Prithviraj Kapoor

Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; November 03, 1906 – May 29, 1972) was a pioneer of Indian theatre and of the Hindi film industry, who started his career as an actor in the silent era of Hindi cinema, associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and who founded the Prithvi Theatres, a travelling theatre company based in Mumbai, in 1944. He was the patriarch of the Kapoor family of Hindi films, four generations of which, beginning with him, have played active roles in the Hindi film industry, with two generations still active in Bollywood. He's also acted in a Kannada movie Sākshatkāra. However, his father, Basheshwar Nath Kapoor, also played a short role in his movie Awara. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1969 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1971 for his contributions towards Indian cinema.[1]

Prithviraj Kapoor
Kapoor in the film Awara (1951)
Born
Prithvinath Kapoor

3 November 1906
Samundri, Lyallpur District, Punjab, British India
Died29 May 1972(1972-05-29) (aged 65)
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
OccupationActor • director • producer • writer • politician
Years active1927–1971
Spouse(s)Ramsarni Mehra (1923–1971; his death)
Children6 (Raj, Shammi, Shashi, Ravinder, Devinder and Urmila Sial)
RelativesSee Kapoor family
Honours
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
(Nominated)
In office
3 April 1952 – 2 April 1960

Early life and education

Kapoor was born on November 03, 1906[2][3] into a Khatri Punjabi Hindu family[4] of Samundri, Samundri Tehsil, Lyallpur District, Punjab, British India.[3] His father, Basheshwarnath Kapoor, served as a police officer in the Indian Imperial Police in the city of Peshawar. He studied initially at Khalsa college Lyallpur, now known as Government Municipal Degree College, Faisalabad,[5] and later at Edwardes College Peshawar.[6] while his grandfather, Keshavmal Kapoor, was a Tehsildar in Samundri.[7] Surinder Kapoor, the famous Bollywood producer and father of actors and producers Anil, Boney and Sanjay Kapoor, was a cousin of Prithviraj Kapoor.[8]

Career
Prithviraj Kapoor in 1929.

Kapoor began his acting career in the theatres of Lyallpur and Peshawar. In 1928, he moved to Bombay with a loan from an aunt. There he joined the Imperial Films Company and started acting in minor roles in movies.[3][9] In 1928, he made his acting debut as an extra in his first film, Be Dhari Talwar.[10][9] He went on to earn a lead role in his third film, titled Cinema Girl, which released in 1929.[11]

After featuring in nine silent films, including Be Dhari Talwar,[12] Cinema Girl, Sher-e-Arab and Prince Vijaykumar,[13] Kapoor did a supporting role in India's first film talkie, Alam Ara (1931).[14] His performance in Vidyapati (1937) was much appreciated. His best-known performance is perhaps as Alexander the Great in Sohrab Modi's Sikandar (1941). He also joined the Grant Anderson Theater Company, an English theatrical company that remained in Bombay for a year.[11][14] Through all these years, Kapoor remained devoted to the theatre and performed on stage regularly. He developed a reputation as a very fine and versatile actor on both stage and screen.

Prithvi Theatres
Main article: Prithvi Theatre
A 1995 Indian stamp dedicated to Prithvi Theatres and Prithviraj Kapoor

By 1944, Kapoor had the wherewithal and standing to found his own theatre group, Prithvi Theatres, whose première performance was Kalidasa's Abhijñānaśākuntalam in 1942. His eldest son, Raj Kapoor, by 1946, had struck out on his own; the films he produced had been successful and this was also an enabling factor. Prithviraj invested in Prithvi Theatres, which staged memorable productions across India. The plays were highly influential and inspired young people to participate in the Indian independence movement and the Quit India Movement. [9] In over 16 years of existence, the theatre staged some 2,662 performances. Prithviraj starred as the lead actor in every single show. One of his popular plays was called Pathan (1947), which was performed on stage nearly 600 times in Mumbai. It opened on 13 April 1947, and is a story of a Muslim and his Hindu friend.[15]

