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The next morning
Kapoor and his unit flew to Delhi. That evening the film opened
in the capital at Vigyan Bhavan with Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram
as chief guest. Half an hour later Kapoor and his team arrived at
the newly opened Chanakya Theatre that boasted of the country’s
largest screen, 72 feet by 32 feet, where a motley crowd of known
faces and unknown names awaited them. Tickets priced at Rs 100,
Rs 50 and Rs 25 had sold out in minutes.
Everyone wanted
to see Raj Kapoor’s little man and big film. The fact that
it was four hours 15 minutes long and had two intervals, a first
in the history of Hindi cinema, increased its novelty value. Crowds
flocked to the theatres screening the film. But their interest and
enthusiasm faded away all too soon. The common man found the film
"too long". The critics dismissed it as "too self-indulgent
and awash with self-pity". Sangam had grossed over Rs
20 million, Mera Naam Joker made Kapoor poorer by half a
crore. Kapoor who had not just sacrificed his health and personal
relationships for the film, but also put all his savings into it
besides borrowed heavily from the market at very high interest rates,
was teetering on the edge of financial ruin. He was in the red.
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K A Abbas Raj Kapoor didn’t know much Russian. But it wasn’t
often that he needed an interpreter, to translate for him. He
spoke the language of the heart, using two Russian words that
said everything...Tavarish meaning camaraderie and Ya
ya or yes. |
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Raj Kapoor was
devastated by the film’s unexpected debacle. "Making a
movie is a bit like contesting the elections," he pointed out,
hiding his hurt behind a brave smile. "But at least you can
rig an election. You can’t rig public opinion." As Kapoor
went into deep depression, a funereal air sheathed RK Studios. Abbas
slunk away feeling guilty. It didn’t help to recall that he
had warned his friend not to make the film.
The film’s
lyricist, Shailendra had passed away after writing three songs for
the film. He’d written only the mukhda of ‘Jeena yahan...’
when he died. The song was completed by his son, Shaily. His death
shattered Kapoor and Hasrat Jaipuri, the film’s other lyricist,
for whom Shailendra had been a friend rather than a rival with whom
he’d consult on his writing and exchange sugestions. "He
(Shailendra) died and left me a living corpse," Jaipuri mourned.
Composer Jaikishen
followed Shailendra after the release of the film. Raj Kapoor who
according to his friend and biographer Bunny Reuben, had the knack
of keeping his most trusted and favourite people with him till the
end, was destroyed by the untimely demise of two of his very dear
friends and colleagues. A broken man, he handed over the reins of
his next project to his eldest son, Randhir. Unfortunately, Kal
Aaj Aur Kal that brought together three generations of Kapoors,
was released in ’71 when the country was at war with Pakistan
and frequent blackouts resulted in near empty theatres. Debts piled
up. RK Studios was faced with the threat of extinction.
To add to Raj
Kapoor’s trails and traumas, Papaji, Prithviraj Kapoor,
who had been his pillar of strength, suddenly toppled over. His
wife, Jaijee, went into shock after his sudden death and followed
him to the grave within a fortnight. The loss of both parents crippled
Kapoor. But before long he was back on his feet, determined to regain
control of his life for the sake of his extended family who now
looked on him as a father figure. Abbas presented him with a complete
script, a teenage love story. Raj Kapoor turned away the saleable
Neetu Singh and cast the daughter of a friend, a 16-year-old girl
with an unknown, unusual name, Dimple Kapadia. Dimple was Raj Kapoor’s
Bobby. And Rajoo this time was Rishi Kapoor.
For years Rishi
had stood before the mirror, practicing with different expression.
Rishi who had been rosy-cheeked and lumpy when he’d been cast
in Mera Naam Joker, but had done his father proud by bagging
the National Award for Best Child Artiste. Rishi who had to go on
a crash diet to lose all those unnecessary kilos before he could
convince his father to give him his first "adult" role.
Bobby was a do-or-die gamble. Kapoor’s regular distributors
shyed away from it. For months it remained unsold. When it was finally
picked up even Kapoor believed it wouldn’t last out for more
than 3-4 weeks at the theatres. It went on to make box-office history.
To resurrect the RK banner and wipe away some of the nightmares
that had plagued Kapoor in the three years since Mera Naam Joker.
Raj Kapoor was back.
