Synopsis
Raj
(Raj Kapoor) is a small town person who comes to Bombay
with the dream of making it big. However his ideals and
principles are soon crushed by the harsh realities of the
big bad city. He encounters Vidya (Nargis), a poor school
teacher with a paralyzed father and the two fall in love.
After a spell of unemployment, he lands a job in a laundry.
When he delivers a dress to a rich client Maya (Nadira),
she discovers his proficiency with cards. Maya dresses him
up and parades him in front of several rich and influential
people as a ‘Prince’ in a posh club where his
sleight-of-hand tricks win her a big sum of money, but once
out of the club, she mocks him and casts him out. However,
Seth Sonachand Dharmanand who was there at the club that
night seeks Raj out and offers him a partnership in his
under-hand dealings. With money now at his command, Raj
finds himself totally corrupted by this world of materialism.
But increasingly he also finds he is alienated from the
people he loves like Vidya or the fruit seller on Bombay’s
streets (Lalita Pawar). Matters come to a head when a housing
scam Raj is involved in threatens to defraud thousands of
common men and women of their entire life's savings…
The film
Shree
420 is perhaps Raj
Kapoor’s most famous film next
to Awaara (1951).
Going a step further with the character
of the Chaplinesque tramp of Awaara, he
effectively uses the character in a most
enjoyable tale that charts the moral corruption
of an innocent soul coming to the big bad
city to make his fortune.
Like many of Raj Kapoor's films, Shree
420 focuses on the duality of issues
- here it was the battle of innocence v/s
corruption, rich v/s poor and traditional
v/s modern. True to mainstream Hindi film
stereotypes the city is populated by the
cold blooded rich on one end and the warm-hearted
poor like the fruit seller at the other.
But what’s most interesting in the
film really is the duality of the face of
the Indian woman. Nargis
plays Vidya the nourisher and pure, good
Indian woman - a poor schoolteacher with
a paralyzed father, while Nadira
plays Maya the corrupt Westernized modern
woman seducing Raj into a world where money
is the beginning and end of all means. This
conflict on the surface might just be a
clash of the two facets of a woman - the
home-loving girl next door versus a femme
fatale but on a larger scale we see it is
really a conflict of two ideologies that
post-independent India faced following the
years of its freedom - the traditional Indian
and the so called modern western. The conflict
has been there right since Independence
as India strove to combine modernity with
a strong National ethos in order to promote
its own path of nation building. On one
hand even as India successfully challenged
colonial domination, she accepted the very
intellectual premises of ‘modernity’
on which colonial domination was based.
Modernity in nation building has focused
on economic productivity and autonomy of
the individual contradicting Indian Traditions
which have a strong base in community, religion
and honour.
Several
of the comic sequences are homage to Chaplin
not to mention least the climax of the film
with a money bag being thrown around and
the characters chasing it. But the film
also captures several nuances of Bombay
in these sequences like when Vidya slips
on the banana peel and falls. All laugh
at her including Raj and when he subsequently
slips and falls on the peel, Vidya, though
having just fallen and angered at been laughed
at, too joins in laughing at his fall -
a beautiful illustration of the harsh cruelty
of the city.
Shree
420 reaffirms the Raj Kapoor - Nargis
searing on-screen chemistry. After Awaara,
she worked almost exclusively with him even
turning down her mentor Mehboob's Aan
(1952).  The
passion that each had for the other poured
out on the screen as they romanced each
other in several films - The song Pyar
Hua Ikraar Hua with Nargis and Raj under
the umbrella in heavy rain is subliminal
romance at its very best.
Coming
to the performances, Raj Kapoor effectively
portrays the underdog at the mercy of the
big bad world. Raj is a typical Raj Kapoor
character of a naïve idealist, the
world wants to destroy. (Jaagte Raho
(1956), Anari (1959), Teesri
Kasam (1966), Mera Naam Joker (1970))
Nargis, as always, plays the virtuous heroine
to perfection but the scene stealer of the
film is undoubtedly Nadira. Then still a
leading lady, the film cast her against
type as the cigarette smoking vamp to such
strong effect that thereafter she was only
offered negative roles! She refused most
of them still wanting to play the heroine
only to find few offers forthcoming. The
roles she refused were then offered to Shashikala
making a star out of the latter making her
lose out in the vamp department as well.
But films like Shree 420 and Pocketmaar
(1956) prove that there when Nadira
was up to her scheming vamping antics, she
had no equal! Lalita Pawar creates her most
endearing role of the fruit seller on the
streets of Bombay.
As
in any Raj Kapoor film, the music is a highlight
of the film. Each and very song from Mera
Jootha Hai Japaani to Dil ka Haal
Sune Dilwaala, from Pyaar Hua Ikraar
Hua to Mud Mud ke na Dekh,
from Ramaiya Vastaviya to Ichak
Daana Bichak Daana is a masterpiece
and represents one of Shankar-Jaikishen's
best ever scores. The film is a particular
triumph for Manna Dey as since Mukesh,
the regular voice of Kapoor, was busy with
his acting assigenments and could only sing
Mera Jootha Hai Japaani, Ichak
Daana Bichak Daana and Ramaiya
Vastavaiya, Dey effortlessly takes
over as the voice of Kapoor with Mud
Mud ke na Dekh, Pyaar Hua Ikraar
Hua and Dil ka Haal Sune Dilwaala.
Special mention must also be made of the
Mud Mud ken a Dekh song and its
picturization - starting slowly and seductively
before building up in pace and energy and
by the end signifying Raj's total corruption.
Incidentally it is said that Sadhana
is one of the children in the Ichak Daana
Song!
Apart
of course from India, Shree 420
was a raging hit in Russia, Egypt, the Middle
East, Israel and Iran. In fact, in Tehran
Raj Kapoor was conferred with an honoury
degree, which was most ironic since in real
life he was a school dropout. In India,
the film's strong influence can still be
seen down the years in films like Raju
Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992) and Bas
Itna sa Khwab Hai (2001).
|