By the late 1950s, it was clear that the era of the travelling theatre had been irreversibly supplanted by the cinema and it was no longer financially feasible for a troupe of up to 80 people to travel the country for four to six months at a time along with their props and equipment and living in hotels and campsites. The financial returns, through ticket sales and the rapidly diminishing largesse of patrons from the erstwhile princely class of India, was not enough to support such an effort. Many of the fine actors and technicians that Prithvi Theatres nurtured had found their way to the movies. Indeed, this was the case with all of Prithviraj's own sons. As Kapoor progressed into his 50s, he gradually ceased theatre activities and accepted occasional offers from film-makers, including his own sons. He appeared with his son Raj in the 1951 film Awara as a stern judge who had thrown his own wife out of his house. Later, under his son, Shashi Kapoor, and daughter in law Jennifer Kendal, Prithvi Theatre merged with the Indian Shakespeare theatre company, "Shakespeareana", and the company got a permanent home, with the inauguration of the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai on 5 November 1978.[16]

Postage stamp

In 1996, the Golden Jubilee year of the founding of Prithvi Theatre, India Post, issued a special two Rupee commemorative postage stamp.[17] It featured the logo of the theatre, the dates 1945–1995, and an image of Kapoor.[18] The first day cover, (stamped 15-1-95), showed an illustration of a performance of a travelling theatre in progress, on a stage that seems fit for a travelling theatre, as Prithvi theatre was for sixteen years, till 1960.[16] On the occasion of 100 years of the Indian cinema, another postage stamp, bearing his likeness, was released by India Post on 3 May 2013.

Later years

His filmography of this period includes Mughal E Azam (1960), where he gave his most memorable performance as the Mughal emperor Akbar, Harishchandra Taramati (1963) in which he played the lead role, an unforgettable performance as Porus in Sikandar-e-Azam (1965), and the stentorian grandfather in Kal Aaj Aur Kal (1971), in which he appeared with his son Raj Kapoor and grandson Randhir Kapoor.[9]

Kapoor starred in the legendary religious Punjabi film Nanak Nam Jahaz Hai (1969), a film so revered in Punjab that there were lines many kilometres long to purchase tickets.

He also starred in the Punjabi films Nanak Dukhiya Sub Sansar (1970) and Mele Mittran De (1972).

He also acted in the Kannada movie Sakshatkara (1971), directed by Kannada director Puttanna Kanagal. He acted as Rajkumar's father in that movie.

Awards and honours
Kapoor on a 2013 stamp of India

In 1954, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, and in 1969, the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India. He remained Nominated Rajya Sabha Member for eight years.[13]

He was posthumously awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 1971. He was the third recipient of that award, the highest accolade in Indian cinema.

Awards

Personal life

Kapoor was aged 17 when he was married to the 15-year-old Ramsarni Mehra, a lady of his own community and similar background, in a match arranged by their parents. The marriage was harmonious and conventional. Ramsarni's brother, Jugal Kishore Mehra, would later enter films.

The couple's eldest child, Raj Kapoor, was born in December 1924. By the time Prithviraj moved to Mumbai in 1927, the couple were the parents of three children. In 1930, Ramsarni joined Prithviraj in Mumbai. The following year, while she was pregnant for the fourth time, two of their sons died in the space of one week. One of their children, Devinder (Devi), died of double-pneumonia while the other child, Ravinder (Bindi), died of poisoning in a freak incident when he swallowed rat-poison pills strewn in the garden.[20]

The couple went on to have three more children: sons Shamsher Raj (Shammi) and Balbir Raj (Shashi) (who were to become famous actors and filmmakers in their own right), and daughter, Urmila Sial.

After his retirement, Prithviraj settled in a cottage called Prithvi Jhonpra near Juhu beach. The property was on lease, which was bought by Shashi Kapoor, and later converted into a small, experimental theatre, the Prithvi Theatre. Both Prithviraj and Ramsarni had cancer and died about a fortnight apart. Prithviraj died on 29 May 1972.

