How Srishti Nath Kapoor of Kolkata turned Raj Kapoor of Bombay

A file picture of Raj Kapoor

Many many years in the past, there lived in Kolkata — then Calcutta — a boy known as Shrishti Nath Kapoor, who studied in a faculty known as Mitra Establishment in Bhowanipore. When his household later moved to Bombay, he not solely carried alongside the inventive affect that Calcutta left on him but in addition cherished his childhood within the metropolis. The boy grew as much as grow to be the legendary Raj Kapoor.

On Saturday (March 1, 2025), Kolkata will have fun this Showman of Bollywood in a present directed by the famend Dastangoi performer Mahmood Farooqui on the Kolkata Centre for Creativity. Titled Dastan-e-Raj Kapoor, the guarantees, in accordance with the organisers, will encapsulate the odyssey of Prithviraj Kapoor from Peshawar via Bombay to Calcutta, tracing his evolution from a junior artist to a shining star, and delve into the non-public {and professional} struggles and triumphs of Raj Kapoor.

Dastan-e-Raj Kapoor — full of nostalgia, anecdotes and music — is written by Sibtain Shahidi and led by Rana Pratap Senger and Rajesh Kumar. “Raj Kapoor and Kolkata shared a profound connection, shaping one another in methods usually ​neglected. His early publicity to Kolkata’s wealthy cultural and cinematic panorama, significantly via his father Prithviraj Kapoor’s affiliation with New Theatres, performed an important position in his inventive growth. This efficiency not solely honours his cinematic contributions but in addition highlights Kolkata’s position in shaping Indian cinema,” Richa Agarwal, chairperson of Kolkata Centre for Creativity informed The Hindu.

“Kolkata remained vital all through Kapoor’s profession. His collaborations with Bengali legends like Salil Chowdhury, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and Sombhu Mitra influenced his storytelling and social consciousness. His movie Jagte Raho (1956), co-directed by Mitra, mirrored his deep engagement with themes of sophistication battle — an ethos that resonated with Kolkata’s mental and inventive actions. Raj Kapoor by no means forgot his Kolkata roots: he even donated ₹25,000 to Mitra Establishment on its seventy fifth anniversary, cherishing his childhood within the metropolis,” Ms. Agarwal stated.

Mahmood Farooqui is a well known Dastan performer who, alongside together with his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, revived and innovated Dastangoi by utilizing it as a medium to inform fashionable tales. In keeping with Ms. Agarwal, the larger-than-life story of Prithviraj and Raj Kapoor navigating and making it large in Bollywood finds an excellent means of reaching the lots via Dastangoi.

In keeping with Bengal Movie Archive, Prithviraj Kapoor lived in a home on Hazra Crossing the place each Raj and Shammi Kapoor spent their youthful years and the place Shashi Kapoor was born. Recognized within the neighbourhood as ‘Prithvir chhele’ (Prithvi’s son), Raj Kapoor would usually take the tram to New Theatres studio to ship do-it-yourself lunch to his father. He debuted as a toddler artist in Debaki Kumar Bose’s Inquilab, and his movie Jagte Raho (1956) was initially made in Bengali as Ek Din Ratre, co-directed by Sombhu Mitra.