Remembering Rajesh Khanna

The Superstar… ( 29th December 1942- 18th July 2012 )

' The word ' Superstar ' was invented for him and for me it shall ever remain his and no others. His generation and the generations that follow shall never be able to describe or understand his phenomena ' - Amitabh on twitter on the demise of Rajesh Khanna

How apt are the words of the Big B ! In the early years of 1970s Rajesh Khanna literally swept Bollywood at his feet. His Superstardum was all pervasive...girls married to his photographs, sent love letters in blood and youths tried to imitate his style of winking and casual nods. The BBC also took a note of his stardom by making a film on him, titled ' Bombay Superstar' and in 70s when films were not at all considered respectable in colleges, a textbook of Bombay University contained a lesson ' The Charishma of Rajesh Khanna' !

Rajesh Khanna's film career began in 1965 when he won All India Talent Contest organised by United Producers and Filmfare out of ten thousand contestants. He made the debut in 'Aakhari Khat' and 'Razz' as a part of Prize for winning the competition. But he rose to the overnight national fame by 'Aradhana'. Starring in 15 consecutive solo hit films in the period 1969 to 1972 and having 35 films golden jubilee hits to his credit during 1967-1975, Rajesh Khanna was crowned as the First and only Superstar of Bollywood. Among the hits were Aradhana, Bandhan, Do Raaste, Safar, The Train, Kati Patang, Sachaa Jhutha, Aan Milo Sajna, Mehboob Ki Mehendi, Dushmun, Anand , Haathi Mere Saathi, Amar Prem and so on.

Keeping aside his Stardum, to me, he was the outstanding actor of the times having the elegance and the dialogue delivery touching the hearts of the film viewers. Seema Deo, who worked with him in ‘Anand' used to weep a lot on the sets watching the scenes of Rajesh Khanna ! Khanna in an interivew mentioned "My inspirations include, Dilip Kumar's dedication and intensity, Raj Kapoor's spontaneity, Dev Anand's style and Shammi Kapoor's rhythm."

Rajesh Khanna’s magic started ebbing down after 1975 when the era of action films dominated by Amitabh Bacchan began. The Superstar continued to work in films but he lacked the earlier luster. His films started failing of box office leading the egoistic Superstar in depression and alcoholism. He craved, yearned for his earlier Superstardom to return, but in his destiny returning of the Superstardum had been postponed till 18th July 2012 ! On that day when he passed away the world could watch his Superstardum as his funeral was attended by nearly 3 lakh people and his fans flowing down from places like California, Singapore and from the other corners of the world !