Post-independence Hindi cinema was divided between the instant greatness of Dilip Kumar, the genius of Raj Kapoor, and the genius of Dev Anand. There was hardly any room for anyone else to make a mark for themselves, but somewhere between the three icons was a man named Shammi Kapoor, the ultimate male icon of the 1960s.

Shammi Kapoor was so great that he was perhaps the only actor whose fans were proud to be his fans.

Shamsher Raj Kapoor never had it easy, and frankly, he never wanted it any other way. Born to the illustrious Prithiviraj Kapoor, Shammi started acting at a time when older brother Raj was already a great artist when he was 24 years old.

Shammi tried to fit into the pre-existing molds in which Hindi cinema operated, but his first break with Nasir Husain’s Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), Shammi created a personality that would forever be etched in the annals of Hindi cinema.

Here are some of the things that were special about Shammi Kapoor, the original rock star of Hindi cinema!

• Rock star:
Forget Ranbir Kapoor, who stars in a movie called Rock Star, because he’s not even a patch on his great-uncle! The maverick Shammi Kapoor became may have always existed within him. Until Tumsa Nahin Dekha did exactly what everyone else was doing, but when he got the chance, he became the rock star we now know. Of course, Dev Anand was Hindi cinema’s first ‘Western’ hero, but Shammi, in his Elvis-Presley-meet-James-Dean manner, was a long way off when it came to addressing young people with his clothes, his arrogance or simply the presence of his mother. .

• Yahoo!
It may have been the most popular Internet search engine ever, but for millions of Indians, Yahoo is nothing short of a rallying cry. The movie was Junglee (1961) and the title song was about capturing the essence of a man who knew no borders and that little phrase ended up defining a generation. With Shammi Kapoor rolling down snow-capped mountains screaming Yahoo without a care in the world Junglee is one of the most endearing movies of the 1960s.

• Dancing Queen
Think of the famous Hindi movie dances of the golden age and Shammi’s moves are likely to top the list surpassing those of Helen or Bindu. The man invented his own inimitable dance style and no one has come close to matching his cool. Songs such as Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyaar Ke Charche (Brahmachari, 1968), Govinda Aala Re (Bluffmaster, 1963), Badan Pe Sitare (Prince, 1969) and O Haseena Zulfonwali (Teesri Manzil, 1966), among many others, exude an exuberance contagious. There’s no way your feet will be still during a Shammi Kapoor number.

• Rafi:
There has never been an actor like Shammi Kapoor who made a singer’s voice his own. Legend has it that when Md. Rafi passed away, someone simply told Shammi that he had lost his voice. Shammi would sit down with Rafi during filming and ask him to sing in a particular way that would make his crazy on-screen antics come to life. Shammi even had Rafi convince OP Nayyar to change the way Tareef Karoon Kya Usski from Kashmir Ki Kali (1964) would end just to suit his performance. Never has an actor-singer duo been so well put together that one doesn’t know where the humming ended and the performance began.

• Cashmere:
If Kashmir ever needed an ambassador, Shammi Kapoor would be the choice. Between 1958 and 1971, almost all of Shammi Kapoor’s films were shot in Kashmir, so much so that many believed that the actor lived in paradise on earth. There are shikaras even to this day that have a connection to Shammi Kapoor. Like the man himself, his movies too broke the shackles that bound Hindi movies and moved away from the studios and into the beautiful places of Kashmir.

• Teesri Manzil:
With its melodious numbers by RD Burman (O Mere Sona, Tumne Mujhe Dekha, Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyar Tera, O Haseena Zulfonwali) and Vijay Anand’s nimble editing and skillful direction, Teesri Manzil (1966) is now the movie to come to. the mind. every time someone mentions Shammi Kapoor. Usually he’s an actor who fits into a role or a movie, but Teesri Manzil is a movie that fits Shammi’s sweet rebellious personality perfectly. Ironically, like Shammi’s breakthrough film Tumsa Nahin Dekh (1957), Dev Anand also broadcast it!

• Internet:
True to her Yahoo avatar, Shammi Kapoor was not only one of the first celebrities, but one of the first people in India to jump on the internet bandwagon. Founder and Chairman of the Inter Users Community of India (IUCI), Shammi Kapoor was instrumental in creating many Internet organizations as well as managing his own website. Towards the end, he was a regular on social networking sites like Twitter and Face Book.

No wonder most of us still believe that internet giant yahoo might have an Indian connection!

• Goya Ke Chunanche:
In 1974, once Shammi Kapoor decided not to play the hero again, he directed a film called Manoranjan. Based on Irma La Douce, Shammi got Abrar Alvi to write the film and RD Burman did the music. The story of Ratan, an inexperienced cop new to the beat on a street called Manoranjan Street, which is the territory of soft-hearted pimps and prostitutes, and his love affair with Nisha, a prostitute he thought was nice, was much like the man which he directed it: irreverent but charming effervescence.

Although it didn’t do well at the box office, Manoranjan is a lot of fun. And who can forget Goya Ke Chunanche, Zeenat Aman’s upbeat number that was crafted thanks to a meaningless verbal volley between Kishore Kumar and RD Burman.

Shammi Kapoor has left a void that will never be filled… and there is no point in even thinking of a replacement because there was never anyone who could come even remotely close.