Summary:
The bandit Jagga kidnaps Leela, Judge Raghunath’s wife. Upon learning that Leela is pregnant, Jagga lets her go. People believe that Jagga is the father. Though she is already pregnant when Jagga kidnaps her, the easily swayed Judge Raghunath doubts Leela and throws her out. Leela gives birth to a baby boy near a gutter on the street. She hopes that Raj will grow up to be a judge like his real father. Raj is attracted to Rita, his playmate at school, but they are separated by circumstances. Leela struggles to make ends meet. Jagga forces Raj into a life of crime. Raj grows up with ambivalent feelings for his missing father. Judge Raghunath becomes Rita’s guardian after she is orphaned. Raj and Rita meet again as grown-ups. They fall in love and recognise each other as childhood sweethearts. Rita attempts to reform Raj. Raj struggles to redeem himself and become worthy of Rita.
Analysis:
Awara is often referred to as Raj Kapoor’s most accomplished film. Its smooth narrative style and elegant production design brought instant recognition to Kapoor as an actor and director, not to mention the notoriety he achieved for his on- and off-screen romance with his co-star Nargis. The film opens with the image of a starving mongrel feeding on crumbs from a street urchin on a dark, shadowy street as the credits roll out – a defining image of urban squalor and destitution. The scene takes place in the metropolitan setting of Bombay (now Mumbai), where the protagonist Raj is kicked around on empty, dangerous streets, like the homeless dog in the title sequence. As the rest of the film unfolds, the dog emerges as a symbol of social disparagement, unemployment and poverty in post-independence India.
Like Mother India, Awara influenced an entire gamut of Indian films, be it through its use of courtroom scenarios, flashbacks or lavishly choreographed dream sequences. The dream sequence where Raj moves from purgatory to heaven is a case in point. Often cited for its glittering, white set, the number Ghar aaya mera Pardesi (‘My foreigner has come home’) features a spiralling staircase with fog machines that evoke the hallucinatory but distant euphoria of a celestial space. Unafraid to experiment with new narrative techniques within what is broadly conceived as a mass-medium, Kapoor came to be known as a master scenarist and showman. He opens Awara with a flashback, with Rita defending Raj in court. The flashback may be a nod to Citizen Kane (1941), whose influence is apparent in Kapoor’s use of grand interiors and light and shadow to evoke social dysfunction and psychological alienation.1 Kapoor adapted Hollywood-style continuity editing (eyeline matches that follow the 180-degree rule; match-cuts that join disparate planes of action) to tell an essentially Indian story based on popular conceptions of the vagrant as a seer imbued with worldly-wise insight. His use of rhythmic montage offers a striking example of his recasting of European art-house idioms in a popular Indian mould. Take the song Naiyya teri Majhdar, Hoshiyaar (‘Your boat is midstream, beware’). Kapoor interrupts the smooth flow of action as a chorus sings about impending danger. He ends the song abruptly with a scene where Jagga kidnaps Leela to take revenge on Judge Raghunath (who has sentenced him for a crime he has not committed because Jagga’s father was a convict). Soviet-style editing produces an overall effect that is jerky and unsettling but entirely convincing within the edgy narrative.
