From Aag to Pushpa, at 100, Raj Kapoor’s lasting legacy

A century on, Kapoor’s films still speak to us, as they reflect social changes challenging class-caste barriers, creating the kind of sweeping drama and characters that were very much of their time, yet, surprisingly, futuristic. in front

Take the Raj of Shree 420, written by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and directed by Kapoor. Raj Kapoor’s version of Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp (which he popularized in the 1951 hit a stray) to which his mannered screen persona fits perfectly; He’s a small town boy, moving, moving, moving to make a life in the big city; He’s a scam, but he revels in his Four hundred and twenty Ways, we know that underneath it all, he’s essentially a good man.

Take the reigns a stray (also an Abbas-Kapoor collaboration), whose “I’m a stray” It was a clarion call for a reckless fellow who dressed his trouser bottoms, bread, pocketed, basically all good young men did, abandoning his innate beauty. After the movie, the word a stray Almost became an endearing epithet for a young man who scatters his oats, and returns to his one true love.

Take Hiraman of 1966 third oath, Directed by Basu Bhattacharya, it cast Kapoor as a rural simpleton whose romance with Hirabai (a voluptuous Waheeda Rahman) enrages Amitabh Bachchan’s small-town Sharpie years before the humble Pan. Dawn (1978) did.

And also take Raj Ranveer aka Raju My name is Joker (1970) who pours his heart and soul into a depressed circus performer shaped by his relationships with three women he encounters at different stages of his life. It was one of the longest films made at the time, which left the audience cold. It was a failure that deeply affected Kapoor, who then turned his attention to youth stories. His 1973 BobbyHis son Rishi (who had a small part my name is joker) And then the unknown Dimple Kapadia, became a huge hit, turning both the young leads into overnight sensations.

More than his acting works, though, Kapoor’s legendary production slate became the cornerstone for the nascent film industry that flourished and grew in Bombay under his banner RK Films. He established it all the way back in 1948 oh, In which he acted with Nargis, Premnath and Kamini Kaushal. Anyone who has seen that iconic image of Raj-Nargis lost in each other’s eyes – part of the film’s poster – will know that the two meet when they get together.

Kapoor, rightly called Hindi cinema’s greatest showman, knew the power of the moving image, and he bowed to no one when it came to training a gaze on the female body, which he called venerable. Prurins, pshaw, and so what if its leading lady Zeenat Aman, reveling in her new-found fame as the queen of Instagram, can be seen in all her beauty in 1978. Satyam Shivam Sundaram.

He was one of the first Indian filmmakers who fully understood all aspects of filmmaking. And his legacy, which he carried forward from his famous father Prithviraj, spread with brothers Shashi-Shammi and sons Randhir-Rishi-Rajeev, is preserved with granddaughters Karisma-Kareena-Ranveer, and seems to have found fresh blood in Mahan. Granddaughter Agastya Nanda.

Immortal the clown damn”Live here, die here, its Shiva jana kahan“As true for film as it is for life. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s sung 100 years from now.

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