HINDI CINEMA'S AVANT- GARDE MATINEE IDOL: SHAMMI KAPOOR

Hindi Cinema"s Avant-Garde matinee Idol :  Shammi Kapoor

WRITTEN BY: RAJESH V. GAUR and  SUNEEL V. GAUR

 EMAIL: sunrise607@rediffmail.com


 Shammi Kapoor belonged to the sixties generation , those who side-by-side loved Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. Shammi Kapoor rivalled with another legend Dev Anand. Both actors portrayed, in quite a similar way, the urban debonair icon of Mumbai, with movies that were lighter compared with wholesome family dramas depicting joy and sorrow concurrently. These actors preferred playing in less cumbersome dramas and exploited lighter and easy-to-watch movies filled with comedy, romance and, above all, the most titillating Hindi movie songs that remains unrivalled to date.
One of the first major breaks of Shammi Kapoor was Nazir Husain’s film Dil Dekhe Dekho where he played the role of young musician Rocky with debutant Asha Parekh. .
                                             

                                               
 The success of Shammi Kapoor reached amazing heights with China Town followed by his first colour film, Junglee, released in 1961, which proved a blockbuster hit. Thereafter he starred in more than 100, mostly lightweight, films. His Western-style garb of leather jacket and T-shirt, and catchy, upbeat musical numbers like Suku Suku cemented his appeal among teenage filmgoers.
Kashmir Ki Kali portrayed the star with seducing green eyes and a fair complexion opposite a raw Sharmila Tagore in her maiden film role.
Shammi Kapoor paired with ravishing Saira Banu in Junglee, the performance-conscious Nutan in Laat Saheb and debutante Rajshree in Rajkumar. Alongside, he acted with Kalpana in Professor. Shammi Kapoor’s name guaranteed success for a film. No wonder many heroines made their debut in films starring the ‘yahoo’ star.
                                                        
                                                     

                                                          
 With the most gorgeous heroines of his time, Shammi Kapoor sang some chart toppers tuned with typical musical scores of maestros like Shankar Jaikishan and R.D.Burman.                                                          
                                                   
Shammi Kapoor brought shockwaves to Hindi Cinema by retiring in 1971. After being, for a decade, the nonchalant and charming matinee idol who teased so many belles, Shammi Kapoor grew more serious by enacting in a socially-engaging way in Bramachari (1969) which won him the Filmfare award.
                                                    

                Shammi Kapoor with his friend and writer Of China Town,     
                 Singapore and Jaane Anjane- Vrajendra Gaur.

Andaz was the final movie of Shammi Kapoor in the main lead . He was only forty then.
Shammi Kapoor’s sudden disappearance from movies in 1972 illustrated that Hindi Cinema was then going through a new phase with upcoming action heroes like Dharmendra and, angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan. Shammi seemed to be disenchanted with the glitz of the cinema world.
In 1974, Shammi Kapoor shifted to character roles with Zameer . He also directed the unsuccessful Manoranjan in 1975 which was inspired by the Hollywood hit Irma La Douce,
The twist and turns of an agile but rather corpulent man, the amorous looks of a blue-eyed boy, and the nonchalance of an evergreen hero; has now gone down memory lane.
                                                          
WRITTEN BY:  RAJESH V. GAUR   and  SUNEEL V. GAUR