Rajesh Khanna-the first superstar of Hindi cinema

Today on 18th July Rajesh Khanna died, he was 69. He is considered as the first superstar of Hindi cinema. I don't belong to the generation who witnessed the superstardom, or hysteria he created among his fans, his movie career was already on the decline when I was born. I watched his movies on TV (on the Indian national channel Doordarshan) but only understood his magic during my teenage days...then I understood why he is called as the ultimate romantic hero of Hindi cinema. Many of his movies like Do Raste, Kati Patang, Aradhana, Amar Prem, Safar, App Ki Kasam, Bawarchi, and above all Anand are just amazing. I still listen regularly songs from these movies and even though he was not the singer or music composer of these songs his personality is an integral part of these songs..for example, Manna Dey sang very beautifully the song 'Jindagi kaisi hai paheli' in 'Anand' but whenever I listen that song all I remember is image of Rajesh Khanna (Anand) walking on the beach with his chappals in his hand....he was unique combination of style and acting. Most of his movies that were released in the 80s and 90s were flops and I don't remember any of them but it was not important because whatever movies he did during his golden era (1969-1975) were enough to show what he was...he was already on the decline when I started watching movies but movies from his golden era made me realize why he became the first superstar of Hindi cinema.

"Anand' is one of my favorite movies and I think it's his best. I don't think anyone can match his performance in Anand...that role was just tailor-made for him or I think he was born to play that role. I am from the generation who adored the angry young man, Amitabh and witnessed the rise of the Khan era, but there was a special place for Rajesh Khanna. For me, he was a unique combination of Dilip-Dev-Raj (Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, and Raj Kapoor), and I think he is the only superstar where all his good movies are also his super hit movies...very few stars are lucky enough to achieve this in Hindi cinema...his off-beat movies like Bawarchi and Aavishkar were also very successful. Today he left us but he will always live in our hearts as the king of romance and our first superstar...I remember one dialogue from his movie Anand...आनंद मरा नहीं, आनंद मरते नहीं...people like Anand never die.

Thanks for reading.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)