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We normally worked from ten a.m. to seven p.m. unless Abbas had
to meet what he called a "deadly deadline" or had to prepare
for a shoot the next day. That evening went late into the night
we were working under the guidelines of Abbas, following his orders
for a romantic song sequence which Abbas found both different and
vague but his distributors wanted a song or two in every film and
Abbas too had to show to their demands if he needed the money to
make his films. He did not knew the basics of songs and dances but
there were dance directors and his faithful till the end, cinematographer,
Ramachandra who helped him to give him the best they could. I am
not saying that these songs and dances are meaningless. I can take
them only as pure entertainment, nothing more. I frankly try to
avoid these as far as possible unless they are absolutely necessary.
Sometimes I wish how I could picturise a song and dance like my
friend Raj Kapoor. He had hardly finished saying Raj Kapoor when
Abdul Rahman said he felt he could hear the voice of Raj Kapoor.
"Impossible", Abbas said, "I have no work with him
and he has no work with me, then why should he try climbing all
those five stairs".
It was, yes, it was Raj Kapoor, the showman staggering up the steps
in high spirits. Abbas did not embrace him like he normally did.
He loved Raj for everything he was but for his drinking. Raj took
all the firing from Abbas in his stride, then sat on the ground
near the table on which Abbas wrote, touched Abbas’ feet (something
which Abbas hated). Raj then asked Abbas to go down with him. Abbas
protested, he said he had no time but Raj continued pulling him
down without telling him why. Raj knew that Abbas was very determined
and so continued pleading with him till they reached the ground
floor. Abbas told him that he would not give him more than five
minutes, "especially as a punishment for having come to his
office drunk"...
Those were days when Raj was spending most of his time in high spirits.
His film Bobby with his son Rishi as the leading man and a new-find
called Dimple Kapadia as the heroine was released and was declared
one of the biggest hits of its times. Rishi, incidentally, also
played a child artiste in Raj’s Mera Naam Joker which was an
unmitigated disaster which almost ruined the RK Empire. Raj was
always known as a man with a great heart, a man whose heart could
also be broken very easily, especially by beautiful women. Raj then
slowly led Abbas to a brand new Ambassador car parked in the compound.
He touched his feet again, kissed him on his forehead, handed over
the keys of the car to him and said, "this is yours from today.
You have done so much for me. You’ve almost made my Empire.
What’s this car in comparison?" Abbas was bewildered.
The man who always travelled by buses and trains even though he
could afford atleast a small car couldn’t believe that he could
be the owner of a car which was in fashion those days. Raj kissed
him again and said there was a "clause" to the gift. He
would not sell or mortgage the car at any cost. The driver and all
the other expenses on the car would go into the account of the RK
Empire. Raj did all this because he knew very well that the moment
Abbas made some money he would make a meaningful film which would
ultimately become meaningless at a box-office which failed to understand
the kind of films he made and stood for. Raj then took the wheel
and asked Abbas to sit in the backseat and took a round of Juhu
Beach. It was a scene like two little boys on getting their first
toy car. But Abbas was Abbas. He immediately saw the car as a means
to make some money to make one more film. He kept the car for quite
some time and then one day the car became a mystery. It was missing.
And Abbas, the writer, refused to divulge the mystery of the missing
car till the very end, something Raj was not very happy about. He
was back to his best, BEST, his favourite vehicle.
Incidentally, Raj was so happy with the success of Bobby that he
gifted all his major artistes and technicians with the same Ambassador
cars and all his workers with Hercules cycles. That was Raj. That
was Abbas and that is why they will be remembered for all time to
come.
Ali Peter John
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