Prithviraj Kapoor’s spectacular journey from an unpaid extra to Bollywood’s regal patriarch

New Delhi: In 1928, a strapping young man made his way into the office of the top Bombay film company boss, getting past the stern Pathan guard at the gate by engaging him in his native Pashto, and managed to wangle a job as an unpaid extra. Prithviraj Kapoor held the job for all of 10 days, and on the eleventh, was signed as the hero of their next film!

How he landed the top job in his second week itself scarcely seems unbelievable — and is a testament to his undeniable charm and confidence. Shooting for a new film was set to begin but the hero was playing truant. A miffed director took the heroine to the area where the extras were sitting and asked her to choose her leading man from them. She straightaway pointed to him.

This is how Prithviraj Kapoor (1906-72), born this day (November 3), began his remarkable journey as a consummate performer on stage, screen, and personal life and the progenitor of the Hindi film industry’s first family — still flourishing in its fourth generation.

As part of the latter, he is possibly the only Indian actor who has appeared in two films featuring three generations of a family — with his father and sons in ‘Awaara’ (1951) and his son and grandson in ‘Kal Aaj aur Kal’ (1971). It was no mystery why he came to be known as “Papaji” by most of the industry in his later life.

Hailing from a Punjabi Khatri family long engaged in government service, Kapoor was born in Lyallpur and educated in Peshawar, where he graduated from the renowned Edwardes College and studied Law for a year, before deciding that it was not for him, and decided on a film career instead. He came to Bombay in 1928 with money borrowed from his father’s sister and was soon pitchforked to become a leading actor — of the silent era.

With his chiselled looks, imposing and imperious presence, and emoting abilities — honed by stage performances he never gave up till the 1960s — Kapoor was set for a blazing career as sound arrived in Indian films, despite the outspoken and opinionated film journalist Baburao Patel terming him an “uncouth brawny Pathan.”

While Kapoor quelled him with a spirited riposte, his career also showcased his prowess as he shuttled from films — appearing in the first Indian talkie ‘Alam Ara’ (1931) — to theatre, where his title role in ‘Pathan’ and as Shylock (from Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’) among his top performances. He also did a stint with the New Theatres in Calcutta in the middle of the 1930s — with a highlight being ‘President’ (1937) along with Indian films’ sole male singing superstar K. L. Saigal, before returning to Bombay towards the end of the decade.

It was Sohrab Modi’s ‘Sikandar’ (1941), where his Grecian looks made him perfect for the role of the legendary conqueror and his skills enabled him to hold his own against equally bombastic Modi playing Raja Porus, that brought him to the limelight. Coincidentally, Kapoor would go on to play Porus himself — nearly a quarter century later – in ‘Sikander-e-Azam’ (1965).

Though Kapoor is most known for his role as Emperor Akbar in ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (1960), where he played the title to the hilt, whether walking barefoot in hot sands in full armour to the shrine of Sheikh Salim Chishti or suffering a heart attack as he pretended to get apoplectic at Anarkali’s brazen effrontery in ‘Pyar kiya to darna kiya’, there were many other roles — including of kings, historical or mythological, he played with his panache

He played Rama (twice) — as well as Raja Dashrath and Ravana too, both Arjuna and Karna, Kings Vikramaditya and Harishchandra, his 12th century Chauhan namesake, Rana Kumbh, Emperor Shah Jahan, and Raja Mansingh, among others

Though he cut down on film work from the mid-1950s as at least two of his sons had taken over the acting mantle, he still figured in many iconic films — as stern Justice Raghunath in ‘Awaara’, seer Satyananda in ‘Anand Math’ (1952), onscreen father to his second son Shammi in ‘Rajkumar’ (1964) and ‘Janwar’ (1965), appeared opposite Suraiya in her swan song ‘Rustom Sohrab’ (1963), the justice-minded king in ‘Heer Ranjha’ (1970), and wise and caring patriarchs in ‘Teen Bahuraniyan’ (1968) and ‘Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai’ (1969, Punjabi).

Yet, one more facet of Kapoor, among the first recipients of a Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship, needs to be brought to light — his role in the success of son Shammi Kapoor, after the latter’s 18 straight flop films. It was Kapoor who created the role of a romantic-minded, rollicking young man that fitted Shammi perfectly on stage — and would in films when filmmakers envisaged such a character in their productions.

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

–IANS