Rajendra Kumar, the man who churned out hits

Sandeep Sinha

The decades after the Independence were one of hope and aspirations. A country that had found its freedom was steeped in idealism and optimism. The film industry was no exception, focusing on human bonds and relationships, the innate goodness and the triumph of the will. It was aptly fitting for actors who had crossed over to India after the Partition in 1947, daring to chase celluloid dreams amid the forced deprivation that the division of the country had brought about. Rajendra Kumar Tuli was no exception, with 1947 putting paid to his family’s life of prosperity and the beginning of a long period of struggle. The crossing over was arduous, with the family giving up his younger brother as dead and dumping him on the banks of the Ravi, till a prescient Rajendra rushed back to bring his baby brother in arms. Luckily, the child survived. In Delhi, his father set up a cloth shop, the only business the family was familiar with. A word from a family friend landed him a job in the police as an ASI before another friend offered to host him in Bombay.

It continued to be a struggle for existence for the wannabe till a cousin recommended him to the lyricist Rajinder Krishan who then sent him to the director HS Rawail who took him on as an assistant. The journey was uphill for him despite having found a steady job, roles in films were hard to come by. Rawail kept telling him he was not cut out to be an actor till the release of Vachan, his first silver jubilee hit, proved him wrong and he was only too delighted.

The book throws light on the persona of Rajendra Kumar (RK), as an actor, as a family man and as a human being. On the screen, he essayed the role of a romantic hero, serenading all top heroines of his time. His proximity to Saira Banu had unnerved his wife Shukla . He even cut short a holiday abroad to attend Banu’s birthday, only to be greeted by the news next morning that the actress had been engaged to Dileep Kumar. RK admits having had a soft corner for Saira Banu and the book mentions Banu’s mother pleading with Dileep Kumar to rescue her from the clutches of a ‘married man’. However, RK followed actor Ashok Kumar’s advice that no matter what, ‘have your dinner with your wife every day.’

The string of hits brought about prosperity and the actor coped with it with well, rooted as he remained in family and friends. Rajendra Kumar was supportive and many actors of the time owed their success to him like in the case of Manoj Kumar, Feroze Khan and Rajesh Khanna. He remained a family friend of Raj Kapoor and Sunil Dutt, acting with them in films like Sangam and Mother India, with his son Kumar Gaurav getting engaged to Raj’s daughter before finally marrying Namrata, the daughter of Sunil Dutt and Nargis.

The book is a telling account of Rajendra Kumar’s coming to grip over his waning career, the progression brought about by age, the dwindling crowd of admirers and the problem of reinventing himself. It is here that one understands the problem of Rajesh Khanna and the success of Amitabh Bachchan who strides on doing new things. Rajendra Kumar took to producing films and introduced his son in the film Love Story, a resounding success. But a father who thought he knew all that was good for his son, led to Kumar Gaurav floundering, and the worst thing was that he knew that his father belonged to the older generation and was now being out of sync. The actor finally succumbed to cancer and the family gathered in his hospital room on Bunty’s birthday but the son was too busy shooting. He passed away that very night. The struggle behind the glitz, relationships that Kumar Gaurav says revolve only around films and are transitory, imply what it takes to blaze a trail in the film industry. Rajendra Kumar left his mark on the sands of time, essaying innocence and virtue, typical of the time.

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