Peshawarites still remember the Kapoor family

PESHAWAR: The Kapoor family, which has produced legends of the Indian film industry after migrating to India from Peshawar, are still remembered by the people of Peshawar.

The elders of Dhaki Munawar Shah, birthplace of Indian film heroes such as Raj Kapoor, Shami Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor, still recall the days they spent together.

“I used to play with Raj Kapoor,” said Abdul Wahid, a bedridden 75-year-old shoemaker. Mr Wahid remembers the days when he enjoyed cold drinks with Raj Kapoor from Binori Lal’s shop situated near the residence of the Kapoors.

“That time was of great love and there was no religious hatred between the Hindus and Muslims and there were no restrictions on children of different religions to enter the houses of each other,” he said. Mr Wahid said people of the area were saddened when the Kapoor family and other Hindus left Peshawar after partition. “However, we became happy on seeing them successful in the films,” he said. Most of the people having close relations with the Kapoor family have passed away, only few of them are alive, he added. One was Muhammad Ismail who died recently, a class fellow of Shami Kapoor in a primary school at Dhaki.

“My father told me that he and Shami Kapoor studied together in primary school under headmaster Devan Dena Naath,” said Fawad Ismail, son of late Mohammad Ismail. “In the early sixties, my father with other friends, including traders Haji Haleem Jan, Gama Pehlwan, paternal uncle of Indian filmstar Shahrukh Khan and Abdur Rehman went to India and met the Kapoors,” said Fawad.

“The Kapoors welcomed their Peshawari friends and my father was happy that the Kapoors had not forgotten their childhood friends and their love for Peshawar,” said Fawad.

Yaqoob Khan, a milkman, studied with Raj Kapoor in a primary school and later Kapoor got admission to Khalsa Dharam School at Khyber Bazar in the higher grade.

Yaqoob said the Kapoor’s love for Peshawar and Hindko language could be seen from the fact that Shami Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, another Peshawar resident, co-starred in a film and spoke Hindko in a Hindi film.

Shashi Kapoor, Raj’s brother and sons Randher and Rishi Kapoor visited their house in Dhaki Munawar Shah in the 1990s. The house of the legendary Kapoors at Dhaki Munawar Shah is still identified as Kapoors’ House where Prithvi Raj Kapoor used to live with his family. In the 1930s, Prithvi went to Bombay and started his acting career and was followed by his son Raj Kapoor. After Independence, the Kapoors’ house was acquired by a jeweller Haji Khushal Rasool under the settlement clause and now, some Bengali nationals, who prepare school bags, have rented the house, Yaqoob added.

The present owner of the house, Haji Muhammad Israr Saraf, when contacted, said that he wanted to set up a small hospital in the house to provide free medial treatment to the poor which would be a tribute to the Kapoors if their house was used for a noble cause. —APP

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