Of course,
the memories associated with the film were not all bad. Kapoor never
recalled the circus chapter without a smile. For the first time
in the history of Indian cinema, a producer had imported such a
large group of foreign artistes to work in a Hindi film. They were
all part of the Russian State Circus with the exception of the Bolshoi
ballerina Ksiena Rabiankina. The 20-member circus troupe was scheduled
to visit Mumbai in the summer of ’68 but eventually landed
in December. The flight was delayed by half an hour and touched
down in India at 11.30 a.m. The Russians who got off were a cheerful
group that included Kapoor’s double, the clown Seredia, a couple
of geese, a dog and three bears . They revelled in the Indian summer,
showed a preference for American coke and applauded their Awaara
hero at the end of every sentence he spoke.
Unlike Abbas,
Raj Kapoor didn’t know much Russian. But it wasn’t often
that he needed Abbas, Rybakov, who came with the Soviet troupe,
Valentino, attached solely to Rabinkina and Mokashi, a local interpreter,
to translate for him. He spoke the language of the heart, using
two Russian words that said everything...Tavarish meaning camaraderie
and Ya ya or yes.
Kseina Rabinkina
arrived a fortnight later and immediately fell ill. The food disagreed
with her but in time the dainty ballerina of Moscow’s Bolshoi
Theatre, grew to love Indian cuisine. If any Russian created problems
for Kapoor it was the bears who had been dubbed Father, Mother and
Baby bear by the unit in the Goldilocks tradition.
During the
shooting of the circus scenes, Kapoor, for the first time in his
life was up early, a familiar face at Gemini Circus in Mahim creek,
supervising the filming of the songs, the trapeeze and animal acts.
He arrived at the Big Top one morning to find his three bears sullen
and uncooperative. They were to do an act at a mock petrol pump,
inflating the tires of a little cab painted with the taxi colours,
and filling it up with gas, but were not in the mood. The hairy
stars were obviously feeling the heat. He ordered them into their
special cages and covered them with chunks of ice. It took them
a while to cool off but eventually they returned to give their shot...perfectly.
These circus
scenes were undoubtedly one of the highlights of the film. And the
image of Raj Kapoor in his joker get-up, his arms outstretched,
a whimsical half-smile on his clownish face, beckoning to us from
the posters, the LP record cover and the cover of Filmfare, refuses
to fade away. There’s a story behind this picture. It was ace
lenser, Dheeraj Chawda’s idea to stand Raj Kapoor in his joker
attire at the foot of a chair. Chawda stood on the chair and aimed
his camera with a special wide-angle lens straight at Kapoor from
a distance of a just a foot and a half. Kapoor who knew that the
lens could distort refused to pose for the picture till Chawda promised
him that he’d take just two shots. One of him laughing with
his arms outstretched and the other with a sad expression on his
face. Chawda was playing on turning Kapoor into a caricature with
a large head and a small body. It was distortion but one that Kapoor
fell in love with at first sight. When he saw the picture he bounded
out of his chair and exclaimed, "This is my joker! Tell my
cameraman that this is the effect I want in the movie. I want to
be a cartoon...a caricature."
Raj Kapoor’s
cameraman, Radhu Karmaker followed his instructions to the T and
was awarded the National Award for Best Cinematography for his efforts.
A third National Award was won by Manna Dey (Aye bhai zara dekh
ke chalo) for Best Male Playback Singer (an award he shared
with Nisha Padam). Mera Naam Joker also bagged a number of
Filmfare Awards including Best Director (Raj Kapoor), Best Cinematography
(Radhu Karmaker), Best Playback Male (Manna Dey), Best Sound Recordist
(Allaudin) and Best Music (Shankar-Jaikishen).
The film’s
musical score was superlative with many timeless melodies. A milestone
in Shankar-Jaikishen’s career. It started with the peppy opening
track, ‘Aye bhai zara dekh ke chalo...’ whose mood
turned pensive with a lone violin accompaniment at the end. ‘Daag
na lag jaye...’ is a hummable qawwali, ‘Teeter
teeter...’ cute and childlike and ‘Kehte hain joker...’
buoyant and interesting with the circus band playing. Two of Mukesh’s
other tracks (he also sang ‘Teeter teeter..’) are
also unforgettable. While ‘Jaane kahan gaye woh din...’,
steeped in nostalgia, is blithe and poignant in turns, ‘Jeena
yahan marna yahan...’ is a quasi philosophical song, the
motto of a resurgent film industry. Nitin Mukesh who attended the
recordings of both songs insists that they were two of his father’s
best songs and always requested at every show.
