Though no great shakes as a dancer he manages to put up an entertaining show with Mumtaz for company in the Lord Shiva-influenced ‘Jai jai Shiv Shankar’ from Aap Ki Kasam (1974). In Kati Patang (1971), he serenades his childhood friend’s widow (Asha Parekh) on the piano with ‘Pyaar deewana hota hai.’ In Amar Prem (1972), merely minutes after delivering the famous ‘I hate tears, Pushpa’ line, he takes the courtesan (Sharmila Tagore) on a boat outing, which becomes the setting for ‘Chingari koi bhadke.’ In Bawarchi (1972), which was Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s personal favourite OST, his flawless classical rendition of ‘Hum bin jeevan’ is met with puzzled looks, especially by the aspiring in-house music director (played by Asrani) even as the daydreaming Jaya Bachchan’s imagination gives the song its doleful visuals. In much of the movie, she plays Khanna’s mother trying to hide her identity and living more in shame than guilt. In the film, he makes his screen entry singing ‘Mere sapno ki rani’ in an open jeep while Sharmila Tagore, around whose gritty character the plot revolves, is seen traveling in a toy train, cradling a book. One of his own dialogues from Daag (1973) encapsulates the ups and downs of his euphoric life (he later reprised this verse on stage, with knowing slyness and irony and for all you know, intended to serve as a reminder of the ephemerality and uncertainty of stardom to much of the film industry in attendance), “ Izzatein, shohratein, ulfatein, chahatein, sab kuch iss duniya mein rehta nahin/ Aaj main hun jahan kal koi aur tha/ Ye bhi ek daur hai woh bhi ek daur tha.” Imprisoned by his own myth in some ways, Kaka’s downfall was equally swift. Yet, nothing lasts forever, least of all fame.
There were stars before, but none quite like Khanna - both screenwriter Salim Khan and co-star Sharmila Tagore vouch for this fact in two different books on the star fondly known as Kaka. Thus, ‘ Bollywood’s first superstar‘ tag was born to suit his godly status. The refrain, one imagines, easily echoes ‘the Rajesh Khanna craze’ back in the 1970s decade when the original King of Romance (sorry, SRK) was at his peak and inspired such devotion among Hindi audiences that a new term had to be invented to define his unprecedented stardom. He’s my world.” These obsessive words belong to the super-fan Gaurav (Shah Rukh Khan) of Fan (2016) as he stares at his bedroom wall peppered with pictures and memorabilia of his movie idol Aryan Khanna (also, Shah Rukh Khan).
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