Rafi and Shashi Kapoor.

Rafi and Shashi Kapoor

By: CR Chatterji.

Shashi Kapoor had to face huge competition in bollywood films in mid-60s, as stalwarts like Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor were still dominating the filmworld, and other stars like Rajender Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kumar, etc., had created their strong image in bollywood films. The combination of Rafi with Shashi Kapoor went a long way in cementing the place of Shashi Kapoor in bollywood films.

In Jab Jab Phool Khile, all the songs sung by Rafi and picturised on Shashi Kapoor became superhits including “pardesiyon se na ankhiyan milana”, “mai yahan ek ajnabee hoon”, “nana karke pyar” etc. The film was as successful as the songs composed by Kalyanji Anandji. Nanda also acted well opposite Shashi Kapoor in the film.

The film Pyar kiya Jaa, was based on comedy story. But the songs composed by LP and sung by Rafi for Shashi Kapoor including “gore hathon par na jhulm karo”, became very successful. The songs composed by RD Burman in Pyar Ka Mausam, for Rafi and Shashi Kapoor became big hits, including “ni sultana re pyar ka mausam aya” and “tum bin jayun kahan”. The performance of Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parekh were well appreciated by the audience.

All the songs composed by Shankar Jaikishan in the film Kanyadan for Rafi and Shashi Kapoor became extremely popular. Even the songs sung by Lata in the film picturised on Asha Parekh became successful.

In the 70s, Shashi Kapoor acted in mainly action films. Even during that time Rafi had sung hits songs like “ek dal par tota bole”, in the film Chor Machaye Shor, where the songs were composed by Ravindra Jain. Even in Shaan, in 1980, Rafi’s song “jaun meri jaan”, picturised on Shashi Kapoor, became hit, along with Kishore Kumar singing the same song for Big B.

Just like the other leading actors of the 60s and 70s, Shashi Kapoor is also indebted to Rafi for his success in acting career. The songs and the films should be preserved.