Golden Era of Bollywood: Shammi Kapoor - The Original Dancing Star of Bollywood

Do you know that the Shammi Kapoor we know today became Shammi Kapoor after giving 19 flop films in a row.tThe first of Shammi Kapoor was Jeevan Jyoti but Rail Ka Dibba (1953) was released first.He reinvented himself in Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), losing his seducer’s pencil moustache and fashioning his hair in typical ducktail style of the 1950sThis new Shammi did what no other hero had done earlier. He swayed, sashayed and sizzled while singing songs on screen. He became the first dancing star of Bollywood. His dance songs were never Choreographed.Today (14th Aug 2017) on his 6th Death Anniversary I look for his dancing style..
Before Tumsa Nahin Dekha, the Hindi film hero seldom danced. How could he, for the weight of the entire world was on his shoulders. On the rare occasion that he did, like Raj Kapoor in ‘Mud mud ke na dekh’ or in ‘Dil ka haal suney dilwaala’ in Shree 420, his actions were characterized by a kind of rhythmic one-two, one-two movement that responded to the beat of the song.
The final song in Tumsa Nahin Dekha, ‘Sar par topi laal’, made a dramatic departure. Early in the song, after Shankar has sung his half of the mukhda, ‘Gorey gorey gaal, gaal pe uljhey uljhey baal, ho tera kya kehna’, he claps along with the junior male artistes for a few seconds, showing a joviality that matches the beat of the song.He is shown dancing on one leg, going back and forth with the male artistes, matching them step for step all the while. He shouts out ‘oh sad ke, oh beliyaa’ and flits across the frame.
In Dil Deke Dekho (1959), Shammi dances his way through most of the film. Shammi’s entire frame features prominently in the songs ‘Megha re bole’, ‘Do ekum do’, ‘Pyaar ho toh keh do yes’ and ‘Yaar chulbula hai’, differentiating him from other mainstream heroes.
Shammi Kapoor in an interview claimed not knowing how to dance but his energy, verve and rhythm in those songs were unmatched and very different from the norm.
He found stardom with his first colour film, Junglee, released in 1961, which proved a blockbusting hit.After Junglee began a series of box-office hits like Dil Tera Deewana (1962) and the thriller Teesri Manzil (1966) with hit songs and his style of dancing mannerism.The way he smiled, the way he pouted and the way he looked into heroine’s eyes, everything was infectious; simply because it was fresh, fun and flamboyant. Even his famed dances were never choreographed; on the dance-floor, he just needed a catchy melody and a zingy beat and then he rock ’n’ rolled.
Shammi Kapoor-songs have become a genre by itself. Racy, robust, rhythmic and romantic numbers composed by the master composers like O.P. Nayyar, Shankar- Jaikishan, Ravi, Usha Khanna and R.D. Burman added their own magic to this rebel star’s screen persona.