RAAJ KUMAR BIRTH ANNIVERSARY: EK RAAJA JANI JO DIL KA RAJA THA

He was a very important part of the initial stages of my journey to learn more about films and film personalities, a journey I still don't know how and why I decided to embark on to find out who I would meet and where I would end up...

I was a fan of almost every big star as I watched almost every movie every week whether I had to beg, borrow or steal (mostly from my mother's purse or the steel plate in which she used to keep all her change). I was influenced by Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor in that order and Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rehman and Nutan were my favourite women. But if one star really influenced me, it was Raj Kumar who had a tune of his own.

I had a very different image of him when I saw him playing calm and simple roles in films like 'Mother India', 'Godhan', 'Dil Ek Mandir' and 'Paigam' (the first and only film of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kumar together when they were young and came back after years in Subhash Ghai's 'Saudagar'! But a major turn in his image came when Yash Chopra cast him as Raja, the elder brother of Sunil Dutt and Shashi Kapoor in what can be called his first multi-starrer, 'Waqt'. The way he walked, the clothes he wore and moreover all the dialogue he spoke in the film made him a very different star and he was now known as 'Jaani'.
I had a very strong desire to see him and dreamt of meeting him face-to-face someday. I saw him driving his car for the first time. He was heading towards one of the many studios in Andheri and I was thrilled.

I was in class ten when I first heard stories about him as a man who had killed a police officer and was acquitted. I had heard stories about how he wore gold wristwatches, chains, and bracelets and mingled with people in high places without thinking of the consequences. I also learned that he wore the most expensive wigs of which he had many and I had heard how he insulted even the best writers, tearing the pages on which they had written dialogues for him and then writing his own dialogues.

I had joined "Screen" and my office was in Express Towers at Nariman Point. There was a time when I left the office a little before six o'clock in the evening and that evening I saw the great J.R.D. Tata sitting beside his driver at Tata House in South Bombay and from the other side, I saw Raj Kumar driving by in his Plymouth, dressed the way a golfer dresses when playing golf. I later found out that he went to the US Club in Colaba every evening when he was not shooting! I made it a habit to come down at six o'clock in the evening and in a very short time, I had the opportunity of seeing the two great men J.R.D. Tata and 'Jani' cross each other. What a sight for this boy who was born and brought up in a village where I had only one house.

I continued to hear stories about the man and his many crazy ways and my desire to confront him grew stronger. Kulbhushan who was a friend of mine (which was also Raj Kumar's first name) had started as a publicist in films and became a producer of big films and one of his biggest films was 'God and Gun' starring Raj Kumar and Jackie Shroff in the lead roles. I was well into Kulbhushan's unit and felt this was my best chance to meet the 'mad' Raj Kumar.

The unit was shooting at Chandivali Studios at night. Rajkumar was sitting on a simple cot away from the crowd made up of unit members. That night I decided that I would not go back home until I met Rajkumar. I kept walking towards him, while the unit members pleaded with me not to take the risk, but I kept walking towards the man they all were so scared of.

I reached the bunk and he looked at me like I was a piece of clay and said 'Who is this? How dare you come here'? But I was determined to meet him and turned to the English language and asked him, 'Prince ji, why did it take me two hours to think of coming to you? Why are people so scared of you'? Before I could say anything more, he said, 'Sit here, next to me, I will give you five minutes. We will talk and if you become stupid like most people in this industry, I will throw you out with your body'! I looked at my wrist watch and realized that we had talked for more than an hour because the unit was watching us. We were friends from this night onwards. I went back to the life of a soldier who had conquered a huge war and then went back home after more than two hours because I couldn't believe that I met the person about whom I had heard such horror stories. The next morning, my black phone rang and I was shocked to hear his voice saying, 'How are you my new friend? I fell silent and he said, 'Jaani, come and meet me sometime! There is something about you that has made me like you'. How could I react to him?

