Happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor.

Happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor.

The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor on 6th December, 2010. He was one of the thoughtful directors of bollywood films and still his films are cherished by a big section of the viewers today.

He directed a meaningful film Masoom in the early 80s. He used the most dynamic actors and actresses of the contemporary period that was Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddun Shah. Naseeruddin had a previous wife who died leaving his small child played by Jugal Hansraj. He married Shabana Azmi who already had her own daughters including Urmila Matondkar. It was difficult for Shabana Azmi to accept the step son when her own daughters’ interests were related. Naseeruddin Shah decided to send the young child to boarding, but Shabana Azmi’s conscious spoke and she brought him back at the end of the film. RD Burman’s composition titled “huzur is kadar bhi” sung by Bhupinder Singh and Suresh Watkar, and “tushse naraz nahi zindagi” sung by Lata appealed to the masses.

Shekhar Kapoor astonished the viewers with a masala film Mr. India in the mid-80s. Anil Kapoor found a device which could make people invisible. He used the device to encounter a big smuggler played by Amrish Puri with the title Mogambo. Anil Kapoor ran an orphanage full of children and after becoming Mr. India used the children in his fight against Mogambo. Anil Kapoor’s compassionate performance, Amrish Puri’s fiery acting, Sri Devi’s dance numbers, everything appealed to the masses and the film ended up being the greatest hit of the year. Laxmikant Pyarellal’s music in the film became super hit including songs like “hawa hawai”, “karte hai hum pyar Mr. India se”, etc.

Shekhar Kapoor was criticized the most for his film Bandit Queen based on the life of dacoit Phoolan Devi. Shekhar Kapoor tried to show the torture faced by Phoolan Debi who was a malwa, by the Thakurs of the area, which compelled her to become dacoit. But the film gathered controversy due to the details shown by Shekhar Kapoor in respect of humiliation faced by Phoolan Debi. The Censure Board came in the way. Shekhar Kapoor got criticized all the way. His other film Elizabeth was also a noble venture. Shekhar Kapoor is also known for his acting in TV serials like Khandan.

His future projects include Paani, Long Walk To Freedom and The Last Full Measure. The viewers expect Shekhar Kapoor to continue his innovative film making in the years to come.

Happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor.

Happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor.

The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor on 6th December, 2009. He was one of the thoughtful directors of bollywood films and still his films are cherished by a big section of the viewers today.

He directed a meaningful film Masoom in the early 80s. He used the most dynamic actors and actresses of the contemporary period that was Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddun Shah. Naseeruddin had a previous wife who died leaving his small child played by Jugal Hansraj. He married Shabana Azmi who already had her own daughters including Urmila Matondkar. It was difficult for Shabana Azmi to accept the step son when her own daughters’ interests were related. Naseeruddin Shah decided to send the young child to boarding, but Shabana Azmi’s conscious spoke and she brought him back at the end of the film. RD Burman’s composition titled “huzur is kadar bhi” sung by Bhupinder Singh and Suresh Watkar, and “tushse naraz nahi zindagi” sung by Lata appealed to the masses.

Shekhar Kapoor astonished the viewers with a masala film Mr. India in the mid-80s. Anil Kapoor found a device which could make people invisible. He used the device to encounter a big smuggler played by Amrish Puri with the title Mogambo. Anil Kapoor ran an orphanage full of children and after becoming Mr. India used the children in his fight against Mogambo. Anil Kapoor’s compassionate performance, Amrish Puri’s fiery acting, Sri Devi’s dance numbers, everything appealed to the masses and the film ended up being the greatest hit of the year. Laxmikant Pyarellal’s music in the film became super hit including songs like “hawa hawai”, “karte hai hum pyar Mr. India se”, etc.

Shekhar Kapoor was criticized the most for his film Bandit Queen based on the life of dacoit Phoolan Devi. Shekhar Kapoor tried to show the torture faced by Phoolan Debi who was a malwa, by the Thakurs of the area, which compelled her to become dacoit. But the film gathered controversy due to the details shown by Shekhar Kapoor in respect of humiliation faced by Phoolan Debi. The Censure Board came in the way. Shekhar Kapoor got criticized all the way. His other film Elizabeth was also a noble venture. Shekhar Kapoor is also known for his acting in TV serials like Khandan.

The viewers expect Shekhar Kapoor to continue his innovative film making in the years to come.

Happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor

Happy birthday to Shekhar Kapoor.

The viewers of bollywood films wish Shekhar Kapoor happy birthday on 6th December, 2008. The films he had directed over 20 years had not been forgotten by most of Indian and International audience and that is the reason they still have expectation from Shekhar Kapoor to make better films in future.

In the early part of his career he directed the film Masoom which was critically acclaimed and also got commercial success. The viewers appreciated the expression of helplessness of Jugal Hansraj, whose father played by Nasiruddin Shah married Shabana Azmi and in the early part of the film Shabana Azmi did not accept Jugal Hansraj as her daughter. She already had her own daughters which included Urmila Matondkar who acted as a child artist.

The film was related to the struggle of Nasirrudin Shah to convince Shabana Azmi about the acceptance of Jugal Hansraj. When he decided to admit Jugal Hansraj in a boarding at the end of the film Shabana Azmi got attached with the son and stopped him from going to boarding. The songs in the film were very catchy, including “huzur is kadar bhi na itrake chaliye” sung by Bhupinder Singh and Suresh Watkar and “tujhse naraz nahi zindagi hairan hun mai” sung by Anup Ghoshal.

The film of Shekhar Kapoor which had biggest commercial success included Mr. India. He dealt with fantasy where with a use of a formula human beings became invisible and Anil Kapoor used it to become invisible and came to be known as Mr. India in the film. Amrish Puri played the role of international don named Mogambo which created his brand image.

Amrish Puri tried to access the formula. Initially he sent his men all across the world for searching that formula and made a number of plans and ultimately lost his life in the process. Sri Devi was very impressive in her role as a journalist and showed her comedy conception in te film. The music of Laxmikant Pyarellal was super hit. The hit songs included “hawa hawai”, “karte hai hum pyar Mr. India se”, etc. Besides LP used a number of his own songs in parody style for the numerous number of children who were brought up by Anil Kapoor and the song was titled “bacche tere bacche”.

In the later part of his career Shekhar Kapoor experimented with challenging subjects like Bandit Queen. Already Phoolan Devi won the elections and became Member of the Parliament and she died later, so there was big controversy in respect of the actual story and the subject that was depicted by Shekhar Kapoor.

Secondly the film had the challenge of getting certification from the Censor Board. Cruelty at its highest level was shown in the film. Besides caste rivalry between thakurs and malwas in the states of UP and Bihar were shown. Even critics argued the fact that if cruelty is shown in details in films the aesthetic value of films can be prevented from getting turnished and that is the challenge of quality film directors like Shyam Benegal who had been masters of story telling, had shown challenging subject-matters in films yet edited the unnecessary details. In that respect Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen, just revealed cruelty and did not try to maintain the filmic value on the subject matter.

Besides direction, Shekhar Kapoor was also a promising actor and he acted in some successful TV Serials of DD India like Khandan in the late 80s. He is considered to be a thoughtful director and the viewers expect him to come up with better films in future again.