One by one the icons are falling. Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand and now Rajesh Khanna. RK’s superstardom and fan following are legendary and much has been said about the effect he had on women of his generation, but I think his magic couldn't be bound within a time frame.
RK was one of my first crushes and when my friends in school were busy drooling over their boyfriends or Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya, I was head over heels in love with Uttam Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna. That I was an absolute misfit and at least 10-20 years behind my time had started to manifest itself from then, I guess.
My infatuation with Khanna was inherited in part from my mother. She had an enviable collection of film magazines and a diary where she used to write down the songs from almost all his films. I took over from there and enriched the treasure trove by contributing cassettes and paper cuttings.
I had forever been a Kishore fan and in RK, it seemed, his voice found the perfect face. The songs were to die for, the romantic expressions matchless and the films brilliant. Aradhana, Anand, Amar Prem, Daag, Safar, Khamoshi and Aap Ki Kasam, will always be my personal favourites. I remember having a showdown with my parents over watching Aradhana. It was considered too early for me to watch "roop tera mastana…".
Since then, I have watched, sang and played the song the umpteenth time. It still remains one of the most intense expressions of love for me. Here was a hero who was not meant to be the knight in shining armour for the damsel in distress. He was not the proverbial macho man playing the role of the protector. Instead, he was this breath of fresh air, the sensitive, the romantic kind, who touches your life to make it better, heals your soul, uplifts your spirits and leaves a irreplaceable void when he bids adieu.
He wove magic with that flick of head, that glint in his eyes and that pain-ameliorating smile. He had a certain vulnerability in his eyes that showed through his freewheeling spirit.
The other day, someone raised this very pertinent point overlooked by many till date. In most of the films RK played this unconventional character who either falls in love with a widow (Kati Patang) or shares a platonic relationship with a courtesan with a heart of gold (Amar Prem). In Daag, he played a married man plunged in the midst of a domestic crisis when his previous wife resurfaces.
But the roles that made him what he was were those in which he played a doomed individual with an indomitable zest for life and a deep understanding of it.
RK was one of my first crushes and when my friends in school were busy drooling over their boyfriends or Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya, I was head over heels in love with Uttam Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna. That I was an absolute misfit and at least 10-20 years behind my time had started to manifest itself from then, I guess.
My infatuation with Khanna was inherited in part from my mother. She had an enviable collection of film magazines and a diary where she used to write down the songs from almost all his films. I took over from there and enriched the treasure trove by contributing cassettes and paper cuttings.
I had forever been a Kishore fan and in RK, it seemed, his voice found the perfect face. The songs were to die for, the romantic expressions matchless and the films brilliant. Aradhana, Anand, Amar Prem, Daag, Safar, Khamoshi and Aap Ki Kasam, will always be my personal favourites. I remember having a showdown with my parents over watching Aradhana. It was considered too early for me to watch "roop tera mastana…".
Since then, I have watched, sang and played the song the umpteenth time. It still remains one of the most intense expressions of love for me. Here was a hero who was not meant to be the knight in shining armour for the damsel in distress. He was not the proverbial macho man playing the role of the protector. Instead, he was this breath of fresh air, the sensitive, the romantic kind, who touches your life to make it better, heals your soul, uplifts your spirits and leaves a irreplaceable void when he bids adieu.
He wove magic with that flick of head, that glint in his eyes and that pain-ameliorating smile. He had a certain vulnerability in his eyes that showed through his freewheeling spirit.
The other day, someone raised this very pertinent point overlooked by many till date. In most of the films RK played this unconventional character who either falls in love with a widow (Kati Patang) or shares a platonic relationship with a courtesan with a heart of gold (Amar Prem). In Daag, he played a married man plunged in the midst of a domestic crisis when his previous wife resurfaces.
But the roles that made him what he was were those in which he played a doomed individual with an indomitable zest for life and a deep understanding of it.
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ReplyDeleteUttam Kumar, KK AND Rajesh Khanna ....so sweet :)
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