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Bombay's ace gossip columnist, Devyani Chaubal, writes onRaj Kapoor's leading ladies:

The massive Lord Shiva in chalk white plaster, atop R.K. Studios, has heavy busts. Down below in the dressing rooms of the studio, designers are busy stuffing leading ladies' bras with cotton wool, rubber and foam. For Raj Kapoor's leading ladies, two things are a must: They must have heavy busts and they must be in love with Raj Kapoor. Vyjanthimala had small busts so they were covered with foam, Zeenat Aman is not in love with Raj Kapoor, so she pretends to be.

Kapoor was already married when he made his first film Aagwith three leading ladies - Kamini Kaushal, Nigar Sultana, Nargis. Out of the passion and flames of Aag, Kapoor gathered Nargis in his arms and hoisted her high on the R.K. banner. With violin in one hand and Nargis in the other he became the symbol of true love.

After Barsaat, Awara, Shri 420 and Jagte Raho, the pair became the Indian screen's most immortal love legend. The Indians were passionately discussing the Raj-Nargis ishk kahani. The Russians, on the other hand, sincerely believed that Kapoor and Nargis were husband and wife, until he received a happy wedding anniversary telegram from his wife, Krishna, during one of his visits to Moscow.

In fact, it was in the land of vodka and the Volga that the Raj-Nargis myth was blown out. It was in Moscow that Nargis felt that Raj had taken her for granted and that he was watching Padmini with unusual curiosity. Nargis married Sunil Dutt, left films and never again spoke to Kapoor. Today, she prefers to call him "that horrible man".

Nargis, daughter of a singing woman, had honest, almond eyes. She was tall and slim. She attended Queen Mary School in Bombay, and spoke fluent English. The English bit has always impressed Kapoor. The other day while watching an old RK film, he told Zeenat: "Don't think you are the only convent-educated girl. Thirty years ago, I had a leading lady who wore jeans, spoke English and used French perfume." In fact, all his leading ladies - Nargis, Padmini, Vyjanthi, Simi, Dimple and Zeenat - speak English and have impeccable manners.

The tongues wagged much after Nargis left Kapoor. People predicted his doom. The emotional let-down suited him so well that Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai was a bigger hit. Padmini, compared to Nargis, was short, top-heavy and coarse with a froggy voice. But she was the new sex-symbol of R.K. Once more there were rumours of another romance. One day Padmini declared her marriage to a doctor and left. She quit films to settle in the US.

Then came the last flame of R.K. banner, Vyjanthimala. She had made jubilee hits with both Dilip Kumar and Rajendra Kumar. The orthodox, puritan, vegetarian and over-confident Vyjanthi was swept off her feet by Raj. The affair that spanned Europe with stopovers in the Alps, almost seemed a remake of the original Raj-Nargis love story.

Raj who liked his women with shampooed hair and Worth perfume, tolerated Vyjanthi's Ramtirth Bramhi-oiled braid, and her peculiar herbal body smell. Vyjanthi, the Iyengar Brahmin, in turn accepted his lips reeking of whisky and masala murgi. The remake looked so real that Krishna, who had passed off Padmini as a harmless cow, took refuge in hotels and hospitals.

Kapoor is an exhibitionist and cannot keep anything to himself. He likes to be seen with his women, in a darbar full of people. Little did he realize that his dearest friend, Dr Bali, watched the women at the darbar with interest. While he was in London to process Sangam, he entrusted Vyjanthi to Dr Bali. The doctor, apart from being charming and well-dressed, was a trainee in the R.K. Studios.

He grew fond of Vyjanthi and she responded. It turned out to be sangam in reality with Kapoor singing Dost Dost Na Raha.However I think that it is Dr Bali whom Kapoor misses more than Vyjanthi. To this day Vyjanthi has not spoken to Kapoor. She refers to him as "that old fool". Both Nargis and Vyjanthi survive in his memory through their portraits in his cottage.

Simi, who followed Vyjanthi, in Mera Naam Joker, never made it to the wall. She was the clinging type and too smooth. One day like his other leading ladies, she too got married. But her fatal mistake was to hang around. Today, the R.K. camp, forgets even to include her on Kapoor's birthday party list despite her telephone inquiries about the party.

By the time Dimple became R.K.'s leading lady, Kapoor had surrendered his image as a romantic hero to his son Chintu.

There is another characteristic about all his leading ladies. They may curse and condemn him, but they all jump into a barren valley of frustration after him. For them he is the ultimate. After him there is no other love or profession. Just mundane things like respectability, marriage, security. Therein lies the secret of Kapoor's charm.

He is, for them, an experience and fantasy. The stars want to be part of that fantasy. So when a Zeenat Aman, dressed in ragged clothes, broke into Kapoor's cottage and touched his feet to ask for a role in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, it inspired her rivals like Vidya Sinha to say: "Who cares for Raj Kapoor."

Even little known starlets like Nivedita, on the R.K. payroll for seven years waiting for a suitable role that she never got, or Neetu Singh, again on the payroll waiting for a role in Bobby, which Dimple bagged, do not regret the long wait on the brink of fantasy. And Kapoor knows this. That is one reason why he never makes an exclusive contract with any of his leading ladies. He feels that he may change his mind before the women.

He enjoys every bit of his love life simply merely because a woman is part of his only passion-the films. He enjoys the union. He enjoys the separation and the walkouts. His image as the jilted lover is eternal.