Shammi Kapoor Birth Anniversary 2023: After 18 consecutive flops, the actor reinvented himself to become a star

Shammi Kapoor

From a prominent family of actors, Shammi Kapoor initially considered a career in science before following his father and elder brother into the film industry but faced a tough time with his first 18 films tanking. It was then he reinvented himself to portray a new brand of hero, inspired by both James Dean and Elvis Presley. In the process, Shammi Kapoor not only laid the way for a host of dancing male leads, from Joy Mukherjee and Jeetendra in his heyday, and then, down the decades, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Govinda, Shah Rukh Khan, and his own great-nephew Ranbir Kapoor, but also transformed the very paradigm of the Hindi film hero, and in a way, Hindi films.

Gone was the silent, soft-spoken, upright hero - the meek one like his own elder brother Raj Kapoor, or the brooding one like Dilip Kumar - to be supplanted by a flamboyant, swaggering figure, with a casual approach to life, and not hesitant or apologetic in enjoying its pleasures - even ahead of the jaunty Dev Anand, who could never match that level of exuberance. And for this type of hero, the light musical film - intended as pure entertainment without any messages - came into its own, and became the norm, rather than the exception. Shammi Kapoor, who was born this day (October 21) in 1931, himself said that he found the heroes of his own epoch (the 1950s) too "laid-back and defeatist, forever wallowing in self-pity" and decided to "implant a spine", and "add some machismo" to them.

And succeed well he did, as films like 'Junglee' (1961), 'Dil Tera Deewana', 'Professor', 'China Town' (all 1962), 'Bluff Master' (1963), 'Rajkumar' (1964), 'Kashmir Ki Kali' (1964), 'Janwar' (1965), 'Teesri Manzil' (1966), 'Budtameez' (1966), 'An Evening in Paris', 'Laat Saheb' (both 1967), 'Brahmachari' (1968), 'Tumse Achha Kaun Hai', 'Prince' (both 1969), and their evergreen and melodious songs prove.

Shammi Kapoor made his debut with 'Jeewan Jyoti' (1953) with Chand Usmani, but the movie flopped. So did the subsequent 17 films spanning a variety of genres, from tragic and historical romances ('Laila-Majnu', 1953, with Nutan, 'Mirza Sahiban', 1957 with Shyama) to frothy comedies ('Mem Sahib', 1956 with Meena Kumari), thrillers ('Miss Coca Cola', 1955 with Geeta Bali, or 'Ham Sab Chor Hain', 1956, with Nalini Jaywant, offbeat films like 'Rail Ka Dibba', 1953, with Madhubala, and costumed dramas like 'Shama Parwana' with Suraiya).

A distraught Shammi Kapoor, who had got married to Geeta Bali in 1955, was contemplating quitting the industry and taking up a job at an Assam tea plantation. However, two things kept him in films - then scriptwriter Nasir Hussain's desire to change into an actor with a film with a new type of hero, and Dev Anand refusing the hero's role as "not his type". Shammi Kapoor convinced an initially reluctant Hussain to give him the role - and 'Tumsa Nahin Dekha' (1957) gave birth to the Shammi Kapoor we know. After a decade or so's reign as the dancing, leaping, whooping, teasing, romantic hero - with all his dancing choreographed by him after relentless practice - Shammi Kapoor twigged the winds were changing as a new generation of stars emerged.

Shammi Kapoor later switched to more mature character roles. Be it the tavern-owner Dhoop Chaaon in 'Manoranjan' (1974) - the remake of Shirley MacLaine's 'Irma La Douce' he directed himself, the horse-breeder in 'Zameer' (1975), Amitabh Bachchan's foster-father in 'Parvarish' (1977), the fake holy man, Dr Dubari in 'Shalimar' (1978), the Sisodia Maharaja in "Meera" (1979), the dance judge in Sanjay Dutt's debut 'Rocky' (1981), engine driver - and Dilip Kumar's colleague Gurbaksh in 'Vidhaata' (1982) - which fetched him his second Filmfare Award (but for Best Supporting Actor), and many more, down to the music ustad in his grand-nephew Ranbir Kapoor's "Rockstar" (2011) - released a couple of months after his demise that year, he left his mark.