A Samadhi (memorial) of his son Raj Kapoor at their family farm "Rajbaugh", which means the "king of gardens", also houses Privthiraj Kapoor and his wife's memorial. This memorial is located inside the MIT World Peace University (MIT WPU), Rajbaugh lies on the banks of Mula-Mutha River in Loni Kalbhor village 30 km east of Pune in Maharshtra. Kapoor family sold part of 125 acres Rajbaugh to MIT WPU which built a memorial for the Kapoor family on its campus. It has 7 pagodas, a viewing gallery which shows kapoor family photographs. Raj Kapoor shot many of his films at this farm, including Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Mera Naam Joker, Bobby, Prem Rog and more. Kapoor's family banglow inside the farm has been preserved, the popular song "Hum Tum Ek Kamre Mei Band Ho" was shot inside this banglow.[21][22][23][24][25]

Selected filmography

References
  1. "Pran receives Dadasaheb Phalke Award". Coolage.in. 14 April 2013. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  2. "Prithviraj Kapoor to Kareena Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor". indiamarks.com. 4 June 2012. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  3. "Prithviraj Kapoor (Indian actor)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
  4. Gooptu, Sharmistha (2010). Bengali Cinema: 'An Other Nation'. Taylor & Francis. p. 124. ISBN 9780203843345.
  5. "Remembering Prithviraj Kapoor!". 2 November 2009. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  6. Ahmed, Ishtiaq (7 November 2006) Prithviraj Kapoor: A centenary tribute. Daily Times
  7. "Bollywood's First Family". Rediff. 2 February 2006. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  8. "Surinder Kapoor & Prithviraj Kapoor". Rediff.com. 4 May 2009. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  9. Remembering Prithviraj Kapoor: 10 facts you must know about the Father of Bollywood Archived 10 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, India Today, November 3, 2016.
  10. Rishi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi remember a compassionate human on 113th birth anniversary of Prithviraj Kapoor: 'The man who started it all' Archived 8 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Hindustan TImes, Nov 03, 2019.
  11. "Kissing the firmament with Prithvi Theatre". The Hindu. 22 November 2004. Archived from the original on 31 July 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2008.
  12. "Be Dhari Talwar (1929)". Imperial. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  13. "Tribute to Prithvi Raj Kapoor (1901–1972)". International Film Festival of India. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011.
  14. Gulazāra; Nihalani, Govind; Chatterjee, Saibal, eds. (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi cinema. New Delhi: Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 504. ISBN 978-81-7991-066-5.
  15. Dandavate, Madhu (2004). Dialogue with Life. India: Allied Publishers. p. 48. ISBN 81-7764-856-X. Prithviraj Kapoor represented the mental make-up of Pathans of North-West Frontier Province through another play called Pathan.
  16. "India: Prithvi Theatre". Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2008.
  17. "Prithvi Theatre Stamp". India Post. 15 January 1995. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2008.
  18. Prasad, H. Y. Sharada (2003). "Genes and Genius". The Book I Won't be Writing and Other Essays. Orient Longman. p. 300. ISBN 81-8028-002-0.
  19. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  20. Nanda, Ritu; Kapūra, Rāja (2002). Raj Kapoor Speaks. Penguin Books India. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-0-670-04952-3. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  21. Google (8 July 2020). "Google map location of Smadhi of Raj Kapoor and Prithviraj Kapoor at Rajbaugh at the camputof MIT-WPU" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  22. With RK Studios up for sale in Mumbai, here is how Pune still hangs on to Raj Kapoor's memories Archived 12 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Hindustan Times, Sep 02, 2018.
  23. Raj Kapoor Memorial Archived 5 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, mitsft.in.
  24. Madhu Jain, 2009, Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema Archived 10 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Penguin Books.
  25. Raj Kapoor Memorial brief Archived 5 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine, mitsft.in.
  26. Gulazāra; Nihalani, Govind; Chatterjee, Saibal, eds. (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi cinema. New Delhi: Encyclopædia Britannica. pp. 66, 40. ISBN 978-81-7991-066-5.

Further reading
  • Shashi Kapoor presents the Prithviwallahs, by Shashi Kapoor, Deepa Gahlot, Prithvi Theatre (Mumbai, India). Roli Books, 2004. ISBN 81-7436-348-3.
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