User:Jatinram

L  I   F  E     S  K  E T C H

THE FOREMOST ‘S U P E R    S T A R’ OF INDIAN FILM HISTORY LIVING LEGEND &                  PRIDE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY R  A   J   E   S   H      K   H   A   N   N   A        The King of Immortal Love, Emotion and High thoughts

BEGINNING CAREER—Born of First SUPER STAR in India -- a PHENOMENA:

Born on 29th December, 1942 at Amritsar, Panjab in a very rich family and joined Film Industry through Filmfare Talent Contest (selected by Panel of judges: Late Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Chetan Anand, G.P. Sippy, Sri Sakti Samanta, Sri B. R. Chopra, etc.) during 1966-67 with Raaj, Aurat, Aakhri Khat, and elevated at the topmost position within a very short period with Aaradhana (1968-69) as Super Star as well as a superb Actor, wherein he characterised double role of father and son with a very different manner and established an easy going life-like natural acting on the silver screen. To signify his extra- ordinariness a new title had been established first time in the Indian Film History: ‘SUPER STAR’. And he maintained his dignity with the following precious Diamond/Golden/Silver Jubilee Hit- classic films of Golden Era (up-to 1974-75) like: Anand, Amar Prem, Kati Patang, Dushman, Aan Milo Sajana, Hathi Mere Sathi, Apna Desh, Bandhan, Malik, Choti Bahu, Sachcha-Jhuta, Do Raste, Ittefaq, Safar, Khamosi, Baawarchi, Aavishkar, Raja Rani, Dag, Tyag, Namak Haram, Prem Nagar, Roti, Aap Ki Kasam, etc. and very prominent Guest Roles in Anurag, Andaz and Aakraman and owned innumerable awards during this period, which established him as the First and Foremost Super Star Actor of Indian Film History: the Phenomena.

MIDDLE PERIOD—Affected Star-status:

During 1976-1978, his Star-status had been much affected due to dirty politics of Film Industry, misguidance by media, cheap and downward trend of Hindi commercial films, increasing production of multi-starrer dialogue based masala action films, which demand requirement of non-acting calibre behaviourism based stars only, selection of a few below- standard films by himself like Chaila Babu, Chalta Purja, etc. and so many other factors. But in spite of above mentioned adverse factors, during that time too, we watched Rajesh with his graceful acting calibre in films like Mehabooba, Anurodh, Karm, Pal ko ki Chaon Mein, Janta Hawaldar, Prem Bandhan, Tinku, etc.; and we were bound to realize that despite all negative factors, the super class acting calibre (perfect characterization oriented natural acting) is still alive with its full impact.

RE-ESTABLISHED PERIOD—Born of a versatile actor with different outlook & style:

During the year 1979, when below grade multi-starrer, action-masala based lost and found formula films were dominating the box office, the Super Actor Star appeared in the Silver Screen with a glorious characterization in Amar Deep, followed by Red Rose, Thodi Si Bewafai, Dard, Dhanwaan, Babu, Avataar, Sautan, Amrit, Agar Tum Na Hote, Rajput, Ashanti, Aaj ka MLA- Ram Avataar, Shatru, Dharm aur Kanoon, Anokha Rishta, Aakhir Kayon?, Oonche Log, Adhikar, Swarg, Awara Baap, Aawaz, Awam, Vijay, Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai, Ghar ka Chirag, Mamta Ki Chaon Mein, Begunah, Ghar pariwar, etc. (1980-1991) and it had been again proved that in spite of cheap and down trodden trend of film industry, Rajesh Khanna’s films have their entirely sophisticated entity and the name of Rajesh is a guarantee for standard, social, characterization-based and expression-oriented sober family films, containing a lot of variety and good messages for its viewers.

During those days Rajesh also outstandingly characterised totally negative characters (without any make-up or light effects, but only with change in classic facial expressions) in two films: Red Rose and Dhanwan, with completely versatile manner and established himself as a stalwart performer with a totally different outlook, style and changed personality with a very graceful manner. In Red Rose, he characterised a rich businessman, who happened to be a psychic patient and lady killer, whereas in Dhanwan, he appeared as an arrogant multimillionaire and latterly changed as a very kind hearted person. In the above two films he simply lived the characters with brilliant depth touches of inner feelings of human beings. It is doubtful that any other Indian actor would have been able to handle the above two negative characters so effectively, only with facial expressions (without any make-up). Here a special mention is must to signify his outstanding-classic facial expression in the last scene of Red Rose, when he became behind the bar with totally abnormal mental stage or the hospital scene of Dhanwan, where after blindness his  arrogance nature gradually changed and he started believing God; which he expressed only with his changed facial expression, though there was bandage on his both eyes. Apart from these, another example of his classic facial expression is the last scene of the film Agar Tum Na Hote at the Airport, where he sent his daughter abroad with Rekha and Raj Babbar or the hospital scene of the film Ashanti, where he became lame after jeep accident. These are the few examples of all time classic expressions of Indian film world.

