Readers Write In #764: Awara & the Pleasure of the Big Screen Experience

By Karthikeyan Ramamurthy

When I saw the news that there was a series of Raj Kapoor films to be screened, I immediately asked my family about their willingness to see a movie that was released when my father was of the age of my younger daughter. Of course, they were game enough. With helpful comments from this blog, we decided to go to Awara.

When my wife told her friends that she was going to a movie, they asked her if she going to Pushpa II & were laughing at her when she said that it is Awara. When I told one of work acquaintance about seeing Awara, he wondered whether the movie will be very slow. Thankfully he did not use that dreaded word “lag”, a word I would like to remove from the lexicon along with vibe.

First things first, what a glorious print. The restoration was masterfully done with gorgeous blacks and contrasts. I saw the restored Godfather in the theatres a couple of years ago & I felt Awara to be even better. Maybe the quality of the screen had something to do with it. MANK had mentioned in the comments about Raj Kapoor being inspired by Citizen Kane and this can be seen in the depth of frames.

I am a sucker for well made melodrama & the scene where a half-crazy Leela Chitnis asks the young Raj to eat non-existent food & also give something to her, was devastating. That one scene provided all the motivation required for the later day deviousness of the character. This scene is something I never want to see again just like the climax of Sansho the Bailiff. Raj is no hero despite the rakishness he displays during the song Ek Do Teen. He gets beaten up twice & he kills Jagga only after being thrashed.

Raj is dependent on his mother for emotional support & the establishment of Rita as his guiding star is spot on. We can never question why she falls for him or persists with him even when she comes to know of his real work. She may come across as too naïve or saintly & there is not much character development but Nargis is so convincing that this thought came only after watching the movie & not during it.

The second best part or may be even the best part is the romance between Raj & Rita. What would any man not give to see something like Nargis’s feelings when Raj is near her. I never thought of Nargis as beautiful but she radiates magnetic charisma on the screen. The romance is wonderfully picturised with real playfulness and a hint of erotica. Not only melodrama even romance is felt in the bones when the entire screen is filled by the face of a passionate Nargis. I doubt whether my experience of the film would have been the same on TV.

To my money the best song, at least when seen in the context of the film, is Dum Bhar Jo Udhar. It is also beautifully picturised with charismatic leads who are passionately in love. And it has become a favourite of my 8-year old daughter who wants to see it on loop.

Rita was the favourite character from the movie for both my daughters. The elder one raised a very valid point of why the judge, who was in a sense responsible for the sorrows of everybody in the film, did not get any punishment. She also said that we should go to the theatres more as the experience is very different to the one she has on TV. The younger one asked me why Jagga was bad as he is.

The court portions were nearly incomprehensible to me due to the heavy use of Urdu. Even my wife who studied Hindi in school found it difficult to follow. Of course, the subtitles really helped, even for the rest of the movie.

Except for the interminable first 30 minutes of Prithviraj Kapoor & Leela Chitnis, the movie never felt dated because of the solid emotional core. It is never preachy & makes sharp sociological observations that would make any Marxist proud. I just hope more old movies are re-released especially with this kind of restoration & there develops a culture of retrospectives.

PS: Only now did I realise that I share my birthdate with the great man, 14^th December.