Golden Era of Bollywood: Shamm Kapoor- Music and Rythum running in his veins.

Wednesday 14 August 2019

Shamm Kapoor- Music and Rythum running in his veins.

When you think of Shammi Kapoor, music cannot be far behind. All his films had songs and dance that were loud and energetic, joyous and boisterous, soft and romantic. In this blog on Shammi Kapoor,I have worked on the music interest of of Shammi Kapoor.
Few people know that Shammi Kapoor learnt classical music for five years along with his elder brother Raj Kapoor.Shammi Kapoor became Pandit Jagannath Prasad's pupil. Later, as part of Prithvi Theatres, his music lessons continued.
He entered the cinema world in 1948, as a junior artiste, at a salary of Rs. 50 per month, stayed with Prithvi Theatres for the next four years and collected his last pay check of Rs. 300, in 1952. He made his debut in Hindi Films in the year 1953, when the film Jeevan Jyoti was released. It was directed by Mahesh Kaul and Chand Usmani was Kapoor’s first heroine.
He worked closely with the music directors and singers and musicians, and often sat in on recordings. He choreographed his own songs, his loose-limbed grace and innate sense of rhythm shaking every canon of 'dance' that Hindi films had hitherto seen on screen. And his obsession with music meant that, quite often, he often had an instrument with him.
Shammi Kapoor once said in an interview that at recordings with Shankar-Jaikishen, he would observe the musicians performing, and get (music director) Jaikishen, a close friend, to teach him the nuances of each instrument.
Beside learning Indian Classical music he was also and admirer of Western Music,Ramba, Samba, Western Classical, Gypsy Music, Jazz....He was a fan of Elvis Presley and later called as Elvis Presley of Bollywood.
Shammi Kapoor played many instruments in various songs on screen, here I am posting few of those songs in which he is shown as playing the instrument.
Shammi Kapoor (21 October 1931– 14 August 2011) gave us hits like hits like Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Singapore, Junglee, College Girl, Professor, China Town, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Kashmir Ki Kali, Janwar, Teesri Manzil, An Evening in Paris, Bramhachari, Andaz and Sachaai. Shortly before his death, he made his last film appearance in Imtiaz Ali's 2011 directorial venture Rockstar co-starring his grand-nephew Ranbir Kapoor, the grandson of his brother Raj Kapoor. He died on 14 August 2011, 05:15 am IST, of chronic renal failure, aged 79.
Shammi Kapoor starred in over 50 films as lead actor, and over 20 films in supporting roles. He has won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor once, for his performance in the film Brahmachari (1968) and then in 1982 for Vidhaata.

The first song in my list is from the film Hum Sab Chor Hain (1956).Here in this song Shammi is trying his best to impress Vimala (Nalini Jaywant). He is a theatre manager, she is hoping to be the lead actress. But since he cannot sing or play any instrument, his assistant manager (Ram Avatar) is doing both from behind the door.