India, Dec. 13 -- These may be our final tributes to him for a while.

Raj Kapoor would have been 101 today. This marks the end of a widely celebrated centenary year. In addition to coverage across newspapers and online, there have been tributes such as Netflix's Dining with the Kapoors, which was a pleasant watch, though it barely skimmed the surface of his persona.

It didn't dwell very much, for instance, on the stories around the showman that are legion: his passion for the perfect shot, his obsession with his heroines, his love of food and whisky. My favourite stories about him include the one of his first meeting with Nargis.

"A fat blue-eyed pinkie" had come to her house, she told a friend. Then, while shooting Aag (1948), his dir...