Elsewhere Jagga towers as the villain who browbeats the innocent Raj into stealing bread in a low angle shot that came to be known as the ‘Russian angle’. With his fair skin and blue eyes, Kapoor was considered rakishly attractive: his moustache and hairstyle recall Clark Gable – he assumes his wry, ironic posture in several close-ups. Indeed, Kapoor was so light-skinned that he could pass off as a European gentleman: the question of ‘whiteness’ comes up several times in the film.2 Though poor, Raj looks so wealthy and privileged that he is never mistaken for a thief: ‘[It’s] not your fault … it’s just the way I look (tumhara kusoor nahin, meri soorat hi aisi hai)’, he tells Rita when she finally learns about his true identity. As Raj, Kapoor often plays himself and even retains his off-screen name. He often frames himself in soft-focus close-ups that function as reminders of his illustrious off-screen life. His father Prithviraj Kapoor was a prominent actor, who had begun his career in the silent era and was well respected for his work on the Bombay stage. Claiming that theatre was the real school, Kapoor left his formal education and worked as a stagehand and bit actor before making his first film Aag (The Fire, 1948) when he was just 24.3 Prithviraj agreed to play the role of the father in Awara as well. Raj Kapoor cast his younger brother Shashi as the child Raj: Awara is, in every sense of the word, a family drama. Raghunath may forget his son, but the audience is not allowed to forget who the father is and who the son. The adroit casting alleviates Raj’s culpability while amplifying the father’s injustice several times over. The audience’s sympathy for Raj is left intact at every opportunity, Awara (1951) 59 so much so that his ‘lineage’ is consistently preserved through his star image, even when he plays the rogue. Kapoor drew significantly on Charlie Chaplin in the song ‘Awara Hoon’ (‘I am a vagabond’), appearing in the tramp’s baggy pants and bowler hat, an element that became even more pronounced in his next film Shree 420 (Mr 420, 1955). He was indebted to Chaplin for creating the image of a vagabond as an everyman. However, the Indian tramp also varies significantly: witty repartee replaces Chaplin’s physical comic routines. The narrative is steered by an unprecedented sexual frankness and the burning pathos of song and dance numbers that go well beyond Chaplin’s use of mime and humour.4
The plot is regulated by a set of ironic reversals and traumatic setbacks: Raj is well born but ends up with Jagga the bandit, who, in howsoever twisted a form, nurtures him. Judge Raghunath lacks judgement and ruins Jagga because of his unfair sentence. The ‘judge’ fails to fulfil his legal obligations to his family – Awara often portrays the father as the real criminal. Raghunath’s gait is heavy and cumbersome – in the opening sequences the camera frames him in low angles that represent his girth, megalomania and hypocrisy. As the film progresses, the camera reverses this position to frame Raghunath in high angles that dwarf his position and make him look very small: father and son see eye to eye by the end of the film as Raj grows in stature. It is clear that Raghunath treats Leela brutally, literally kicking his heavily pregnant wife out on a stormy night, an incident that alludes to the epic Ramayana, where Ram casts his wife Sita out after she is kidnapped by the demon Ravana. Kapoor incorporates numerous references to the Ramayana: Raghunath is another name for Ram but with an important difference in that Awara’s setting is urban. He foregrounds Leela’s relentless suffering – Raghunath’s car knocks Leela out in a fatal accident that leaves her blind and unable to recognise him. Like her mythical counterpart Sita, Leela continues to worship her husband in spite of his ‘crime’ in an unrelenting display of faith. But unlike Sita, Leela lacks true strength and fortitude – perhaps the reason why Raghunath is named after Ram but Leela is not named after Sita. In the epic, Sita asks mother earth to swallow her up in a final demonstration of strength that proves her innocence. Leela, on the other hand, is utterly powerless – she is destroyed by forces that are too large and beyond her control.
While he abandons his son, Raghunath dotes on his ward Rita. In contrast to Leela, Rita, as her name suggests, is modern, Westernised, educated and strong. She turns against her mentor by falling in love with Raj, a criminal or an awara (literally, a vagabond); the very person a judge must punish. Both Raj and his symbolic father Jagga are victims of circumstance and injustice. Nothing underscores this problem more effectively than the fact that Rita grows up to be a lawyer and puts the patriarch Raghunath himself on trial for ill-treating and almost murdering his wife. Confrontations ensue as father and son fight each other, vying for Rita’s affection. On Rita’s twenty-first birthday, Raghunath buys Rita an expensive necklace but Raj steals it from him. Visually, the episode borders on incest: father and son ‘woo’ Rita as each tries to deck her with the glittering necklace. The entire sequence culminates in Rita’s bedroom, where Raj eventually confronts Raghunath as the man who has caused his mother’s death. A childhood photograph of Rita shatters as Raj raises a knife to his father and literally hits the wall. The shattered photograph looms large on the screen, serving as a shocking reminder of Rita’s threatened integrity. Raj recognises Rita’s moral and intellectual supremacy as the photograph – a leitmotif that appears at several critical moments – halts the drama of possession, showing Raj the way. In fact, the entire climax is organised according to Rita’s ‘honourable’ point of view, where the judge is finally judged. Like the girl in the photograph, Rita directs the audience in and outside the film towards the truth. In the final analysis, Awara is driven by an altruistic imperative which shows that criminals are not born but made; they are victims of social injustice, prejudice and indifference.
