With his work on both sides of the camera, Raj Kapoor helped enable Indian society to embrace the disorienting changes of the twentieth century. And he forged the template for Bollywood, too.
Raj Kapoor and The Golden Age of Indian Cinema was curated by Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox and was organized by TIFF, IIFA and RK Films with the support of the Government of Ontario.
Bobby
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25 Feb 17:40 NFT2 book
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29 Feb 19:50 NFT2 book
A young couple go on the run in Raj Kapoor's zany and eclectic comedy.
Boot Polish
An orphaned brother and sister attempt to survive the monsoons in this neo-realist tear-jerker, largely directed by Raj Kapoor.
My Name Is Joker
Raj Kapoor's astonishing feature, reportedly based on his own life, is loved and reviled by critics in equal measure.
Shree 420
Raj Kapoor's bumpkin character romances a schoolteacher while dabbling in petty crime in one of the actor/director's most famous films.
The Vagabond
The first appearance of the tramp persona that would make Raj Kapoor famous remains one of the greatest Indian films ever made.
Introduction by Noah Cowan
Actor, director and mogul Raj Kapoor was one of the giants of Indian cinema, and is synonymous with the rise of the monolith known as 'Bollywood'. Largely unknown in Europe and North America - except of course to millions of fans of South Asian descent - Kapoor is revered not only in India but throughout the former Soviet world, the Middle East and beyond for the films he made during the Golden Age of Indian cinema.
Beginning his career as an actor with his father Prithviraj's famed theatre company and then in small film roles beginning in 1935, Kapoor founded RK Films in 1948 and made his debut as producer, director and star with Fire, in which he shared the lead for the first time with his on-screen muse Nargis. Deriving his screen persona from the smirk and swagger of Clark Gable, the heightened emotions and showmanship of Gene Kelly, and - most importantly - Charlie Chaplin's underdog heroism and sense of pathos, Kapoor rapidly became the biggest superstar in Indian cinema. Chaplin's Little Tramp is the clear precursor for Kapoor's most famous screen character: the vagabond in a too-tight suit, observing the bustling world around him with wide-eyed wonder. Unlike Chaplin, however, Kapoor moved his Indian-ised tramp (variously known as Raj, Raju or Rajan) up and down the social ladder, and into surprisingly unpleasant incarnations: self-obsessed artists, whiny rich guys and, in his maudit masterpiece My Name Is Joker, a distinctly unfunny clown whose romantic yearnings verge on the pathological.
Meanwhile, Kapoor's stylistic innovations as a director - from the gritty neo-realism of his early films (infused with a mild but deeply felt Nehruvian socialism that was largely the product of a long association with celebrated left-wing writer KA Abbas), to his introduction of new, highly personal and stylised musical numbers (updating Urdu-Parsi theatrical traditions for the excitement of a post-Independence age), to the eye-popping, Technicolor delirium of his more commercially-minded late period (largely featuring his extended family in the lead roles and preoccupied with the contradictions of India's new class structures and moral failings) - helped set the template for the Bollywood film as it is today.
This selection of eight new 35mm prints is from the touring programme Raj Kapoor and The Golden Age of Indian Cinema, curated by Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox and organised by TIFF, IIFA and RK Films with the support of the Government of Ontario.
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