I was bringing him from his Worli house to the Dimple Sound Studio of Rajendra Kumar, his colleague in "Mother India". His car broke down near Lucky Restaurant outside Bandra station and he immediately called an auto and got into it. The driver looked visibly scared and I was surprised. How could Raj Kumar travel in an auto? But, he said he was enjoying his first trip in an auto. We reached Dimple Sound Studio and he saw a framed photo of Rajendra Kumar at the entrance and took off his shoes and called his man Ibrahim and asked him, 'Jaani aapne mujhe bataaye kyun nahi ki ye gaye'? This was his typical way of putting down a person who had the guts to put his photo on the wall to show how important he was. For Raj Kumar, such a photo was put up only after a person was dead and gone.

His son Puru was involved in a major accident in which he killed a man and was arrested and put behind bars. The prince rushed to the police station and asked the inspector in charge to bring him an English dictionary and asked him to look up the meaning of 'accident' and said that he would return the next morning and wanted to see Puru not only released but also that no charges were filed against him. The case was never heard again.

He always held his meetings and deals regarding money at the Jewel of India restaurant near his house and accepted his fees only in cash and all money only in big notes of five hundred rupees. He once saw Zeenat Aman at a show trial and told her, 'Aap bhoot chudai hai, why don't you work in films?' He loved cigars and pipes and had a large collection of them from different parts of the world. His wigs were also made in other countries and the only alcohol he drank was Black Label Scotch and if he was invited to a party, he sent his brother beforehand to see whether they were serving real Black Label Scotch or not and his decision to go or not was dependent on the report he got from his brother who worked in a five-star hotel.

He was the hero of a film called 'Ulfat' with Waheeda Rehman and Sadhana as heroines and is said to have created havoc for them and the producer K. Rajdan, who was a prominent publicist who had worked with Guru Dutt and all the lead actors. The unit faced so many problems because of him that, Rajdan decided to write a book on his experiences with Raj Kumar and called it 'Narak Yatra'! Though he did not get it published but was very happy when he filed a case against Raj Kumar and saw him sitting in a coat on a wooden bench which he had to share with prostitutes and pimps. Later Raj Kumar spent lakhs of rupees to remake and release the film. He could use any excuse to create problems for his producers. How a cinematographer G. Singh, who was a Sardar, scratched his beard and how he refused to do Prakash Mehra's 'Zanjeer' because he used a particular brand of oil in his hair.

There were rumors of him suffering from throat cancer. He was shooting for Subhash Ghai's 'Saudagar' those days. One day, a worried Ghai asked him if the rumour was true and he simply said, 'Jaani, Raj Kumar marega toh jukzaad se thodi na marega, koi badi bimara se hi marega na' After all, he was dying of cancer, but he refused to go to any hospital! He stayed at home and it was very different to know about Raj Kumar that he used to spend most of his time reciting Hanuman Chalisa!

On the last night of his life he was alone in his room and died while reciting Hanuman Chalisa! He had asked his family not to inform anyone in the film industry about his death and he only asked them to wrap his body in a white sheet and take his body to Shivaji Park Electric Crematorium and before the film industry could know the bitter truth and come to see him for the last time, he had already become a pile of ashes.

Jani, we always rule the hearts of our people and till date, no one has been born who can capture our kingdom, understand Jani, if you don't understand then understand, otherwise it will be too late. We just come and then don't go.

The song: yuhi koi mil gaya tha sar-e-raah chalte-chalte

Film:-Pakizaa
Artist:- Meena Kumar
Musician:-Ghulam Mohammed Shaikh
Lyricist:-Kaifi Azmi
Singer:-Lata Mangeshkar  

The Song: Aage bhi jane na tu, piche bhi jane na tu

Film:-Waqt
Cast:-Raj Kumar, Shashikala, 
Sunil Dutt and Sadhana
Musician:-Ravi
Lyricist:-Sahir Ludhianvi
Singer:-Asha Bhosle

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