Then after a gap of about 3 years, we again watched the Super Actor in Khudai (a film, inspired by the life of great Actor/Director-Late Guru Dutt) during its World Premier (1994) in ZEE T.V. and selection of Rajesh Khanna as Best Actor for this Film in Russian Film Festival at Ujvegistan has again proved that he is still having an extraordinary calibre and is the one and only King of Romantic and Emotional acting in Indian Film History.

During the year 1999, we watched Rajeshji again on silver screen after a gap of about 5 years in Aa Ab Laut Chalein, which was made under the banner of R.K. Films on the auspicious occasion of its Golden Jubilee Year. In this film Rajesh Khanna once again appeared on the screen with his extraordinary talent, characterising central character of a very rich N.R.I.,          Mr. Balraj Khanna, with slightly negative touch and proved that the forecasting of the Director of the film, “no one in the film industry other than Kaka can do justice with the complicated characterisation of a N.R.I father”,  is a fact. In a number of scenes, he is simply brilliant and has shown his outstanding facial expression in this film and lived the character of a rich N.R.I. and guilty conscious- emotional father, very naturally and life-like. And we have to realise that the talent of the golden era is still alive with its full grace and gravity.

Outstanding calibre:

It is an extraordinary fact that though in Hindi Commercial films, there are very little scope for any Star to maintain variety in choosing subjects/characters and also to do justice with them, even though during his full career, Rajesh Khanna, along with his historic Super Star image, has simultaneously chracterized widest range of characters found in almost every walk of real social life, very gracefully, with full justice to the characters by giving them depth touches of human feelings and most of these films were super hits, e.g. Rich-arrogant businessman, Poor-simple person, Prince of a Estate, Middle class person, Student, Unemployed young man, Artist/Painter, Story writer, Service man, Doordarshan cameraman, Advertising executive, L.I.C Agent, Army Officer,  Police Officer, C. I. D. Officer, Forest Officer, Lawyer, Judge, Doctor, N.R.I., Prince, Bengali rich businessman, Pathan, Radio and Pop Singer, Film and Music Director, M.L.A., Mayor, Cook, Postman, Gardener, Smuggler, Thief, Dakoit, Blind, Lame, Dumb, Handicapped person,  Old man, Cancer patient, Psychic patient, T. B. patient, City dweller, Illiterate Villager, Juggler, Road singer, Riksha puller, Bhojpuri flower seller, Hawker, Fisher man, Farmer, Barber, Motor mechanic, Labourer, Car/Truck driver, prisoner, a Drunk, and above all a lover as well as a responsible husband and father, etc.

In every film, a different Rajesh appears on the screen and it is very difficult to maintain this ‘otherness’ in films after films, especially in Hindi Film World’s commercial environment. But it is the credit of Rajesh Khanna, that he has very successfully balanced both sides of film media: commercial and art in his career and moreover, he never compromises with the situation for gaining cheap popularity and always maintains his dignity and gravity as a refined, versatile and a very sober household actor-star. Besides, he simultaneously works with well established Directors/Producers on the one hand like B. R. Chopra, Hrisikesh Mukherjee, Shakti Samanta, Vijay Anand, etc. and with totally new directors on the other, like Ismile Shroff, Danny, Miraz, Rishi Kapoor, etc. But the standard of characterization has always been maintained by him. It is only his credit that he did never think about his super star image and did boldly accept the characters of a cook, postman, flower seller, barber, riksha puller, etc. and always did full justice with the characters. It seems unbelievable that the performer of Dushman and Dhanwaan, or Bawarchi and Babu or Avataar and Aaj ka MLA Ram Avataar or Mehabooba and Red Rose, or Janta Hawaldar and Rajpoot, etc. is the same person. Above all, in the age of multi-starrer films, he had always been offered lead roles in multi-starrer films too, e.g. Kudrat (double role), Rajpoot, Dharm aur Kanoon (double role) Aashanti, Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai, Awaam, Vijay, etc.

In fact, some times he never needs different costumes to enter in different characters because his way of characterization comes by heart and owing to thorough study of the characters, he totally involves with them emotionally. And behind success or failure of his films (commercially hit or flop), there has been always a super fine Actor in Rajesh Khanna. Actually he has an extraordinary talent to look ordinary person on the one hand and extraordinary glamorous characters on the other, as per demand of the characters. He possesses a classic combination of Art and Glamour. And this makes Rajesh Khanna: a superb actor as well as the real foremost Super Star  of  the Country.

