Padmini's Association with Raj Kapoor

 The Nargis chapter closed like a heavy door, slamming shut the most intense and creative phase of Raj kapoor’s life. Nargis had been the centre that held his working life for a decade. Raj kapoor now needed another heroine. Padmini, one of the famous Travancore sisters, was a natural successor. When Raj Kapooer fell ill after Nargis’s sudden departure from Moscow, Padmini happened to be there. The south Indian actress nursed him through his cold and high fever. Raj Kapoor even told a few friends that he made ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ as a thank you gesture to Padmini. Or was it on the rebound for Nargis. We know that until shree 420, nargis was the only heroine of films made in RK studio. After her exit Raj kapoor brought Padmini to there as a replacement for Nargis. Through Padmini’s entry a new stlye of film was seen, Raj kapoor brought sexuality and sensuality in padmini films.

 The voluptuous dancer-actress has hovered in his field of vision. When shooting for Chori Chori in Madras, Padmini has been on another set in the same studio. At their free time Raj and Nargis would visit Padmini’s set in the studio and also her home.

 

Raj Kapoor, Nimmi and Padmini

Padmini and Raj Kapoor got involved to each other well during the youth Festival in Moscow, where she had gone with her sister Ragini(In the youth festival Padmini was awarded as best classical dancer). Raj Kapoor went moscow to participate in karlovy vary award function. Both Padmini and Raj kapoor stayed in the same hotel Padmini was acting in russian film Khozdanie za tri morya. Padmini didn’t stand a chance. She was a leading star in the south when kapoor worked his charm and lured her to Bombay. The Madras film industry was up in arms when she headed north. She has been a popular star in Tamil, Malayalam, and telugu film. Padmini got many threatening letters when she became a raj kapoor heroine. So did Kapoor, from producers and directors who feared that she would no longer be available for their films and worse that she was going to become ‘second Nargis’. Padmini’s mother Saraswathi amma was equally apprehensive about the effect of Raj Kapoor’s seductive charms on her daughter. She watched over her daughter, scolding her more than once for any perceived intimacy with Raj Kapoor. She almost dragged Padmini from Jabalpur where where the famous waterfall sequence ‘O meine pyar kiya’(Jis desh..) was being filmed.

 Until Jagte Raho Raj’s films were not overtly sexual. In the post Nargis era they are: journey from sensuality to sexuality was a short sprint. Rakj Kapoor’s camera lingers longingly on Padmini;s curves and cleavages, the way it used to explore Nargis’s face. He may have put Nargis in swimsuit, slaped her and pulled her unruily locks of hair, but she was never a sexual object in his films. In Jis desh… camera has turned voyeuristic: it seldom strays from Padmini’s ample body, especially her large breasts which the cut of her choli and the embroidery on it accentuated.

Lps of Raj Kapoor Padmini Films-Jis desh mein ganga behti hai, Aashiq and Mera naam joker

In the song ‘O Meine pyar kiya’. Padmini oozes sexuality when suddenly aware of the fact that she is in love with character played by Raj Kapoor, she jumps into a pond and swims, exposing large expanses of luminous flesh as she keeps in and out of the water like a drunken mermaid. Her face is a study in sensual arousal, her eyes full of dreamy longing. She wears a black saree wound tightly round her body. There is no blouse, and of course there’s a waterfall. Padmini looks like a woman who had stepped out of Raja Ravivarma painting (the travancore painter who invented wet saree look in his painting and later Raj kapoor immortalized on celliloid).

Raj Kapoor makes her a sexual object in Mera Naam Joker as well. The screen sizzles in the song ‘Ang Lagja Balma’ when she sheds her male disguise and puts a saree for the first time in her life. A flesh colored saree is draped tightly over Padmini, once again without a blouse. When she goes looking for her hero-joker in the middle of the night she is drenched in torrential rain.

Obviously the onscreen chemistry between Raj Kapoor and Padmini worked. Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai did very well at the box office. Its success restored Raj Kapoor’s self confidence. After Nargis’s sudden departure he hadf begun to believe that he was finished as a film maker: Jagte Raho has been a miserable flop. He was so unsure of himself that he put down Radhu Karmakar’s name as the director of Jis desh mein ganga behti hai. She also acted with him in the film Aashiq, a film produced by bunney Reuben and V K Dubey. It was at the time of her pregnancy time, she acted in Aashiq.

Padmini faced many rumours while acting with Raj. Her pregnancy delivery in 8th month after marriage too created rumours(at that time she was acting with raj kapoor in Aashiq, but delivary in 8^th month is due to her over strain in dancing) .Raj and Padmini continued to be best friends. Whenever Raj Kapoor is in America he doesn’t forget to visit Padmini’s house.

source: Raj kapoor , Kapoors: the first family of indian cinema by madhu Jain, Filmfare magazine, Anantha vikatan magazine