{"id":5806,"date":"2020-08-05T10:14:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T04:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=5806"},"modified":"2024-12-13T13:20:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T07:50:41","slug":"from-awara-to-shree-420-relevance-of-raj-kapoors-post-independence-cinema-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/from-awara-to-shree-420-relevance-of-raj-kapoors-post-independence-cinema-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"From\u00a0Awara\u00a0to\u00a0Shree 420\u00a0\u2013 Relevance of Raj Kapoor\u2019s Post-Independence\u00a0Cinema in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"migrant

Migrant Labourers – the forgotten masses (Pic: Google Image Search)<\/p><\/div>\n

The current COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has impacted all sections of\u00a0the pan-Indian population certainly, but perhaps the worst affected were\u00a0the migrant labourers \u2013 stranded far away from home, exemplifying a humanitarian\u00a0crisis. We, from the safety of our homes and upper-middle class privileges, saw their tragedy unfold\u00a0across newsprint and digital pages \u2013 and sighed at a crisis that seemed unknown and unheard of to\u00a0us.\u00a0However, the plight of migrant labourers, though worsened greatly by the lockdown, has\u00a0existed since the early years of Post-Independence India \u2013 when the Partition as well as the\u00a0economic upheaval caused by the departure of the British forced many out of their homelands to\u00a0cosmopolitan cities for work \u2013 the tragedy has continued, undeterred, ever since.<\/p>\n

Art and cinema\u00a0have always held the mirror of candour to society \u2013 and the crisis of migrant labourers is no\u00a0exception. From Bimal Roy\u2019s\u00a0Do Bigha Zameen<\/em>\u00a0in 1953 to Muzaffar Ali\u2019s melancholic\u00a0Gaman<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a01978 and later Sai Paranjape\u2019s\u00a0Disha\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 myriad explorations of the plight of migrant labourers have\u00a0illustrated the arthouse celluloid. One filmmaker who brought the plight of migrant labourers\u00a0onto the popular commercial cinema and spun tales of their misery through quintessential\u00a0Bollywood tropes of song and dance was none other than Raj Kapoor,\u00a0the master showman.<\/p>\n

\"shashi

Childhood in drudgery – Awara (1951) – a reality for children of labourers even today<\/p><\/div>\n

Raj Kapoor\u2019s directorial debut\u00a0Awara\u00a0<\/em>(1951) is in itself a poignant portrayal of the migrant\u00a0labour crisis. The film portrays the protagonist\u2019s mother, played by Leela Chitnis, being forced to\u00a0migrate to Post-Independence Bombay after she is abandoned by her husband, in search of work\u00a0along with her infant son. Leela and her son struggle to earn a bare living, with the young boy\u00a0working at odd jobs like \u2018shoe polishing\u2019 to sustain his education. However, the want for scarce food\u00a0and the lack of empathy of the metropolis slowly drives young Raj into the criminal underbelly of the\u00a0city \u2013 with the scene in jail, featuring Raj laughing at the ‘roti’ he is given to eat (a reference to a prior\u00a0scene, when Raj is convicted as a thief for trying to steal a ‘roti’ for his ailing mother), and the\u00a0dialogue “Agar yeh roti bahar mil jaati toh andar\u00a0ana\u00a0hi nahi parta”<\/em> taking a scathing look at the\u00a0plight of migrant labourers in post-Independence India, and perhaps even today.<\/p>\n

\"shri

Portraying the migration to metropolis – Shree 420 (1955)<\/p><\/div>\n

Shree 420<\/em>\u00a0(1955), arguably the best of Raj Kapoor\u2019s works, is also a bittersweet look at the\u00a0life of migrant labourers. Five minutes into the film, Raj Kapoor is singing Mera joota hai Japani<\/em>\u00a0as he\u00a0travels from his home in Allahabad to the city of Bombay in search of work \u2013 and finds place in the\u00a0decrepit ‘chawls’ of the metropolis. However, in economically devastated post-Independence India,\u00a0honest work is hard to come by and a political nexus exists to deviate young men into criminal trades. Raj becomes a con man under the influence of this political nexus, and abandons his migrant\u00a0identity for a life of riches.<\/p>\n

\"raj

Returning from the urban to the migrant identity in Ramaiyya vastavaiyya – the non-local redemption song – Shree 420<\/p><\/div>\n

However, the migrant identity is embraced again through Raj\u2019s\u00a0redemption arc \u2013 which begins with the cinematic Ramaiyya vastavaiyya<\/em> song, the title\u2019s\u00a0Telugu\u00a0phrase existing as a nod to various non-local cultures that exist within the umbrella of the\u00a0cosmopolitan Bombay. The song in itself sees him embrace the migrant identity of the non-city\u00a0culture, joining in the rustic\u00a0Telegu\u00a0song as opposed to the urban glittering Mud mud ke na dekh<\/em> which symbolised the seduction of city life for the migrants.<\/p>\n

\"nadira

The glitz and seduction of the city – Nadira in Shree 420<\/p><\/div>\n

Raj Kapoor\u2019s cinema is a political statement unto itself \u2013 with its socialist and reformist\u00a0themes. The films blended with the pro-Soviet outlook of the Nehru government, ambivalent\u00a0despite the official proclamation of Non-alignment Movement and were also released in the USSR,\u00a0earning immense popularity there. Both Raj Kapoor and Nargis and their brand of realistic yet\u00a0commercial Indian cinema became a global phenomenon in the Second World.<\/p>\n

Raj Kapoor\u2019s cinema is a milestone in the history of celluloid, certainly. However, even close\u00a0to 70 years after their making, the films remain relevant, some of the scenes are a reality across\u00a0the nation even to this date. That is an immeasurable success for a filmmaker and artist for sure \u2013\u00a0but probably, an unfathomable failure for a nation and its rulers.<\/p>\n

More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nargis and Raj Kapoor \u2013 Redefining Dreams, Aspirations and Romance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Traversing the Two Worlds of Mainstream and Art: Shashi Kapoor\u2019s Unexampled Journey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shammi Kapoor: The Charisma of the Original Dancing Hero<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Prithviraj Kapoor \u2013 The Icon of Hindi Cinema<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2020, India witnessed the abominable suffering of migrant labourers during the COVID-19 pandemic. High School student Swechcha Dhara Dasgupta remembers the films of Raj Kapoor and wonders how relevant they are even today in portraying the plight of the migrant labourers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":5814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2593],"tags":[1048,1051,1049,1047,1050],"class_list":["post-5806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","category-raj-kapoor-centenary","tag-nargis-and-raj-kapoor","tag-nargis-and-raj-kapoor-movies","tag-nargis-raj-kapoor","tag-raj-kapoor","tag-raj-kapoor-nargis"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9330,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions\/9330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}