‘Jaane
kahan gaye woh din...’in particular brings back a hard-to-forget
memory for Mukesh’s son. On August 22 and 23 Mukesh had performed
at Montreal and Toronto. May be it was because he wasn’t feeling
too well or because he had a premonition of his death, but Mukesh
sent an SOS to his son who was vacationing in America to join him
in Montreal for the 23rd concert. The show went off well. It was
nearing the end. Mukesh was on his last song, his favourite song,
‘Jaane kahan gaye woh din...’ when he announced
that his son would be singing with him. Surprised, Nitin Mukesh
stepped out of the wings. After the first antara Mukesh stopped
and Nitin Mukesh took over. The words were almost prophetic though
he didn’t realise it then. The crowds went wild. Mukesh had
a smile on his face. His son, he knew, was ready to take over from
him. Four days later he was gone. And it was Nitin Mukesh who was
singing the song at the next show on August 27, alone.
Nitin Mukesh
himself recorded his first song, rather a couplet, for Mera Naam
Joker. It was on December 16, 1967. As the 16-year-old took
the mike, surrounded by his father, Shailendra, Shankar-Jaikishen
and the great Raj Kapoor, it struck him that one of his long cherished
dreams of becoming a singer like his father was coming true, and
how. Singing for a Raj Kapoor film, for Raj Kapoor’s son. It
was unbelievable! "But surprisingly, I was very calm. Feeling
very important. It was papa who was looking scared and nervous.
For him too a dream was coming true but he was worried that his
son would not be able to deliver. If I hadn’t sung it well
maybe papa would have done it. He did sing ‘Teeter teeter...’
which was also picturised on Chintu (Rishi Kapoor). In fact, every
time I tell Chintu that he became a big star because I sang his
first song, he puts me down by insisting that papa’s ‘Teeter
teeter...’ was recorded first," Nitin Mukesh laughs.
For him it’s irrelevant which song was recorded first. What
matters is that he got a chance to debut with the greatest showman
of all time in one of his most creative works.
For Nitin Mukesh
it’s unimportant that the film was one of the biggest debacles
of its time and it’s failure caused his papa and everyone associated
with the film so much pain. "Everyone knew that the failure
would be short-lived. It was ahead of its time. In re-runs it did
very well and today it is hailed as a masterpiece, a great biography!"
Nitin Mukesh points out, adding, "For papa, Raj uncle and me
the film will always be special. You love all your children but
the one who’s frail, the one who doesn’t do too well,
is the one who becomes special to the parents. That’s how it
was with us too."
Nitin Mukesh
remembers Raj Kapoor as a gentleman, a great director, sensitive
to the fact that the boy in front of him was just out of school
and singing professionally for the first time. "Perhaps that’s
why he personally sang the song for me, taught me how to do it his
way. He was there all through the recording, explaining where the
trumpet came in, how Chintu would react to a particular word. Listening
to him I could visualise the scene before it was actually shot.
I could see Chintu standing there at the station, waving out to
his friends as they leave for their vacation, smiling at his teacher
who’s come to mean so much to him," he maintains.
Twenty-four
years have passed but even today Nitin Mukesh has not forgotten
that verse that put him on the road to stardom. "Stand not
with a cheer, not a tear in your eye, wish me luck as you wave me
goodbye. Give me a smile I can keep for a while in my heart while
you’re away. Till we meet again, you and I, wish me luck as
you wave goodbye. Till we meet again, you and I, wish me luck as
you wave goodbye. Cheerio, here I go on my way..." he croons
without so much as a moment of reflection. He informs that he starts
every concert of his with ‘Jaane kahan...’ and ends with
this couplet which he believes is a famous English traditional goodbye
song which was specially composed for this sequence.
Besides ‘Jeena
yahan...’ and ‘Jaane kahan...’Nitin Mukesh informs
that Mukesh recorded two more songs for Mera Naam Joker. ‘Gaao
gaoo jhoom ke gaao...was recorded with Mukesh and Sharda and was
to have been picturised on Simi because it started with her beautiful,
full-throated laugh.
The interludes
were interspersed with more laughter. "I’ve never heard
something so beautiful since," the singer sighs. The other
song, a Mukesh-Asha Bhosle duet, ‘Da da niyat niyat...’
was to be filmed on Raj Kapoor and the Russians. It ended with a
three minute music piece for which about a 100 violins were used
and Nitin Mukesh believes it would have been used on a trapeze act.
"It was a fabulously rich piece of music and I’d do anything
to get my hands on it," asserts Nitin Mukesh. Both the beautiful
songs are missing in the film. "May be Raj uncle left them
out because he film had already become too long or may be he held
them back for Mera Naam Joker II," Nitin Mukesh muses.
Yes, Raj Kapoor
had planned for a sequel. The film ended with Rajoo, clutching the
broken pieces of his heart, and telling his audience, "My show
has not ended nor my story." There was so much still left unsaid.
So much of the story we’ll never get to hear because the master
story-teller has gone. Taking his joker with him.
—
Roshmila Bhattacharya
roshmila
@hotmail.com
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