Kashmir`s brand ambassador is no more; mourn Shammi`s fans

Srinagar: The eternal Bollywood romanticist Shammi Kapoor had a cherished tryst which he will never be able to keep.

The `Yahoo` boy as he was popularly known here, was scheduled to visit Kashmir next month -- a locale which he made famous in the length and breadth of India through his movies -- to stay at a hotel where he started his romance with the Valley during the shooting of `Kashmir Ki Kali`. But to the disappointment of his fans here, the actor will never make that trip and his death was deeply mourned by a dedicated group of Shammi fans. As the news of the actor`s death flashed across the country, the social networking sites in Kashmir saw postings by his fans and even brief obituaries in remembrance. "My nostalgia milestone, who divided my life into two halves of before and after --- Shammi Kapoor --- left us," read a message by fan of the actor on Facebook. Another Kashmiri posted a Youtube link of Shammi Kapoor`s song `Aay Gulbadan` and wrote, "In a vague sense, Shammi Kapoor embodied the true spirit of Kashmir". For Syed Muzaffar, a Srinagar resident, Shammi Kapoor was a rage during his teenage years. He remembers an incident when he camped outside a cinema for a week to get a ticket for the first show of a Shammi Kapoor film. Today, he said, he will miss the actor and he is confident that he would not be alone in missing the man – who infused the image of romance and joy with the mountains and waters of the valley. Some of the most memorable songs and sequences of Shammi Kapoor -- which will be hummed again and again in the Valley -- like `Deewana Hua Badal` and `Tareef Karun Kya Uski Jisne Tumhe Banaya`, were shot in the Valley. Be it Kashmir`s Dal Lake, the fabled Mughal Gardens or scenic resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, Shammi Kapoor made all these household names in India. And tweets acknowledged that Shammi Kapoor was Kashmir`s best brand ambassador. PTI