Nargis’s collaboration with Raj Kapoor played a significant part in Awara’s success. Her portrayal of Rita is effortless: like Kapoor, she incorporates several elements of her star persona into her performance, which is notable for its ease of expression and sexual intensity. In a marked departure from the sublimation and transcendence that is typical of films from this period, the Nargis–Raj Kapoor romance is characterised by its frank eroticism and free-spiritedness. Nargis wore her hair in a bold bob that emphasised her Westernised, broadminded outlook. She ignored gossip about her intimacy with Kapoor and assisted him in almost all aspects of filmmaking, including set design, camerawork, the staging of song and dance numbers and the running of R. K. Studios.5 The couple was wildly popular not only in India but in the Soviet Union as well, where ‘babies were christened after them’. 6 Above all, Awara is remembered for its socialist vision and the searing intensity of the Raj Kapoor–Nargis duo, which emerged as an enduring icon of love in modern India.7
Anupama Kapse
Notes
1. Raj Kapoor admired Orson Welles and was particularly fond of his use of low-key lighting. See Madhu Jain, The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema, New Delhi, Penguin, 2005, p. 98.
2. Kapoor plays on the symbolic meanings of whiteness, treating it is a sign of the purity of character, while marshalling a more complex association with whiteness as a sign of deceit and exploitation, particularly during India’s colonisation. For further details, see Gayatri Chatterjee, ‘Rita and Raghunath: Pursuits of Whiteness/Incest’, in Awa-ra, New Delhi, Wiley-Eastern Limited, 1992, pp. 111–118.
3. K. A. Abbas’s screenplay is influenced by the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), which echoes Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru’s socialist objectives (as also Kapoor’s extension of the tramp figure). Several Marxist intellectuals were associated with this influential organisation, including Abbas.
4. Malti Sahai includes a persuasive analysis of these differences in her article ‘Raj Kapoor and the Indianization of Chaplin’, East-West Film Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1987, pp. 62–76. 5. Raj Kapoor established his own production company after the enormous success of Barsaat (Rain, 1949). The studio logo was based on a scene from Barsaat, where Kapoor leans over Nargis in an erotic pose, as if to kiss her, and Nargis arches her back seductively.
6. T. J. S. George, The Life and Times of Nargis, Chennai, East-West Books, 1994, p. 77.
7. The Kapoors are often referred to as the first family of Indian cinema. Cousins Ranbir and Kareena Kapoor now represent the fourth generation of actors descended from greatgrandfather Prithviraj Kapoor. Further reading Paul Willemen and Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, New Delhi and London, Oxford University Press, 1995.
Cast and Crew:
[Country: India. Production Company: R. K. Studios. Director: Raj Kapoor. Screenwriter: K. A. Abbas. Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri. Music: Shanker Jaikishan, Sunny Castellino. Playback singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Rafi, Manna Dey, Shamshad Begum. Cinematographer: Radhu Karmakar. Art Director: M. R. Achrekar. Editor: G. G. Mayekar. Choreographer: Madame Simkie, Krishna Kumar, Surya Kumar. Costumes: Om Prakash, Madame Chorosch. Cast: Raj Kapoor (Raj), Nargis (Rita), Prithviraj Kapoor (Judge Raghunath), Leela Chitnis (Leela), K. N. Singh (Jagga), Shashi Kapoor (young Raj), Zubeida (young Rita), Cuckoo (nightclub dancer), Leela Mishra (sister-in-law), B. M. Vyas (Rita’s father), D. Bashesharnath (Judge).]
Source Credits:
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films, Edited by Sarah Barrow, Sabine Haenni and John White, first published in 2015.