventurous. She was the only woman in the word who could punch my dad and get away with it. She is the one who made Shammi Kapoor into a star. Before Geetaji, Shammi Kapoor was under the shadows of his father Prithiviraj Kapoor and his brother Raj Kapoor."
Geeta Bali's end came all of a sudden.
"My mother was gone in just 15 days. She had gone on location in rural Punjab where she contracted smallpox. It was for a film called Rano, which was later made with Rishi Kapoor and Hema Malini as Ek Chadar Mali Si. At that time Dharmendra was playing Rishi's role and Mummy was playing Hema's role. Then she fell ill. My father left his shooting and picked both of us up. She got worse and died. Dad was doing Teesri Manzil when she died." The death of his mother scarred Aditya for life.
"It took my second mother a good 10 years to heal me of that loss. By the time I was 17. I was a rebel without a cause. I was going to make my film debut. Then I found my spiritual guru and he told me - Leave The Film Industry'. I left. My father questioned my decision over and over again. But I was adamant.
He worked with shipping magnate Yogendra Madhav Lal and then Rajan Nanda.
"Then I started my own company. For 25 years, I never looked at cinema, stopped seeing films... After my Guruji's death too I didn't look at the film industry. Only after I migrated to Dubai did I return to movies. Circumstances forced me to direct 300 episodes of a TV serial. I directed my first English-language film, followed by two other films. Then I returned to Mumbai at the age of 52, I became an actor...finally
Shammi Kapoor developed his own website. Here is link:
Shammi Kapoor website
