Jaani ( Raajkumar) Hanuman chalisa japte japte jag chor gaye... BY ALI PETER JOHN

Raajkumar was known more for his style than for his acting prowess. Everything that he did became a style that swayed several generations. His dialogue delivery is remembered to this day and many have tried to copy him but none of them have succeeded - Ali Peter John

He was a police officer before he joined films and was known as a man who had even beaten a man to death but had walked out free, also because of his style of defending himself.

He used to be a chain smoker when he was at the Maheem police station and this addiction went with him when he joined films.

He was a chain smoker and smoked the most expensive brand of cigarettes and when doctors asked him to give up smoking, he took two smoking pipes and cigars and had a wide range of collection of pipes and cigars with him. He once told me that he had pipes and cigars from 140 different countries.

But, the stylish Raajkumar did not know that the smoke he was inhaling was slowly killing him. He showed the first signs of having a severe caugh during the shooting of Subhash Ghai's 'Saudagar' and when Ghai started having doubts about his caugh, he bluntly asked Jaani if the romours about his being diagnosed with throat cancer were true and even in that condition he told Ghai, "Raajkumar marega to kaam se thodi marega, to koi badi beemari se marega na".

It was taken as a joke and was forgotten but the caugh kept growing serious and the doctors confirmed that he dying of throat cancer.

Raajkumar however completed the shooting of Saudagar even though his voice was failing and took to the bed towards the last stages.

On the night he knew he was going to die, he called his family together which included his wife and his three children Turup, Kamini and Vastavikta and kept chanting the Hanuman chalisa which he had rarely done before.

He didn't let anyone see this scared roop of his and died while he was reciting the Hanuman chalisa.

But before dying he told his family not to inform anyone in the industry about his death till he was actually taken to the Shivaji park electric crematorium and was cremated.

Just his family and some friends and the pandit carried the body to the crematorium even before Bombay could wake up, at 8 in the morning and it was all over for Jaani, the king of eccentricities and the king of the man who loved calling a spade a spade.

The industry came to know about his death only at around 3 PM in the afternoon and people rushed from all over to pay the last visit, but he perhaps didn't want to be a part of their fake and frivolous tribute which had made him keep away from all funeral and even make a mockery of the way funerals were conducted in the industry.

He once walked into the Dimple sound studios for a dubbing session and saw a photograph of Rajendra Kumar, who was the owner of the studio and took off his shoes and stepped back and asked his manager, " Are kareem, ye kab Gaya, tumne to humko btaya hi nahi?" Rajendra kumar worked with him in Mother India, Dil ek Mandir and knew about his mad mad ways and when his staff told him about he reacted to his photograph at the entrance, he himself took off the photograph and never put it back.

Raajkumar to Hanuman chalisa padhkar chale gaye, lekin