Readers Write In #657: The reflection of Rishi Kapoor in the Ranbir Daddy Universe

By Kakoli Bhattacharya

On January 1, 2021, the announcement video for Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s film Animal came out. A glimpse of Ranvijay Balbir Singh, who we later saw in the film, distraught with love and anguish towards his emotionally unavailable father was provided by Ranbir Kapoor’s monologue in the video, which was paired with a goosebump-inducing background score. But eventually, it might seem as though he was talking to his late father Rishi Kapoor about his own feelings. 

Kapoor till now was mostly seen in his films as a man-child who matures under the influence of his ladylove; as well as a heartbroken lover who channelises his pain into his art. It is after Animal only that we can see the father-son tension trope, aka, Ranbir Daddy Universe in his films which is linked to his personal life. 

Critics are forbidden to look at an actor’s personal life in order to analyse their cinematic work. However, Kapoor was right when he stated in his father’s autobiography that, “They (actors) have a reserve bank of emotions because they need that to portray emotions on screen.” In the foreword of his father’s autobiography, Khullam Khulla Rishi Kapoor Uncensored, written with Meena Iyer, he writes: “As far as my personal relationship with him goes, well, it is one of complete reverence. I am closer to my mother. I feel that Dad modelled his relationship with me on the one he shared with his own father. And it is true that I have never crossed a certain line with him ….. I do wish sometimes that I could be friendlier with him or even spend more time with him. I don’t want my relationship with my children to be as formal as the one I have with my father. I want to be friendlier, more connected, and spend more time with them than he did with me.”

Kapoor appeared to use his angst as a son to embody the characters, where the complex father-son relationships in films Wake Up Sid, Jagga Jasoos, Sanju, Tamasha, and Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani were centred around them. In Wake Up Sid, Kapoor’s attempts to emerge from his father’s shadow and transcend the label of star kid are analogous to Sid’s existential journey of having to prove himself to his father. The climax, where Sid tells his father about his love for photography and how he got the skill from him, appears to be a heartfelt thank-you from Kapoor to his own father for giving him his acting talent.

In Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani, Bunny’s suffers from guilt for his detachment to his father in his last days which can be seen as Ranbir’s disappointment in developing a bond with his father. During the promotion of Sanju, Kapoor often said that he can relate his relationship with his dad to that of Sunil Dutt and Sanjay Dutt. Both constantly felt the pressure of comparison from their famous fathers, while the fathers wished to have media attention on their son’s work than their personal life.

Like in literature, in cinema, individuals try to portray their strained relationships in art form, signalling their discomfiture and sometimes rage or, at times, plain withdrawal. The Ranbir Daddy universe relates to all because everywhere there are father-sons who are dealing with the dichotomy of striking a bond and respecting their unsaid boundaries.