10 hours Ago By [email protected] (Republic Entertainment Desk)
Published 17:08 IST, December 14th 2024 Raj Kapoor's movies were always heroine-oriented. However, he often faced criticism for the way he viewed actresses through a titillating lens. Raj Kapoor Birth Centenary: The Greatest Showman Of Indian Cinema, Raj Kapoor and his expansive cinematic legacy lives on through his movies.
After featuring as a leading hero, Kapoor pivoted to direction in his later years in cinema while continuing to work in front of the camera. What set his filmography apart as a filmmaker was the way women were presented onscreen. Often controversial (Ram Teri Ganga Maili and Prem Rog) but always progressive, Kapoor, through his lens, focussed on heroine-oriented cinema.
Changing cinema with the times: Ranbir Kapoor reflects on Raj Kapoor's movies Ranbir Kapoor, Raj Kapoor's grandson, participated in a retrospective of the showman at the recent International Film Festival of India (IFFI). He remembered Kapoor as someone who “constantly took risks and pushed the boundaries” of cinema. “Raj Kapoor, the filmmaker, always explored different themes at different times of his life.
If you see his earlier films, like Awara was based on casteism. If you see Shree 420, he spoke about greed and the underprivileged trying to make something of their lives. He made films with strong Indian moral values, spoke about society in such an honest and a frank way, while making it really commercial and really entertaining,” the Animal actor said.
Exploring sensuality and erotica in Raj Kapoor movies Raj Kapoor's Sangam, Bobby, Satyam Shivam Sundaram and Ram Teri Ganga Maili explored sensuality and erotica. While his narratives always centered around the heroine, the veteran filmmaker also courted controversy with many criticising him for showing his heroines through a titillating lens. The most controversial being actor Mandakini’s scenes of breastfeeding and bathing in a transparent saree under a waterfall in Ram Teri Ganga Maili and Zeenat Aman’s village girl look in Satyam Shivam Sundaram.
He faced severe criticism when he put the woman in a white saree under the waterfall. Ranbir stated that Kapoor made women-centric films, be it Prem Rog or Ram Teri Ganga Maili. “If you see Prem Rog, he spoke about widow remarriage.
If you talk about Ram Teri Ganga Maili, he compared the protagonist to River Ganga, how it starts so pure, and by the time it reaches down, because of society it becomes impure," the actor said at IFFI about his filmmaker grandfather. 'Not the typical vamp' "The women characters in Raj Kapoor’s films — say, those portrayed by Nargis — represented the modern woman trying to express an independence that women in Indian society were generally not allowed. What was particularly unusual was that the 'modern’ woman in his films was not necessarily evil or (like the vamp portrayed by Helen) had to, eventually, die or be ‘reformed’ into a Sati-Savitri character,” sociologist Sanjay Srivastava told PTI.
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