Randhir Kapoor may not be taken as seriously as an actor like dad Raj or brother Rishi but he had a helluva lot of hits

Randhir Kapoor is not recognized among the great actors of Bollywood. Once when Javed Akhtar mentioned that Randhir’s Haath Ki Safai was based on a script that Salim-Javed wrote for Raj Kapoor in Do Ustad. Javed scoffed, “The original had Raj Kapoor. All Haath Ki Safai got was Randhir Kapoor and was still a superhit.” Randhir worked in a surprisingly large number of hit films including Haath Ki Safai (1974), Chacha Bhatija (1977), Rampur Ka Lakshman(1972) and Jawani Diwani (1972) but was never taken seriously as an actor; maybe because he never took himself seriously. It’s a pity that Randhir Kapoor got trapped in the image of a happy-go-lucky awaraa-nalayak version of his father Raj Kapoor. There was so much more to him than the rumbustious ho-ho-ho blustering bumpkin’s image that he was stuck with. Part of the blame for not breaking out of that stereotype must go to Daboo, alias Randhir Kapoor. He loved to be perceived as a typical Kapoor: an overweight foodie with a snappy sense of humour who didn’t care for the hit-or-flop cycle of the box office. But Randhir had the chops, and he had the hits.

To begin with, there was Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971). This was quite a family affair: that is to say, Randhir’s family his grandfather Prithviraj Kapoor and father Raj Kapoor, played their real-life roles while his fiancé Babita played his girlfriend. This was Randhir’s debut as an actor and director, and he was promising. The film still exudes freshness in its tone. It deals with the theme of the generation gap with a certain amount of wisecracking wisdom. Shankar-Jaikishan created a hit score without the presence of Lata Mangeshkar. Songs like Aap yahan aaye kis liye and Bhanware ki gunjan are hummed to this day. The film was an average success at the box office. Interestingly, Mehmood spoofed Prithviraj, Raj and Randhir playing all three roles himself a year later in the Jeetendra starrer Humjoli. A year after his debut Randhir Kapoor featured in Manmohan Desai’s potboiler Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972) a superhit with chartbuster songs composed by Rahul Dev Burman for Randhir to sing: Rampur ka vasi hoon main laxman mera naam and Ghum hai kisi ke pyar mein being the two biggest hits. Randhir had his pal Rekha for a company in this film where villain Shatrughan Sinha stole the show.The two actors played brothers at loggerheads. Hamrahi (1974), one of the most under-estimated films of Randhir’s career directed by Anand Sagar was a load of fun and a source of inspiration for Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri. Known for his comic virtuosity Randhir got tit for tat from the spontaneous and vivacious Tanuja. One wonders why these two were not cast together again. They seemed to have so much fun together. Their repartees sparkled, and why not! The dialogues were written by eminent Hindi litterateur Kishan Chander. Later Kishan Chander also wrote Ram Bharose for Randhir. Randhir’s biggest hit was Jawani Diwani (1972). He shared a very warm and close bonding with filmmaker Ramesh Behl who cast the actor with Amitabh Bachchan in Kasme Vaade and with Jaya Bachchan in this sparkling musical college comedy with R D Burman belting out hit after hit…. Yeh jawani hai diwani, Jaan-e-jaan, Agar saaz chheda taraane banenge…..take your pick. A superhit the same team tried to encore the success in Dil Diwana two years later, but failed. The Randhir-Raj Kapoor starrer Dharam Karam (1975) is remembered for the song Ek din bik jayega maati ke mol…Majrooh Sultanpuri’s words reverberate across the universe. Alas, the song has far outlived the film which was a forgettable mess. It brought together father Raj Kapoor and son Randhir in a muddled potboiler inspired by Raj Kapoor’s Awara. The narration is scattered all over the place. The father-son equation was much better tapped in Kal Aaj Aur Kal. Randhir Kapoor was never serious about anything in life. He once admitted he was doing ‘timepass’ with his future wife Babita until dad Raj Kapoor forced him to marry her. Randhir’s attitude to his career was the same. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram.