WHAT WAS MY RELATIONSHIP WITH RISHI KAPOOR ?

Ali Peter John

There are times when it is extremely and painfully difficult to believe that someone you knew so very closely is no more alive. And if this feeling came to me very strongly more than at other times it was first when Sanjeev Kumar died, then when Amjad Khan diedand when Smita Patil died and now after years it happened when I saw the news of Rishi Kapoor dying just when our world was reeling under the unexpected shock of Irrfan Khan passing away a day before. I don't think the film Industry had faced two great shocks like these at any other time....

When I first saw my mobile on the morning of April 30,I just saw a message which said, "And now Rishi ".My hands shook and my heart refused to beat normally .I had to look at my mobile several times to believe that Rishi Kapoor, the actor excellence who I had known for forty-two years had really died and I believed myself only when my tears told me the truth. Rishi Kapoor had truly died that morning and it seemed as if a part of the son had collapsed on my life. I had grown into some kind of an expert in facing death, but this death, the death of the full of life Rishi was something that wiped out all my courage to face death and I let my tears flow as long as they wanted to. I realised that Rishi's death was not just another death but was like a part of me dying....

For the next many hours and millions of minutes and moments my life was only full of the many moments I had spent with Rishi who was the one star who was more human than a star, a very loving son, a very endearing family man,a loving husband, and entirely admirable father,an ardent admirer of talent, a connoisseur of cinema, music and all things good and beautiful in life and above all a friend who knew what friendship was and what it meant. I don't think there was any friend who never discovered how he was a friend who gave his own definition to the words friend and friendship. The friend in me found it very difficult to believe that it was Rishi Kapoor lying on the floor at the Chandanwadi crematorium as a dead body covered with a white sheet and a sprinkling of flowers on the sheet and then to see his close family immersing his remains in the Banganga and to believe that Rishi had gone away forever....

But, I must thank Rishi for giving me and all his near and dear ones and his millions of admirers and fans all the "reasons"to believe that he was here ,somewhere here,there and everywhere and yet he would be here as long as memories of him live in the hearts and minds of people....

And the one way Rishi lives with us in a way that is as lively as he was when he was Rishi Kapoor ,the prince of hearts, it is through his songs and dances and films and his shows and live interviews on the different channels and his interviews he gave to channels and to the social media and through his Twitter handle which made him both lovable and controversial....

One of the best shows of Rishi I have seen on my mobile is the one of the IIFA awards function.He must have been sixty four or sixty five when he performed at the awards night. He danced to two of his most popular songs, "Tumne kabhi kisi ko pyaar kiya" from"Karz" and "bachna ae haseeno" from "Hum kisi se kam nahi ".He was to dance with his son ,Ranbir who was thirty years younger than him, but he literally stole the show from his son who had to not only salute his father who could still dance with the same vigour, vim and Vitality he was known for when he was the ruling romantic and dancing star. True, he had put on a lot of weight and was losing hair, but the way he danced looked like he was dancing to conquer the world and he did conquer the world that night. His son could not believe that his father could dance the way he did and at the end of the performance, the son fell at his father's feet in sheer respect from one generation to another. In the audience were his wife, Neetu who couldn't believe what her husband was doing at his age and their were his brothers, Randhir and Rajiv who were inspired to give Rishi a standing ovation. I had seen Rishi shooting for these dances years ago and the memories of those times came rushing back to me and I was surprised to see tears welling up in my eyes even though I was watching him dance on my mobile.

Rishi gives the same feeling of his being very much alive when I see him taking part in one of the many other shows he had performed at in the later years of his life (he hated performing at shows during the peak of his career)and I see him taking part in The Kapil Sharma Show in which he seems to be enjoying himself with Neetu.

There is only one last film in which I can and every one else who loved him can hope to see him, it is a film called "Sharmaji Namkeen "in which he is teamed up with Juhi Chawla ,the one actress who has done the maximum films with him, of course only next to Neetu who has done twelve films with him as his heroine.

When some one as lovable and supremely talented as Rishi Kapoor also dies, I feel like taking up a big fight with God and Yama ,the God of death and asked them what was the hurry and where was the need to show off their nasty power and play their dirty games when they have been kind to other whose lives mean nothing for the better or for worse.They could have easily waited for a few more years to prove their dark power over Rishi. And ,after all Rishi had only started his new innings as an actor and had just started proving what he couldn't when he was young and was branded a romantic and singing and dancing hero who would never be able to break his image easily......

I refuse to say goodbye to Rishi,a good man,a good friend and a very good actor.