A personality who became famous in whole bollywood by his sonorous voice and the marvelous dailogue delivery. A person who shook the film industry by just saying "Jaani.." and "Hum..". That Legend was Bollywood Super Star Raj Kumar.

Personal Life

Born in 1929 Raj Kumar is one of the biggest Hindi film icons of the seventies. Belonging to a Kashmiri Pundit family, his real name was Kulbhushan Pundit. In the 40’s he moved to Mumbai as a Sub inspector and he got married to Gayatri in 1962 when he was a well established actor. His movie “Mother India” made him a star in 1957 and he continued to do quality cinema since. He died in July 1999 of throat Cancer, a big tragedy, since it was his resonant voice quality that was a big factor in his success story. Today he is survived by three children- Purru, Pannini and Vastvikta Rajkumar, although none of his children could establish themselves as actors in the same way as their father.

Professional Life

Although he started out as a Sub Inspector in the Mumbai Police, it was the brilliance of the silver screen that lured him to dabble in the arena of acting. With his unforgettable role in the Oscar nominated movie "Mother India” he has always delivered movies par excellence. At the same time his films always endeavored to appeal to different classes of people and to their varying tastes. In the super hit movie Waqt he played a debonair businessman whereas in Paigham he played a simple mill worker. His portrayal of a romantic hero was much different than what we see in cinema today. He did not jiggle on songs rather he serenaded his love with Urdu poetry and soft music. A famous example of such love would be his super successful movie Pakeezah wherein his dialogue “inn pairon ko zameen par mat rakhna , yeh maile ho jaayenge”, is still remembered fondly. His Urdu dialect and deep voice were a very rare combination.  All the dailogues delivered by him in Tiranga gave a huge boost to his stardom. And he proved that very few can deliver such marvelous dialogues.

Nature

A super star of his time, he was known for his down to earth nature. His persona was such that it intimidated other actors to work with him. If one notes his earlier successful venture have either been solo hero projects or similar. But later in life when he made the movie Saudagar in 1991 with Mr. Dilip Kumar, their ego hassles were legendary. He was known to address everyone as Jaani even in real life, as he often did in his movies. It is said that he has always injected his own style and trait in his words both in his real and screen life.

Success

Raj Kumar’s first hit was Mother India in 1957. After that he gave another super hit Waqt in 1965. His career graph has seen a lot of high and lows.  In 1992 his movie Tiranga released which was also a hit. But after the release of this movie he did not deliver any super hits. Although his super stardom has yet not ceased but his no. of hits compared to that of his peers was much less. 

It is absurd to think that mere technical brilliance and high tech audio visual effects are the main features of a cinema. It is the honesty of an actor towards the character played by him, is what appeals to the audience. Raj Kumar had that austere quality in him which drew the public to theatres to watch his movies. His thoughtful and somber characteristics are still remembered fondly by people of all ages.