The writer is a journalist, film critic and film director.")The Raaj Kumar style was theatrical but individualistic. ("I saw your feet, they are very beautiful. It hardly mattered if he was scoffed at for sporting a carrot-hued wig, ear-rings, shirts which seemed to be cut from paisley-printed upholstery fabrics, besides carrying a ubiquitous briar wood pipe which gave him an element of gravitas." As it happened, I didn’t qualify on either of the counts. If he had ever opted for the naturalistic, restrained mode, he would have been unacceptable. If a Stardust reporter quizzed him about his affairs, one of them culminating in a hush-hush marriage, the journo returned to her desk with a blank.
Perfect! On the downside, there were rumours that in the line of duty he had inadvertently killed a man, an allegation which remained an allegation. Their brother, Panini, has kept out of showbiz as well as the party pages.The media-averse Raaj Kumar, born Kulbhushan Pandit in Loralai, Balochistan, retains a cult following, canonised as the "King of Dialogue Delivery", but on Sunday a precious few recalled that his 20th death anniversary falls on July 3." With a poker-Buster Keaton face, he continued, "You’re asking me that because I’m no spring chicken. On being asked, "Have you ever fallen in love ", he had replied instantly, "No my body has only risen in love. As for his private life, it was discreet.In the public mind, the jaani bristled with paradoxes which made him more enigmatic than the marshmallow matinee idols of the 1960s and ’70s. But the much-discussed eccentricity was a guise. Still, they’re ceaselessly narrated by Bollywood’s senior survivors. To a lost-in-her-dreams Meena Kumari, in the course of a train journey, he intoned huskily, "Aapke paaon dekhe, bahut haseen hain inhe zameen par mat utariyega maile ho jayenge". Presumably, he had expected an evening of intense sher-o-shayari. During the concluding years of the black-and-white era, he was a turncoat street ruffian (Ujala, 1959), an anti-labour factory employee (Paigham, 1959) and the overly suspicious (Dil Ek Mandir, 1963) or relegated-to-the-backdrop husband (Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai, 1960).
The producer returned home terrifically tipsy, elated that the project had been accepted. The producer waded in gingerly but was in for another surprise. The interview had been organised on the studio sets of Muqaddar ka Faisla (1987), courtesy producer Yash Johar who had cautioned, "Appreciate the Ghalib verses he may quote to you. The teetotaller producer was challenged to drink a quart of whisky while they discussed the project amidst the lacerating waves. Some years ago Vastavikta, his daughter, was in the news for stalking the hero-next-door Shahid Kapoor. Whether he was crossing verbal swords with Dilip Kumar in Saudagar (1991) once again after Paigham, Nana Patekar in Tiranga (1992) or Naseeruddin Shah in Police Public (1990), Bollywood’s jaani reigned in the kingdom he had created for himself.Puru, who couldn’t make the cut as a hero, has stated that his father was "bizarre but never boring".Incredibly, no one has chosen to chronicle the life and times of an actor and a man who never fell in love. The audience clapped and whistled at his punchlines. He thinks you are an China rubber wheels Manufacturers intelligent sort and someone who appreciates poetry. Indeed, his most cherished performances are those of a gallant paramour apotheosised by his delivery of the ultimate romantic line of dialogue in Pakeezah. Phir bhi jaani, abhi to main jawaan hoon.And he preserved the style like an indispensable overcoat, while making the transition to enormous-than-life character roles. She was awed by his charm and odd behaviour though — he had poured Scotch into his right-hand palm for his dog Tobey who scampered away promptly.
A story goes that a film producer, who wished to offer him a role was summoned for a swimming session, not in a pool but in the sea at high tide. If he was alive, he would have been 89 and quite likely ensconced in his Worli bungalow or gazing at the oceanfront from his Juhu shack "Whispering Windows", which were both strictly out of bounds for visitors. Yet another Raaj Kumar lore claims that when he was a sub-inspector in Mumbai’s Mahim police station, he refused to salute his superiors. Don’t place them on the ground they will get soiled. The man had a regard for the literary, the poetic, Shakespearean dramas and, above all, cinema of flamboyant flourishes."No one could mind any quirk from Raaj Kumar.Although the answer was loaded with innuendo, it was disarmingly funny. The actor was disappointed, immediately commanding his Jeeves to remove the Johnnie Walker Black bottle and the pyramid of samosas placed on the table before us.Acting was self-inculcated and a spillover from his real life. Indeed even before that, the brief role of the cowardly family deserter of Mehboob Khan’s Mother India, unspools in the memory’s archives. He just kept rising in love. Next question if you don’t mind. Here was an actor who devised an aura around himself. The black sheep of a colourfully scattered family in Waqt (1965) eventually spotlighted his potential leading hero material, affirmed by the lyrical sagas Pakeezah (1972) and Heer Raanjha (1970).Initially, his roles presented him as an antagonist, a spoke-in-the-wheel of a happy ending.To be sure, such stories — like the ones associated with Kishore Kumar — may be apocryphal
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