Raj Kapoor’s personal and public expression to be one and Nehruvist era cinematic images
When Raj Kapoor died in 1988, Editor Prabhash Joshi wrote an article in Jansatta newspaper, which was titled, “Sab Humsafar, dream merchants.” Prabhash ji wrote something that when he was employed in a village on Shipra on the banks of Shipra, Sunwani Mahakal, after being impressed by the Sarvodaya ideal of village Swaraj, he used to hum the song “He in the morning” in the morning, while going to Shipra to take a bath. That article was the story of Raj Kapoor’s relationship with his youth idealism, the expectations of those days after independence and disillusionment. Also, despite all the failures, the round and those ideals were so valuable, whose cultural symbol was Prabhash ji and Raj Kapoor for his generation.
Raj Kapoor with Vaijantimala in a scene of Sangam
Prabhash ji soon left the village and started doing journalism in Indore and there is no need to tell his unique tenure and contribution in journalism, but Prabhash ji always remained a guilt for the fact that he abandoned the difficult life of a social worker and accepted a relatively convenient life of journalism. This guilt is reflected again and again in his writing. Raj Kapoor also had an article- “Come to Haribhajan, Onton Lage Cotton” He often repeated in writing and statement. He tried throughout his life to be a worker even while doing journalism.
It is difficult to agree with Prabhash ji’s idea when thinking neutrally. Prabhash ji’s contribution to journalism is very big. He has enriched it so much that his journalism is important for society. It seems that perhaps he had adopted the right path. It is true that there are many failures of generations of independence. Those people did not live up to the criteria which was a demand for their time and history, but it is also true that the failures of Gandhi and Nehru were also more meaningful than the successes of today. She did not come in the morning, which is mentioned in the song written by Sahir Ludhianvi which was filmed on Raj Kapoor, but that search was not meaningless. If he is doubted, then that responsibility is from our today.
Nargis-Raj pair
When India became independent, it was not just political freedom because our freedom struggle was not just a fight for political freedom. The discovery of Indianness connecting a generous, inclusive, secular tradition and modernity was the basic element of the freedom struggle. Therefore, this struggle is seen in all areas of society and culture. It was not just a coincidence that a different type of cinema was also born with independence, whose representatives were Raj Kapoor. It is also a meaningful coincidence that many heroes of changes in cinema were born with a difference of two years. Along with Raj Kapoor, Shailendra, Shankar (Jaikishan), Sahir Ludhianvi, Mukesh, Mohammad Rafi, Talat Mahmood, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand were all almost Hummru, who changed the form of cinema. There are no women in this list, they came after some time.
Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar were the biggest heroes of this new era. If we look at the film characters of these people, then we can know that he was the representative hero of India of Nehru era. We can say that the mixed character of these three heroes represents Nehru and his era. The generosity of the Nehru era, the revolt from the stereotypes, but the honor of the tradition and the honor, the privacy of the person with social consciousness and the honor of autonomy are seen in the character of these heroes. Among them were political and socially the most vocal Raj Kapoor whose films show social commitment and a little tilt towards the left. Probably because Raj Kapoor’s training was done in Prithvi Theater. Prithvi Theater was a medium for Prithviraj Kapoor, not business, social commitment and connecting with people. A deep social concern is seen in plays like Pathan, farmer, sacrifice, traitor. Many members of Raj Kapoor’s team were with him from the era of Prithvi Theater.
Raj Kapoor of Dilip Kumar
Khwaja Ahmed Abbas was a permanent writer of Raj Kapoor’s films till his death. Lyricist Shailendra was the favorite of Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor used to call him Kaviraj and Pushkin. The late friend Rajkumar Keswani used to say that Shailendra Raj Kapoor’s team’s “Resident Interactive” was. Shailendra was inspired by the leftist ideology, came from IPTA and used to give speeches on the politics of the country and the world besides writing songs. Raj Kapoor was not very special to read and write. The people of his team were not very well-known, but all the people were not able to read, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not very well-known, but they were not able to read and write, but they were not able to read and see their arts. And respected understanding.
How Raj Kapoor tested Shailendra and made part of his team, this story has been told many times. Shailendra considered himself a political activist and did not want to come into the colorful world of films. Raj Kapoor celebrated him with respect and patience. It seems that there was always a guilt in Shailendra that he came to films from the labor movement and the world of IPTA. Apart from the films, whatever songs and poems he wrote is revolutionary, but the height of his film songs touching poetry is excellent.
