He would have been a big hit if he had been in the political arena. Since rhetoric plays such a huge role in winning elections, it is certain that Raj Kumar, the celebrated “dialogue king” of Hindi films, would have been a landslide winner for any party in any Indian constituency. Going by the manner in which his dialogues spread like forest fire even in olden times, he would have swayed voters in this age of social media connect with his powerful oratory.
It is not as if speech was the only laudable quality in Raj Kumar’s acting and he had nothing else to show in his curriculum vitae. After a forgettable debut, he did films like “Mother India”, “Paigham”, “Oonche Log, “Dil Ek Mandir”, “Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee”, “Zindagi”, “Waqt”, “Kaajal”, “Pakeezah”, “Mere Huzoor” “Heer Ranjha” and “Lal Pathar” that established him as an actor of commendable skills. All these films reveal that despite a stiff countenance, he is appealing as well as pleasing on account of underplaying his characters. Directors like Mehboob Khan, Phani Mazumdar, Kishore Sahu, Kamal Amrohi, S.S. Vasan and Chetan Anand never allowed Raj Kumar to deviate from the character, ensuring wonderful spontaneity and as they knew his strength lay less in facial expressions yet he could steal the show with his oral punches, the astute directors made verbosity a central feature of Raj Kumar’s character.
Command over language
This was a true assessment of an artist who spoke Hindi and Urdu with remarkable clarity and élan. Be it a romantic couplet, a long winded dialogue of repugnance or a cry of anguish, Raj Kumar gave it a personal elegant touch . Whatever he lacked in texture of his voice, he compounded its attraction manifold with his exquisite punctuations and pauses that resonated long after the film was over. It was not what he said but how he said on screen that appealed to his legion of fans and his mannerisms only added to the glamour, beauty and poignancy of the scene, raising his stock sky high amongst the masses.
Alas, this proved a double-edged sword that led to distorting his acting career. Since his cutting edge delivery ensured a repeat value with the front benchers, many incompetent producers and directors enhanced “theatrics” in Raj Kumar’s portrayals leading to loss of his magnetic charm. Rather than directing Raj Kumar, his star persona now drove his screen characters whereby highly stylised mannerisms in conjunction with inane and high pitched dialogues became the nomenclature of a Raj Kumar film. Regurgitating words, he “churned dialogues” to the galleries without any regard to needs of the on-screen character. It is difficult to explain how and why people endured this predictable “dialogue baazi” as also his colourful gravitas that beamed loud in terms of fancy scarves, collars, coats and boots. But until the charm wore off and his actions became as predictable as a calendar page, it can be said that no other actor, except perhaps Shatrughan Sinha or a Rajnikanth, has been able to enthuse masses with such bombastic expressions as Raj Kumar did in his heyday!
Unfulfilled expectations
To me, Raj Kumar was an actor who did not fulfil the expectations one had from him in his prime. Rather than expanding his craft, he dissipated by getting sucked in the whirlpool of narcissistic annihilation. He was also a wonderful actor in song situations and his lip sync enactments of “Ye Zulf Agar Khulke” and “Jhanak Jhanak Baaje Paayaaliya” are par excellence. Yet strangely, one misses Raj Kumar for precisely the same reasons that one loathed him for at a later stage of his career… his measured dialogues and mannerisms that left you awe struck with their delivery and their content! It is this repertoire of “dialogue scenes” that one yearns to see since they still haunt the memory with their Raj Kumaresque grandeur.
The breaking of the whisky glass and the accompanying dialogue “Chinoy Seth, Jinke Apne Ghar Sheeshe Ke Hon…” from “Waqt” is a class apart in cinematic history. That one bone chilling dialogue with a wry smile leaves the stamp of his character forever and you firmly believe none could have ever done it better.
If Raj Kumar made the power of an indomitable will come alive in an effortless manner, he also raised the bar of romantic fervour to dizzying heights by just spelling out a note in “Pakeezah”. Though invisible, Raj Kumar’s recitation on the soundtrack of the letter being read by Meena Kumari is a sublime cinematic moment and if one applauds the genius of Kamal Amrohi for such a spectacular scene, one must concede that it is Raj Kumar’s immaculate articulation that brings an ethereal charm to the lines forming the crux of the film’s story. The scene exhibits his spectacular mettle as an actor since he is able to snatch attention from the grace and beauty of Meena Kumari by the sheer strength of his voice! So compelling is the aural charm that I doubt any woman could resist the charm of such a gentle statement and this one small scene is enough to crown him as the ultimate dialogue king!
In these times of first week box office returns, Raj Kumar would have been an overwhelming favourite of film makers and audiences alike. If he could make people forget his wigs and jazzy costumes yet command attention with his mesmerising delivery, there is every reason to believe that he would have been a big draw for all occasions.