RECOGNITION:

During last four decades, Rajesh Khanna gracefully owned a large number of National as well as International level prestigious Best Actor awards/Special recognition awards, a few of which are: Anand (1970), Sachcha-Jhuta (1971), Anurag (Guest Artist) (1973), Aavishkar (1974)—Film Fare Best Actor Awards; Dard (1982)— Best Actor Award -Lions Club, Delhi; Avataar (1983)-- Best Actor Award Gold Medal; Aaj Ka MLA- Ram Avataar (1984)—Best Actor Award by All India Critics Association, Kolkata; a very Special Film Fare Award on successful completion of  25 years in Film Industry (1991); Best Actor Award for Khudai (1994)—Russian Film Festival, Ujvegistan; Kala Ratna from Punjabi Kala Sangam at Delhi (1995), Living Legend from Anandlok: an esteemed Film Journal, at Kolkata (1999) and  Life Time Achievement Awards to the First Super Star of the country, through San-Sui Viewers’ Choice Award Contest, Delhi (2001), by a Company at Mumbai (2002), through X Star Screen Award Ceremony at Mumbai (2004), 50th Film Fare Award (2005), Life Time Achievement Award and Life Time Glamour Award through IV Kingfisher Bollywood Fashion Award Ceremony & VI Bollywood Award Ceremony respectively, at Atlantic City, New Jersey,  Washington, America (2004), and Pride of the Film Industry by Star Dust Film Award Ceremony at Mumbai (2005), Yuganthar Gaurav Purashkar (2006), at VI Gaurav Diwas of CHMC, Ulhasnagar, Maharastra,  Life Time Achievement Award (2006) for outstanding contribution to the Film Industry,  at Trinidad,             West Indies.

Owing to his extraordinary merit, he (along with Late Kishore Kumar, Rahul Dev Berman and Sri Shakti Samanta) established the GOLDEN ERA in INDIAN FILM HISTORY and became a house-hold name for every Indian ranging 6 to 60 years of age group, irrespective of male and female. He has very successfully shown his versatility by performing romantic, serious, comedy, aged people’s role, double roles, multi-starrer action roles, central characters, disabled persons’ roles, Cancer/Psychic/ T. B. patient simultaneously. He is a perfectionist by nature in performing different shades of one particular character in a particular film, according to the demand of the scripts, like Namak Haram, Daag, Aaj ka MLA-Ram Avatar, Dushman, Avatar, Babu, Aap ki Kasam, Sautan, Dhanwaan, etc., etc., etc.. And this has first and last time happened in the Indian film history that within a very short span of time, he had established himself in the hearts of children with Hathi Mere Sathi, Sachcha Jhutha; youngsters/females with Aradhana, Amar Prem, Kati Patang, Aan Milo Sajna, Bandhan, Maryada, Namak Haram, Prem Nagar, Sautan, Mere Jeevan Sathi, Aajnabi, Rajput, Joru ka Gulam, Raja Rani, Mehabooba, Anurodh, Amar Deep, etc.; mature people with Aap ki Kasam, Dag, Tyag, Aavishkar, Thodi si Bewafai, Dhanwaan, Choti Bahu, Karm, Malik, Anokha Rishta, Aa Aab Laut Chalein, etc.; aged people with, Amar Prem, Dard, Aavtar, Amrit, Babu; intellectuals with Ittefaque, Anand, Bawarchi, Dushman, Safar, Aavishkar, Khamoshi, Amar Prem, Red Rose, Aaj ka MLA, Aakhir Kyon, Khudai; entertaining mentality people with Sachcha Jhutha, Aapna Desh, Ham Sakal, Roti, Aashanti, Aawam, Aawaz, Papi Pet Ka Sawal Hai, etc.

REEL LIFE TO REAL LIFE: An honest Politician & Member of Parliament :

In the meantime (1991-1996), he has performed the role of real politician and Member of Parliament for five years from New Delhi Constituency on the request of Late Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, with full honesty and active participation and helped common people in many ways. And we feel very proud that he has maintained his image here in dirty environment of politics too, as Mr. Clean. Still he is the permanent Star Campaigner of Congress I Party

RETURN TO FILM WORLD FROM POLITICS:

In the recent past (2001-2002) during the age of Dish Antenna/Cable TV, Internet, etc., we are proud to watch the one and only King of love and emotional scenes on T.V. Screen, performing Central Characters in two Serials Aapne Parai in B4U & DD Metro and Ittefaqu in Zee T.V. channels, with equally graceful impact of silver screen. However, perhaps due to lack of today’s network strategy of Media world, these serials were discontinued without any announcement.

It is also notable that when the music-line people are badly involved in producing cheapest test of re-mixing Video albums of old film song only for earning money, we have found our respectable Kakaji in a Video Album of the all time classic Tagore’s songs, in which he performed free of cost. This proves that what a noble person of high moral is he, in today’s corrupted environment.

Recently (2005-2006), Kakaji has joined the Film Industry with some new ventures. Hope to see him again on the silver screen after a long gap, with his full grace and gravity.