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Early Films, and Raj Kapoor’s Best—with Nargis

January 7, 2025 | By

Excerpted with permission from Director’s Chair – Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age by Manek Premchand, published by Blue Pencil in January 2024.

Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Awara

Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Awara

Early films, and Raj Kapoor’s Best—with Nargis

Aag (1948) is the story of an aspiring stage actor who at different times is dumped by two girls, only to find a third girl in love with him, instead of  with his buddy, the financier of his play. In a desperate act that seeks for this third girl to forget about him, he attempts to make a sacrifice by torching his own face. The collateral damage is that the stage and the entire production company go up in flames. Raj played the role of the dumped lover and accidental arsonist, while Premnath played the role of his financial partner in the stage project. The film did an average run at the box office.

Interestingly, all three women in Aag (Nargis, Kamini Kaushal, and Nigar Sultana) were nicknamed Nimmi in the story. Kapoor seemed to be so fixated on that name that for his next film Barsaat (1949), he signed up a pretty girl named Nawab Banoo and introduced her to films as Nimmi. The movie was a huge success. In the story, two buddies, quite diametrically opposite in many ways, go to Kashmir where they meet two girls and romance them. One of the men (Raj) remains faithful to his girl (Nargis), while the other, a Casanova type (Premnath), asks his girlfriend (Nimmi) to wait for him till the rains come. She waits and waits, but the Lothario takes all the time in the world. When he does begin to get pangs of conscience, he sets off to meet his girl, only to find her dead. He lights her pyre as the rains come.

Raj Kapoor Nargis in ghar aya mera pardesi (Awara)

Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Ghar aya mera pardesi (Awara)

Awara (1951) was a hit too. It was the first film to be shot at RK Studios, with the first take being for the long song, Tere bina aag ye chaandni…ghar aaya mera pardesi. Incidentally, this was not the first dream-sequence song in Indian films, as is generally believed. A year earlier, director Fali Mistry had filmed a dream sequence wonderfully, and it was on the same Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Jan Pehchaan (1950), the song being Armaan bhare dil ki lagan tere liye hai. But the effect of watching the Awara song was reported to be electric, especially at Liberty, Bombay’s smart new cinema at Marine Lines, where it premiered. Blending the genres of romantic comedy and crime, it’s the tale of a district court judge (Prithviraj) who deeply believes in the role of heredity—as against the influence of the environment—in shaping character. In other words, he believes that criminals are born to criminals, not engineered by society or circumstances. But his own estranged wife (Leela Chitnis), whom he has thrown out on ill-conceived grounds of infidelity, delivers a boy who grows up to become a thief (Raj). This thief falls in love with a lawyer (Nargis). When he kills someone in self-defence, his girlfriend fights his case in court, in front of the same judge, i.e., the accused man’s father. Kapoor’s Chaplinesque character, the expressive eyes of Nargis, the ethereal music score, and the tight screenplay, all contributed to the film’s phenomenal success. Kapoor also delivered a message here: criminals don’t come blueprinted by their genes; it’s their environment that creates them.

Awara was a sensational hit abroad as well, especially in the Soviet Union, and its lead players Raj and Nargis became icons in that country, almost on par with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Nargis and Raj were now enjoyed not only in Awara, but in their older films Aag, Barsaat, and Mehboob Khan’s Andaz. Awara paved the way for Kapoor’s own films but also for films made by others, to be screened in USSR, as also in many West European countries, especially Greece. In Turkey, which sits in both Asia and Europe, the film was a sensation, in time spawning as many as 8 remakes. For Kapoor, a wider audience meant you were not putting all your eggs in one basket. After Awara, the actor-director was on a roll.

Kapoor’s production Aah (1953) was directed by Raja Nawathe but it didn’t do well. The story was about two sisters (Vijaylaxmi and Nargis), with one of whom (Nargis) the hero (Raj) falls in love through letters intended actually for Vijaylaxmi. Then he gets affected by TB, so to free Nargis from the relationship, he pretends to be in love with her sister. He even suggests that she marry his friend who is a doctor (Pran). But Nargis discovers the truth and accepts him as he is. He also gets cured of TB.

Kapoor’s next production, Boot Polish (1954), was directed by Prakash Arora. That did so-so in India, but it achieved much fame in the USA where it was renamed One Cent. The film, based on orphaned children who are inspired to live with dignity was made as a consequence of Pandit Nehru’s request to filmmakers to offer something for children. Raj had only a fleeting, cameo appearance in the film.

Shree 420 (1955), Kapoor’s most socially-impactful film

Shree 420 poster

The film, a revered classic, tells the story of a Chaplinesque simpleton named Raj (played by Raj Kapoor) who has a degree and a medal of honesty from a village, and who comes to Bombay to find work. He meets with some poor pavement dwellers who take to him, so he begins living with them. He meets with Vidya (Nargis), a schoolteacher, and the two fall in love. But he gets seduced by a sultry temptress named Maya (Nadira) who helps him turn into a master fraudster. Hence the title Shree 420, i.e., a gentleman swindler. His conversion to criminal ways turns off the honest, values-driven Vidya. So, finally, Raj turns into an honest person again.

The film had timeless music and the message that crime doesn’t pay.

