THE KAPOO that perception is what dictates one's concept of reality. Moreover, he was also taken by the essential unity of truth, God and beauty- Satyam Shivam Sundaram. While the merits of such philosophizing can be argued about ad museum, it is undisputed that transferring such concepts to the commercial Indian cinema requires either exceptional skill or a mastery of the art of selling. Kapoor discarded his original low- budget plan, and involved himself in working out a screenplay that included his philosophy. In the process, SSS was transformed into a prestigious, high-budget venture. As the word spread around that Raj Kapoor was casting his new film, actors and actresses all over Bombay began to send feelers to Kapoor's Chembur cottage. To many people, Kapoor's standing in the industry is almost inexplicable. He has made three films in the last 15 years of which one was enormously unsuccessful, and two, though they clicked at the box-office, were hardly classics of their genre. Without exception, all the films he has acted in for concerns other than his own have been abysmal flops. Yet, such is Kapoor's prestige that actors and actresses vied with each other to be selected for SSS. In part, this was because the film is probably the only heroine-dominated vehicle to be made by a major studio in recent years. But there was more to it than that. Noted film historian Firoze Raneoonwala's" explanation is that stars are basically insecure people who like belonging to vast concerns such as R. K. Films. Others argue that Raj Kapoor is one of the few directors who is willing to devote himself to getting the best out of his actors. Parveen Babi, for exam- ple, feels that Kapoor "is one of the few people who is concerned with more than just profits-he wants to make a good film." To Zeenat Aman, Satyam Shivam Sunahram represented an opportunity of a life time. While producers continued to line up outside her door with offers of roles, Aman was getting tired of playing the glamour girl in film after film. A new trend for action films had begun and in such films, heroines ended up getting short shrift, a love scene or two was the most they could hope for. Additio- nally, even her most ardent fans did not dare to claim that she was a Kissing comes to the screen good actress, and her critics were convinced that she was no more EW films have had such a ballyhoo as Raj Kapoor's than a pretty face, useful for filling the background, but hardly Satyam Shivam Sundaram. At every stage of its pro- enough to hang an entire film on. duction the multi-million rupee colossus has kept Arnan decided to win the SSS role for herself. She saw the tongues wagging within the film industry. Film Barsaat, Awara and other old Raj Kapoor films and arrived at magazines, kept at bay during the shooting, have Kapoor's doorstep to claim the part. By this time, Kapoor had 'Fwritten snide articles condemning the film and its maker. Rival decided to launch a search for an actress because he felt that none of producers, concerned about the possible box-office competition the the current crop of heroines could do justice to his conception of film will pose, are busy spreading stories that Raj Kapoor has lost the character. Aman was probably the last person he would have his touch; and an eager public, their curiosity aroused by stories of thought suitable. The girl he had in mind had to be plain looking and eroticism and nudity in the film wait to see if SSS will prove a willing to be made up to look scarred and burnt in the film-Aman spectacular hit such as Bobby, or a flop like Mera Naam Joker. was attractive, no great shakes as an actress and spoke Hindi with Zeenat Aman, universally regarded as an actress with little merit, an accent. However, Aman refused to give up. She had herself made hopes that the film will, at last, show the world her histrionic ability. up to look scarred, dressed in a costume from the film and burst into And Raj Kapoor by his own admission, a dinosaur ill at ease in a his cottage one day. Flabbergasted, Kapoor rang his wife and said, modern era, knows that with this film he will either cement his "Come and see what this girl has done," Mrs Kapoor arrived with position as the godfather of Indian cinema, or be relegated to the a gold coin to bless Zeenat, and Raj knew that he had found his history books. J heroine. Originally, the film was planned as a low budget "quickie" with For the male lead, he signed his brother Shashi, whom he had last unknown actors. Raj Kqpoor, his confidence strengthened by the directed when he played the young Raj Kapoor in Awara and run-away success of Bobby and the more modest, but substantial Shree 420. Character artistes such as Leela Chitnis, David and showing of his son Randhir's Dharam Karam, was unwilling to risk A. K. Hangal were added to the cast, and he was ready to shoot. money spent on the Joker. He dusted off a 20-year old scenario Such is the magic of the Kapoor name that Aman and the rest of about an ugly woman with a beautiful voice, fitted out a van for the cast agreed to act for far less than their normal rates because as outdoor shooting and was all set to make an art film on location. Kapoor says, "So what if I pay them chicken-feed. They should be But as the idea evolved, Kapoor found himself injecting new happy to act with me." themes and greater depth into the scenario. The old "beauty is only By this time, the script had been finalized. To put across his skin deep" conception gave way to a more complex, philosophical appearance, perception and reality theme, he had Zeenat Aman thesis: that reality is not necessarily solid and unchangeable but play an adivasi girl with a beautiful voice, and a bur ar t -- INDIA TODAY. NOVEMBEF 977 R EROTICA disfigured half her face. Shashi plays an engineer who hears thc voice, is enraptured by it and imagines that it belongs to a beautiful girl. When he finds Zeenat, she hides the disfigured part of her face and he is satisfied. They get married and on their wedding night, he discovers the scar. Convinced he has married the wrong mrl he leaves home. To make his point, Raj Kapoor then has has hi once again discover Zeenat on a cliff, where she again hides the scar. To Shashi, Zeenat becomes two different girls-his beloved, and his scarred wife-illustrating two different perceptions of the same reality. Shashi ignores his wife and has an affair with who he thinks is a different girl; inevitably Zeenat gets pregnant leading to compli- cations and a final denouement. The film ends on a positive note: perception and reality merging into one. It is easy to make fun of such a plot and Kapoor fully expects film magazines to tear it to bits. The entire concept of a courtship where the man never sees the girl's face uro~erlyis a little hard to 1 stomach; and despite the scar, ~eenai man still looks quite recognizably like Zeenat Aman, making it unlikely that Shashi should not reconcile the two girls in his mind. Only Zeenat insists that the story is realistic. "It wouldn't happen anywhere else, but it can, and does happen in India," she argues unconvincingly. Raj Kapoor himself accepts that the plot is a little far-fetched but sees the film as an allegory wherc the theme is far more important than the story. "The theme came first," Kapoor says, "I had to build a story around it. But the story is only important to comrnunicatc the theme." He cites the instance of the ancient poet Surdas and insists that his intention is to convey the bcautv of the soul. whether one perceives it visually (the facej or aurallyv(the voice). ' Two perceptions oj'reafily-Zeenat Aman's two images INDIA TODAY. NOVEMBER 1-1 5, 1977 What is not clear is whether audiences will perceive Kapoor reality rather than their own, fed as they are on escapist fare which demands no great exercise of inner vision. When Kapoor first planned SSS, he thought he was risking very little because it was to be a low budget production. However, now that the film has assumed gigantic proportions he is clearly nervous about its box-office prospects. "Once I got involved in the filming, I went all the way," he recalls, "I have never been able to cut corners and so the expenses kept mounting." Because he wished to avoid giving it a studio-made look, he shifted his entire unit to his farm at Loni. He spent over Rs 7 lakhs on constructing a temple to make the scenes of Zeenat singing there seem as realistic as possible. At the cost of several more lakhs, he constructed an entire village near Loni as he wanted to make the adivasi location seem more genuine than the usual cardboard-and- glue jobs put up in most studios. He refused to enlist starstruck bystanders to fill his crowd scenes because he felt that they were never relaxed enough to look natural: "There's always some fool nudging the other and saying, "look that's Shashi Kapoor." To overcome this, he transported hundreds of extras from Bombay, put them up and fed themat his own expense, and paid them their daily union rate (which is thrice the normal rate),-for location shooting.