'Mastana Shammi' to celebrate Shammi Kapoor's zest for life

To relive the golden era of Bollywood and to showcase legendary actor Shammi Kapoor's zest for acting, a four-day film festival titled "Mastana Shammi" will be telecast starting Monday.

The initiative by Hindi movie channel Zee Classic is to entertain viewers by showing four of Shammi Kapoor's classic hits -- "Andaz", "Brahmachari", "Prince" and "Professor".

The star, often referred to as the Indian Elvis Presley by fans, died Aug 14, 2011 due to chronic renal failure.

"I'm glad that they have taken this initiative to showcase Shammi-ji's classical hits. It will be a perfect time for the audience to relive his great era. All the four films deliver different attributes of his personality," the veteran's son Aditya Raj Kapoor told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

"In 'Professor' and 'Brahmachari', he put stage-acting into work. Although he was young at that time, he played an old man in 'Professor'. In 'Andaz', he played the role of a widower, which was unlike his real life as he was just married at that time when the movie was being produced.

"All these films have been part of his life and have been very close to his heart," Aditya added.

As part of "Mastana Shammi", "Andaz" will be aired Monday followed by "Brahmachari" on Tuesday then "Prince" and finally "Professor".