Paradise lost and regained

Shammi Kapoor / Image- Wikipedia

He was the son of Prithviraj Kapoor and the brother of Raj Kapoor, but back in 1955, Geeta Bali was the bigger star with hits like Baazi, Albela and Jaal to her credit. Shamsher Raj Kapoor, better known as Shammi Kapoor, was in the doldrums after 19 straight debacles despite working with all the top actresses of the time. Miss Coca Cola was his first film with Geeta Bali, who plays a nightclub singer whose father is implicated for a murder he did not commit.

While shooting for this romantic thriller directed by Geeta’s mentor, Kedar Kapoor, the 23-year-old actor fell hopelessly in love with his heroine. That she was as charmed by him is evident from the fact that after they had wrapped up Miss Coca Cola, she pleaded with Kapoor to give her a role in his next which also starred Shammi. When the filmmaker reminded her that her protégé, Mala Sinha, along with Chand Usma, had already been cast as the female leads in Rangeen Raatein, a desperate Geeta accepted a bit role of a mad village boy, Gulu, just so they could be together in Ranikhet where the film was being shot. By the time they returned to Mumbai, Shammi had decided he wanted to share the rest of his life with Geeta and was proposing to her every hour.

While another actress would have jumped at becoming a Kapoor bahu, Geeta kept turning him down, pointing out that she was older than Shammi by a year and that was traditionally unacceptable back then. Also, she had worked with both his father and his brother in Anand Math and Bawre Nain and wasn’t sure if they would welcome an actress into the film industry’s First Family. Her own family, she reasoned, were completely dependent on her since her father was blind and her mother, brother and sister partially deaf. Shammi’s reputation as a ladies man also made her wary.

But he wouldn’t give up, and after four months, Geeta finally said “yes”, insisting that the marriage had to happen that very day. Unsure how to go about it, they rushed to Johnny Walker’s house for advice since he had got married only a week ago. He pointed out that they belonged to a different faith, Geeta heing Sikh and Shammi a Hindu, and suggested they go to a temple. Hari Walia, the producer of Coffee House, the film they were shooting for then, accompanied them to Banganga, a part of the Walkeshwar Temple Complex on Malabar Hill which had around 90 temples.

It was past 10pm by the time they reached, pitch dark and raining. The priest waved them away, telling them to go home and return at 4 am. Shammi took Geeta home to his Matunga residence. Neither slept that night and were back in Banganga at dawn, he in a kurta-pajama and she in her now crumpled salwar-kurta not wanting to wait and buy new clothes for the wedding. They became man and wife on August 24, 1955.

Geeta stopped signing new films after marriage though she made sure to complete her earlier commitments and there were plenty of them. On July 1, 1956, she gave birth to a son whom the couple named Aditya Raj. Five years later, on August 8, 1961, their daughter, Kanchan, arrived.

Life was good. Shammi finally tasted success with Tumsa Nahin Dekha in 1957, Dil Deke Dekho, Junglee, Professor, China Town, Kashmir Ki Kali and Janwar consolidating his position in the industry and making him the rebel superstar of the sixties. Geeta, who had several releases after marriage, including Jailor, Mujrim and Mohar, but she was slowly moving away from mainstream cinema and turned producer with Rano, an adaptation of Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Ek Chadar Maili Si, in which she was playing the title role of a widow, who after the sudden death of her husband is married off to her much younger brother-in-law, both finding it hard to accept the change from their earlier devar bhabhi relationship.

Geeta was shooting in Moga, a village in Punjab, with Dharmendra, both the children with her since Shammi was busy filming Teesri Manzil, when he learnt that she had contracted measles. He rushed to Punjab, brought his family home and got the best of doctors to treat his wife. That’s when they discovered that it was not measles, but smallpox. On January 21, 1965, at the age of 35, Geeta passed away and Shammi returned to Banganga, this time to cremate his soul mate.

Over the next three years, life went into a tailspin as he returned to his wild bachelor days. There were women, one of whom was his Brahmachari co-star, Mumtaz, as he tried to find an anchor again. The actress admitted years later, on an episode of the talent hunt show Indian Idol Season 13, that he had told her straight, "I want to marry you.” She was only 17 at the time and didn’t want to settle down.

It was at this point that 27-year-old Neila Devi Gohil, from the royal family of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, re-entered Shammi’s life. At the age of nine, she had watched him on stage when he had toured her hometown with the Prithvi Theatre troupe. Later, he had befriended her brother and when they moved to Mumbai, would visit them sometimes. But they never conversed till a few hours before their sudden marriage.

It was Raj Kapoor's wife Krishna who had shown Shammi Neila’s photograph and told him that his family thought she would make him a good wife. That day, after returning home from his shoot, he called her. It was close to midnight and they spoke for five-six hours. He told her everything about himself and the life he had led. He ended the conversation by proposing to Neila Devi and inviting her with her family to his residence.

The same day, January 27, 1969, his father, Prithviraj Kapoor, asked her father for Neila’s hand for his son. When the match was accepted, a pandit was called and they took the pheras right there in the flat.

She was the best partner Shammi could have asked for after Geeta, the perfect mother to their children, Aditya and Kanchan. They were together for 42 years and he slowly changed, from a party animal to a family man, who liked being home with the family as he grew older. Even when he developed kidney problems and had to go to the hospital for dialysis three days a week, the couple ensured they made the best of the remaining four days, going on long drives together, spending time with the grandchildren and planning a trip to Kashmir which didn’t happen because Shammi Kapoor passed away on August 14, 2011 at the age of 79.

Thirteen years later, Neila Devi still misses her husband and can hear him singing his favorite song from Jab We Met. Ustad Rashid Khan’s “Aooge jab tum o saajna, angna phool khilenge, barsega saawan, barsega saawan, jhoom jhoomke” invariably brings tears to her eyes as memories flood in.