At the just-concluded International Film Festival of India, Ranbir Kapoor revealed that the first song he made his daughter Raha listen to was ‘Kisi ki muskuraahaton pe ho nisar’from his grandfather Raj Kapoor’s Anari (1959). For cinephiles, this piece of trivia cascaded into a string of songs that the showman helped create on-screen to truthfully express the most intricate of emotions with a touch of innocence.
On the cusp of Raj Kapoor’s centenary year, while much is being written about the man, his creative process remains unexplored. In his mindscape, melodic strands of sound preceded the mise-en-scene. The entire film was like an opera for him, where the plot pivoted around music. Instead of technical jugglery, he would tie the whole experience into one sur (pitch/tone)and establish a rhythmic bond with the audience.
Film critic Jaiprakash Choukase, who was close to the Kapoor family, narrates an incident in his book on the filmmaker’s creative process. After Jaagte Raho (1956) tanked at the box office and Nargis moved on in her life, RK Films was going through a rough phase. In such times, when Raj Kapoor decided to mount Jis Desh Main Ganga Behti Hai (1960), his trusted collaborators Shankar Jaikshan, Shailendra and Mukesh were shocked that in a low phase, the director picked the story of dacoit reform, a subject they felt had little scope for melody. When Raj narrated the story with 11 song situations, they were dumbfounded. When the dacoits ask Raju to introduce himself, he sings ‘Mera naam Raju’, which has ubiquitous yet unique sounds that define his village. Shailendra posits his belief with ‘Kaviraj kahe Na yeh taj rahe Na yeh raaj rahe Na yeh raaj gharana.’
Raj Kapoor recorded all the songs of Ram Teri GangaMaili (1985) even before the screenplay was complete
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
In another popular song from the film, ‘Hum bhi hain, tum bhi ho, dono hain aamne samne’, Pran, who plays a dreaded dacoit, lip syncs a stanza ‘Hai aag hamare seene mein, hum aag se khelte aaye hain’ expressing the emotional turmoil of the character.
Inspired by a segment in Ramcharitmanas where a boatman tells Lord Ram that people are soiling his Ganga by washing off their sins in her waters, Raj recorded all the songs of Ram Teri GangaMaili (1985) even before the screenplay was complete. At a wedding in Delhi, Raj heard Ravindra Jain singing a song where he delineated the difference in the love of Radha and Meera towards Lord Krishna. Touched, he turned the thought into the base of his story. No wonder music composer Pyarelal once said that Raj Kapoor would have been a brilliant music composer had he chosen to become one.
Raj imbibed a love for folk songs from his mother Rasrani Devi. He had a short stint with classical music. When his father Prithviraj Kapoor worked with New Theatres, he regularly visited its music room and developed an interest in Rabindra Sangeet. Traditional tunes such as ‘Ho bhaiyya teri nav main hai toofan’ (Awaara, 1951) marked his storytelling.
Raj Kapoor chose his boatmen with care, and Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and Shailendra propelled the ideological boat of Raj’s vision with the oars of their social realism. Though he had seen life from close quarters, Raj had little formal education. While Mukesh lent his Chaplinesque tramp a voice for the screen, Raj Kapoor used to say that Abbas and Shailendra provided a base for his socialist ideas to blossom. The duo would speak of Raj’s knack for touching the core of their thought and wrapping it in a glamorous cover with his showmanship. Starting with Awaara and Shree 420 (1955), the duality of society was a running theme in his films.
Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Awaara
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
Director Lekh Tandon, who grew alongside Raj under the shadow of Prithviraj Kapoor, once told this journalist — “In Nehruvian India, he made the country sing ‘Awaara hoon’ where two bars of music follow the words. One cannot hum the song without humming the two bars of music”. Yunus Khan, who has just penned a book on Shailendra,says with the people’s poet by his side, Raj would reflect on the common man’s angst and was not afraid of striking an anti-establishment tone in a mainstream fashion. Till Mera Naam Joker, he was much more than a Showman. In ‘Mera joota hai jaapani’, Khan points out, Shailendra writes, ‘Honge raaje rajkanwar hum bigde dil dhehzade hum singhasan par ja baithen jab jab karen iraade’. In ‘Dil ka haal sune dilwala’, there is a line, ‘Aadhi raat ko mat chillana warna pakad lega policewala’. “It should be understood in the context of the times when Majrooh Sultanpuri was arrested for reciting an anti-Nehru poem,” says Khan.
It is not just Raj’s themes that found acceptance in the countries of the Eastern bloc. Audiences in the region also identified with his favourite Waves of the Danube, one of the most popular Romanian tunes regularly featured in the background score of his films. Starting with Barsaat (1949), it enhanced the romanticism and melancholy that was very much inherent in all of his work.
Rahul Rawail, who assisted Raj in several films, says he would never make a song emerge as an extraneous detail. In Bobby (1973), he does not touch upon religion in the love story. But a song in the background says, ‘Beshak mandir masjid todo par pyar bhara dil kabhi na todo’.
Mukesh singing as Raj Kapoor keeps the beat
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
For him, the song must have a context in the story. The song ‘Ghe ghe ghe ghe ghe ghe re sahiba’seamlessly segues into ‘Na chahun sona chandi, na mangun heera moti’, melodically expressing the points of view of two different characters.
Raj had this art of picking up languages and had a way with instruments. “He would pick an instrument and start playing it, just like that. I saw him play a synthesiser on the sets of Kal Aaj Aur Kal — the instrument had just arrived on the music scene,” recalls Rawail.
Raj believed strongly that the sign of popularity of a song was when it featured in the playlist of the traditional wedding bands. He would convey to the composers that bands only picked those songs where even the player of a minor instrument had a role to play. t
‘Jhoot bole kauwa kaate’ and ‘Sun sahiba sun’ from Bobby were Raj Kapoor’s creations
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
It is said that Raj would forget a face but not a tune. The tune of ‘Jeena yahan marna yahan’(Mera Naam Joker, 1970) struck him when he was returning from a party during his visit to Romania in the 1950s. The tune of ‘Jaane kahan gaye woh din’could be heard in the background score of his films in the 1950s. At least two songs, ‘Jhoot bole kauwa kaate’ and ‘Sun sahiba sun’ were his creations. “Much before he found suitable situations for these songs, Raj saab used to hum them,” recalls Rawail.
The tunes Raj created were used by other composers as well, with or without his permission. During the days of Bobby, Raj Kapoor created ‘Woh kehte hain humse abhi umar nahin hai pyar ki’ in the music room of Laxmikant Pyarelal. Rajesh Roshan, who was learning from the composers at that time, happened to be present. Fifteen years later, the song appeared as his composition in Dariyadil (1988) and is perhaps the only lasting memory of the film.
Published – December 04, 2024 05:12 pm IST
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