By 1956, Kapoor had acted with Nargis in 16 films, the most he acted with anyone. Ten of these films were outside the RK banner, and all sixteen are listed later in this story. That brings us to Jagte Raho (1956), the sunset film of the work Raj and Nargis did together, the film ironically ending with a scene of sunrise.

Not only was this the swan song of films that had starred Nargis and Raj together, but the lady appeared only in a cameo role here, at the very end of the film, for the song Jaago Mohan pyaare. In the final moments of the song, Nargis was seen pouring out water from her metal pot into the thirsty Raj’s cupped palms, as the camera dollied out to show the rising sun’s rays coming upon this unforgettable scene which also ended the film. This climactic sequence is a wonderful illustration of how the confluence of music, thematic excellence, facial close-ups, and the time of day can create one of cinema’s greatest denouements.

Nargis in a cameo in Jaagte Raho

Nargis in a cameo in Jagte Raho

In 1957, Jagte Raho won the Crystal Globe award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in what is now the Czech Republic. Interestingly, the film hadn’t done well in India, but after it won such critical fame abroad, Indians started “borrowing the glasses” worn by Westerners to endorse the film as a classic.

Perhaps we would need glasses too, to check and recheck if it was true that Nargis’s name was not even mentioned in Jagte Raho’s credits. That is a reflection of just how far apart Nargis and Raj had become in their personal chemistry by now. That is why when she did walk away from his life and cinema after quenching his thirst for water in the film’s final scene, Kapoor was left thirsty for love in real life, but that’s another story. We won’t go too much into his affairs here—this and some later ones—but we do know that Raj was driven by the heart. He almost never subscribed to cool analysis and balanced logic. He got charged by emotions, passion, and feelings—matters that dominated his persona—and these in turn influenced his cinema.

Says film journalist and author Bunny Reuben, “Somebody once quipped that it was Raj Kapoor who invented love on the Indian screen. There is a great deal of truth in this. What Raj Kapoor actually achieved when he first stormed the gates of Follywood in the late forties was this: he kicked open the gates of prudery and let in a great gush of fresh air which vitalised the art and technique of film-making in general and the art of filming the love scene in particular, both of which had for years suffered from an overdose of dialogue.”

After Jagte Raho, as Kapoor was licking his wounds, his next production hitting the screens was Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957), which was directed by Amar Kumar. A middle-class man Hariram (Motilal) who has borrowed money to sustain his wife (Sulochana Latkar) and son Rattan (Master Romi) gets devastated when his wife dies as a consequence of snakebite.

Hariram takes to the bottle and is unable to repay his loan. The loan shark beats up his son, so Hariram threatens to kill the violent moneylender. When the moneylender is actually found dead, Hariram is framed for the murder. The title, Ab Dilli Dur Nahin, has to do with the boy’s journey to Delhi in his desire to meet with Pandit Nehru who he hopes will help free his innocent father.

—xxx—

He teamed up with Nargis in 16 films, the most he acted with anyone:

  • Aag (1948)
  • Andaz (1949)
  • Barsaat (1949)
  • Pyaar (1950)
  • Jan Pehchan (1950)
  • Awara (1951)
  • Amber (1952)
  • Anhonee (1952)
  • Ashiana (1952)
  • Bewafa (1952)
  • Aah (1953)
  • Paapi (1953)
  • Dhoon (1953)
  • Shree 420 (1955)
  • Chori Chori (1956)
  • Jagte Raho (1956) (with Nargis in a cameo appearance)
Directors Chair Hindi Cinema's Golden Age book

Director’s Chair – Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR — Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age

Genre : Non-Fiction/Cinema
Binding : Paperback (6.14″ x 9.25″)
Pages : 572 pages
Published : January 2024
ISBN : 978-81-956660-8-9
Available on: Amazon | Flipkart | Blue Pencil, Kunzum Books, UN Dhur and other bookstores
Read Director’s Chair – Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age: In Conversation with Manek Premchand

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Creative Writing

Whether you are new or veteran, you are important. Please contribute with your articles on cinema, we are looking forward for an association. Send your writings to amitava@silhouette-magazine.com

Manek Premchand has a diploma in Journalism and a degree in Arts from Bombay University. He has many friends in the film industry and remains fascinated by the enormous role that Hindi cinema's music has played as a key bonding medium in a country as disparate as ours. This fascination has motivated him to write several books on the subject. These are: Yesterday’s Melodies, Today’s Memories, Musical Moments From Hindi Films, Romancing The Song, Shiv Kumar Sharma, The Man and His Music (co-authored with two others), Talat Mahmood—The Velvet Voice, Hitting The Right Notes, The Hindi Music Jukebox, The Unforgettable Music of Hemant Kumar, Majrooh Sultanpuri: The Poet For All Reasons, DIRECTOR’S CHAIR — Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age and And the Music Lives On. Besides these, he has written hundreds of music-related articles for a variety of newspapers. He has also been a consultant with Saregama India Ltd. and a show host on many radio platforms including WorldSpace Satellite Radio. He also teaches elements of Broadcasting to post-graduate students at Xavier Institute of Communications, a part of Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He is currently an adviser to Manipal University Press.
All Posts of Manek Premchand

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