Rishi Kapoor: The charming and evergreen actor who lived “Khullam Khulla”

The movie lovers and film industry received two setbacks back to back. After the demise of Irrfan, it was the time for another talented and natural actor Rishi Kapoor to depart and leave us in grief and sorrow on the very next day. On April 30 2020, the ever charming Rishi Kapoor died from leukaemia.

In 2018, Rishi kapoor was diagnosed with leukaemia and went to New York City for the treatment. He returned India on recovering after a successful treatment on September 2019. Rishi Kapoor was admitted to hospital due to some breathing difficulties on 29 April 2020, and on the very next day he died of impediments from colon infection.

Early days and personal life

Rishi Kapoor (4 September 1952–30 April 2020) was born in the Kapoor family, which is also considered as the first family of Bollywood. His grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor was a renowned theatre and Film actor and his father Raj Kapoor was a legendary actor-director, the greatest showman of Bollywood.

Rishi Kapoor was born in the family of superstars like Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor (his paternal uncles), and actors like Rajendranath and Premnath (his maternal uncles), his brothers Randhir Kapoor and Rajeev Kapoor are also actors. Being born in such a lineage has its own perks, but with this comes the undue pressure to carry on such a legacy.

Rishi Kapoor married actress Neetu Singh, the love of his life with whom he was paired in twelve movies. They had two children — son actor Ranbir Kapoor, and daughter Riddhima Kapoor sahni.

Career

Rishi Kapoor first appearance on the silver screen came when he was just three years old, in a cameo in his father’s movie “Shree 420”, where he appeared in a musical sequence of “Pyar Hua, Iqraar Hua” song. He also played the young version of the lead character, which was played by his Father Raj Kapoor in the movie “Mera Naam Joker”(1970) made by Raj Kapoor himself.

Rishi Kapoor’s first leading role as a hero came in Bobby (1973), which was also directed by his father. The film went on to become a blockbuster, marking the arrival of Rishi Kapoor as a romantic hero; he also won the Filmfare best actor award for the movie.

He then starred in several Rom-Com movies like “Rafoo Chakkar”(1975), “Khel Khel me”(1975), “Hum Kisi Se Kam Nahi”(1977) in that decade. He also experimented by working in the movies of different genres like “Zehreela Insaan”(1974) and “Doosra Aadmi”(1976) in the same decade.

Rishi Kapoor also played the leading role in director Subhash Ghai’s thriller Karz (1980), a cult classic movie with evergreen music, which is still cherished by music lovers. The movie is considered as one of his best performances.

Rishi Kapoor also worked in the movies based on the topic of social reforms like “Prem Rog”(1982), a movie which was based on the issue of widow remarriage, and “Ek Chadar Maili si”, based on the novel of Rajendra Singh Bedi of the same name, where he played a man forced to marry his widowed sister-in-law by customs.

Rishi Kapoor also appeared in many women centric movies like “Henna” (1991), which was directed by his elder brother Randhir Kapoor, and much acclaimed “Damini” directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. His performances in such movies were praised and applauded by both critics and fans.
The versatile Rishi Kapoor gave many superhits in the first innings of his career, which included the movies like “Kabhi Kabhi”(1976), “Laila Majnu”(1976), “Amar Akbar Anthony” (1977), “Sargam”(1979), “Saagar”(1985), “Chandni”(1989), “Bol Radha Bol”(1992), “Deewana”(1992) etc.

The Flamboyant Rishi Kapoor

Rishi Kapoor is one such actor opposite whom many actresses made their debut in the hindi film industry and attained stardom. The long list include names such as Dimple Kapadia, Jaya Prada, Radhika, Zeba Bakhtiar, Shoma Anand, Kaajal kiron, Meeta Vashisht, Ashwini Bhave, Gautami, Ranjeeta and a few more.

Rishi Kapoor’s (rumoured) affair with his first heroine Dimple Kapadia was the talk of the tinseltown. later, Dimple married Rajesh Khanna, both of them reunited in 1985, for the movie “Saagar”directed by Ramesh Sippy.

Second Innings

Apart from Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor is probably the only actor who has excelled in his second innings by showcasing his true calibre in meaty roles. Be it the Don of “D-day”, Rauf Lala of “Agneepath”, A middle class school teacher of “Do Dooni Chaar”, or his powerful performance in Anubhav Sinha’s “Mulk”.

An actor who was given the title of “Jersey Man” for being typecast as the Jersey sporting lover in most of the movies in the later part of first innings of his career, again proved his class as an actor when better roles were offered to him.

The Khullam Khulla Guy on Twitter

Rishi Kapoor’s autobiography “Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored”, which he wrote along with Meena Iyer, was released on 15 January 2017.
Being a straightforward and frank man, Rishi Kapoor would always end up in some kind of controversy for his remarks. He was known for his contentious comments on socio-political issues for this very reason he was very famous on social networking platform Twitter.

Whether it is about criticizing the Nehru-Gandhi family over naming of roads, buildings, and national assets or him making fun of stars of this generation like Sonakshi Sinha and Alia Bhatt on Twitter, or even defending his niece’s son taimur name and replying to each troll. Rishi Kapoor never shied away or hesitated in expressing his views on twitter or any other platform.

Awards

Rishi Kapoor won many awards in his career for his outstanding performances which include National award for Mera Naam Joker (1970), Filmfare award for “Bobby”, he was also honoured by Russian government in 2009, for his contribution to Cinema.

Goodbye to the legend

Rishi Kapoor, born with the inherited charm, the man who lived an open life , a spontaneous actor who entertained us with his brilliant performances, he will always be in the memories of cine lovers for being the man he was.

RIP, Rishi Kapoor.

Originally published at https://www.atrangiindia.in on May 7, 2020.