New Delhi: The show man Raj Kapoor, founder of RK films and inspiration around which Bollywood finds its ground; was a die-hard romantic. The iconic RK Films logo says it all. A man with unkempt hair, taut body, holding a violin clutches a woman ached backwards.
On his birth 91st birth anniversary today, let us tell you the epic love saga of Raj Kapoor and Nargis, one which can never be forgotten by the Indian cinema.
R.K films was really a Nargis-Raj Kapoor banner. The showman had famously said that his wife was the mother of his children but Nargis was the mother of his movies.
Raj Kapoor met Nargis when the she was a star, a veteran of eight films in 1945. She was 20, Raj was 22 and new to the celluloid world.
What started with ‘Aag', the 1948 movie in which they were paired together for the first time grew deeper by the time Barsaat was released a year later. Nargis was totally committed to Raj Kapoor, she put her heart, soul and even her money into his films. She sold her gold bangles when the studio was short of funds and acted in films of other producers to fill the depleting coffers of R.K. films.
For Raj, who wanted his epitaph to read, ‘Here's a man who only wished to love', Nargis was his friend, muse, partner-at-work, actress, lover and love. People close to Raj revealed that he weaved his movies around Nargis.
So, when Nargis left Raj to marry Sunil Dutt, he was heartbroken. But the ones who were close to Nargis say that it was a gradual process. Nargis was madly in love with Raj and longed to become Mrs Raj Kapoor. She started feeling alienated in his movies and was unhappy with the roles he was giving her.
In Shree 420 (1955), she was discontented with her non glamorous role. An infuriated Nargis signed Mother India (1957) without telling Raj Kapoor. This hurt him badly. But what was the last nail in the coffin was Nargis' marriage with Sunil Dutt, something which was hidden from the world till the movie was released.
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Raj Kapoor took her marriage to Sunil as a betrayal and this was probably the darkest period of his career. “Night after night he would come home drunk and collapse in the bathtub weeping,” his wife Krishna Kapoor had said.
The showman never really forgave Nargis for leaving him. Years later at her funeral, Raj Kapoor preferred being an outsider. While everyone was calling out Raj's name to come closer to her lying corpse, Raj said, “Yahin se toh guzrenge. All my friends are going.” He wore dark glasses, probably to hide his teary eyes from the world.
The Nargis chapter in Raj Kapoor's life closed like a heavy door with a melodramatic end.