Awara was a milestone in the history of Hindi films. The film gave Raj Kapoor recognized not in the country, not in the country. ‘Awara Hoon’ is perhaps the most famous Indian song in the world. Talat Mahmud was interviewed by us, in which he narrated an interesting anecdote. When the then Chinese Prime Minister Chow N Lai visited India, a program was organized in his honor. Talat Mahmood had to sing in it. When Talat sang some songs, Chow N Lai requested that he had to listen to ‘Awara Hoon’. Talat Mahmood said that it is not my song, it belongs to Mukesh. Nehruji said, the will of foreign guest will have to be respected. Then Talat Mahmud sang ‘Awara Hoon’. Where he did not remember the words, he worked by adding something to his mind.
Rajendra Kumar-Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor’s team became almost complete from Awara, which was scattered in 1967 with the death of Shailendra and Jaikishan in 1971. All the members of this team were very virtuous, where Raj Kapoor erected a different mood cinema. Shankar Jaikishan changed the style of film music. Even before him, talented musicians like Naushad, Khemchandra Prakash, Anil Biswas were doing creative experiments with singing and orchestra, but the music of young Shankar Jaikishan in the rain made music for the coming decades. In a few years, Shankar Jaikishan reached the peak of popularity where he used to take more remuneration than any big hero. If a producer had signed him for his film, the distributors would only be ready to invest money in the film on this basis, no matter what the hero-heroine.
Raj Kapoor was different from the rest of his era, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand in the sense that he used to produce his own films from the beginning and also directed himself. He was not just a hero, a filmmaker and used to pour himself completely in every film. Every film of his was his very personal expression. His personal happiness, sorrow, raga, attachment, concern would be expressed in all his films, but they believed that their job is to entertain the common people. There was no difference between his personal and public expression in this sense. Leaving Nehru’s intellectual height, in this sense, he and Raj Kapoor have the same similarity that there was no difference between his personal and public expression. Rajmohan Gandhi has written about Nehru, his public speech is a communication with himself. He had assimilated the people of India so much that there was no difference between his self -prosperity and public address. This is also true about Raj Kapoor. He used to make a film about himself, and he was also a dialogue with the people. The difference was that Nehru was a Jannayak, a serious intellectual person, so there is a restraint and ideology in his self -communication. Raj Kapoor was an emotional artist. There is a lot of self -immolation and self -immolation in his expression. This is very clear in his most self-sufficient film Mera Naam Joker, although he invites his audience in his self-respect and self-immolation and his audience also join it happily.
All the films of Raj Kapoor are a constant moving love story altogether. The chemistry of this love story can be easily seen in his films with Nargis. The films he made after breaking the relationship with Nargis shows the impossible attempt to fill the emptiness due to the breakdown of this relationship. Whatever social concerns he had was also like various aspects of this love. Nargis was the ideal of love for him but Krishna Kapoor was his reality. They could play this duality because they were men, but Nargis could not perform it for eternity. Nargis decided to separate from Raj Kapoor and live with Sunil Dutt.
Raj Kapoor never accepted separation from the ideal of his love. The story of the Sangam film is the story of Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Sunil Dutt’s relationship with Raj Kapoor’s wishful thinking, in which Rajendra Kumar has to do renunciation and finally gets the heroine Raj Kapoor. Sangam Raj Kapoor’s film was very glamorous, in which his social concerns are not seen anywhere. It is also worth noting that the Sangam came in 1964, when Nehru and his ideals were disillusioned.
Another thing is that after separation from Nargis, the fleshy and sensual appearance of the woman’s body is very deep in the films made by Raj Kapoor. As Raj Kapoor filmed Nargis, it was completely different. Nargis looks like a symbol of romance in her films, in which it is secondary. The heroines of later films have more emphasis on body and sexuality. In all later films, he seems to try to take the woman body as a metaphor. This fact also says a lot in itself.
Raj Kapoor remained active for about twenty five years even after that. He kept making films with the same passion and dedication.
This was the period when Amitabh Bachchan’s character was the new hero. This was an angry young man, who was burning with him in anger of injustice done in the past. He had no ideal, he had to take revenge, he had to succeed in any way. It was the hero of a new India, who was challenging the world by standing on the ruins of Nehruwadi ideals. But Raj Kapoor was still making films, with his romantic, emotional, self -respect and self -immolation amidst violence and revenge stories. He was writing his incomplete love story with full faith and passion. Those who have met Raj Kapoor in those days, they say that Raj Kapoor used to wake up watching his old films with Nargis alone every night.
It is not that that era is left only in the old black and white films, otherwise we do not remember them today. There is a lot of valuable in it that shows hope in this stunned time. Shailendra almost finally wrote the song for Raj Kapoor, “Yeh Mera Song, Jeevan Sangeet Kal Koi Repee will repeat”, in the hope that this half reality, half crop remains relevant.
(The author is a senior journalist, poet, satirist, cartoonist)