Thursday, February 19, 2009

Bollywood lacks handsome actors like Rishi Kapoor these days











Bollywood lacks handsome actors like Rishi Kapoor these days.

Bollywood films lack handsome actors like Rishi Kapoor these days. The peculiarity of success of Rishi Kapoor lies in his domination during the age of action films. From the mid-70s anti-establishment images of Big B, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughun Sinha dominated bollywood films. Just because corruption in the society was rampant, the fight against corruption by all these action stars stormed bollywood.

Rishi Kapoor retained his romantic image in that era with non-violence. Most of his films were based on simple stories related to social norms, practices, etc. His film Sargam with Jaya Prada, was related to the hardships faced by dumb girls in Indian villages. Jaya Prada was a great dancer in the film, but her family never highlighted her skills, on the contrary cursed her for her disabilities. The music of Laxmikant Pyarellal and songs of Rafi and Lata like “koel boli”, “ramjiki nikli sawari”, “dafliwale” amused the viewers in the late 70s.

Raj Kapoor came up with a social message in his film Prem Rog with Rishi Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapuri. In the early 80s, the film showed the sufferings faced by widows in Hindu undivided families. Padmini Kolhapuri was married at an early age in a rich family. Her husband died at an early age and from that time her suffering started he even got insulted and molested by her in-laws.

Rishi Kapoor was helpless, as he was not rich enough to have been considered eligible for marriage with the young girl. He was a silent observer of the backdated thinking of the family of Padmini Kolhapuri in the film. The music of the film was extraordinary just like other films of Raj Kapoor. LP’s tunes for Lata and Suresh Watkar had not lost their appeal even today with songs like “mohabbat hai kya chis”, “mai hoon premrogi”, etc.

Rishi Kapoor’s successful films in the late 70s and early 80s like Karz, Laila Majnu, had hardly anything to do with action. He created a separate place for himself in the list of romantic actors and whenever viewers went to watch his films, his romantic face carried a different identity.

Bollywood films these days bank on muscular personalities like Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, etc., but refined commercial films with romantic actors like Rishi Kapoor had dried up these days to the astonishment of many viewers. Rishi Kapoor still remains one of the legendary romantic actors of bollywood films of all ages.

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