Raj Kapoor romanticized the exotic locations in his movies

July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 Deepti Ratnam

These golden lines from one of the Raj Kapoor song always makes the feeling of love more precious.

प्यार हुआ इक़रार हुआ है
प्यार से फिर क्यों डरता है दिल
कहता है दिल, रस्ता मुश्किल
मालूम नहीं है कहाँ मंज़िल

Raj Kapoor- a showman of Bollywood cinema, Charlie Chaplin of Indian movies, and a perfect Bollywood filmmaker, has always been keen on developing a romantic plot in his movies. Son of Prithvi Raj Kapoor, who was himself a pioneer of the Indian film industry and Indian theatre. Thus, Raj Kapoor was born with Indian cinema in his blood. He always experimented with his movies and gave the path to the Bollywood industry in showcasing the different versions of true love. He was not just an actor in the Bollywood industry. In fact, he was the master of romance, a well-organized producer, and director of Indian cinema. His tale of romance in his movies was not just popular in India. But also in other parts of the world. His movies broke the barrier of boundaries and left their mark on the people of Russia, Mexico, Turkey, and various other South Asian countries.

Raj Kapoor’s Popularity

You can imagine his popularity by a famous incident that was mentioned in the Times of India’s article. When the first Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru visited the Soviet Union in 1950’ and met Joseph Stalin, a famous Soviet revolutionary and politician of Georgian nationality. Stalin mentioned the popularity of Raj Kapoor’s movie ‘Awara’. After returning to India, Pt. Nehru organized a party in which he invited Prithvi Raj Kapoor and asked about ‘Awara’. This was the popularity of Raj Kapoor! The movie was appreciated by the audience of eastern Europe and was named ‘Le Vagabond’ in Cannes.

Raj Kapoor started his career under the Production house set up by his father Prithvi Raj Kapoor and his first movie was ‘Neel Kamal’ starring Madhubala opposite him. After that, he went on with his next project ‘Aag’ with Nargis and this was the first time when Raj Kapoor met the beautiful Nargis. After this, he immediately fell in love with her. Raj Kapoor shared romantic on-screen chemistry with Nargis in various movies and the best part was that these movies started a new path to romance.

Other than romance, Raj Kapoor movies have always depicted the bitter truth of society, which his characters have always challenged and overcome it. After that, he established his own studio, named ‘R.K.Films and became the youngest Bollywood filmmaker and director of his time. Later, he went on to direct many blockbuster movies, including, ‘Shree 420’, ‘Barsaat’, ‘Awara’, and ‘Sangam’. His popularity started breaking the boundaries and gained recognition and acclaim in other countries too. Raj Kapoor constructed his R.K. Studio in Chembur in 1950 . After then a trend was established that most of his movies will be shot here. The studio was the headquarter of his other film companies and it was situated on four acres campus. This was the time when Raj Kapoor was no more just a name. He gained popularity among South Asian countries as well as European countries.

Raj Kapoor’s first color film -Sangam :

The first color film of Raj Kapoor was ‘Sangam’ starring Vyajyanthi Mala and Rajendra Kumar. Raj Kapoor himself break the shackles of Indian boundaries and achieved successful recognition in other countries. This was the first time when any Bollywood movie had a script line of foreign background. Including, London, Switzerland, Venice, Rome, Paris, and the Vatican. The movie opened doors for Bollywood filmmakers and movies to conjoins with other countries. Consequently started a new era of Bollywood movies to be shot in the foreign locale. The alluring beauty of Switzerland was first showcased in ‘Sangam.’ The movie was shot at Grand Hotel Giessbach in Brienz, Switzerland. Not just Switzerland, even Russia too had a great impact on Raj Kapoor movies, and no matter what, they still have a fascination with Raj Kapoor’s iconic movies.

Raj Kapoor represented Indian cinema in Fourth International Film Festival Moscow and Soviet film actress Clara Luchko welcomed him on the airport. The songs from ‘Awara’ and ‘Barsaat’ are still roaming around in the romantic atmosphere of Russia.

मेरा जूता है जापानी ये पतलून इंगलिश्तानी

सर पे लाल टोपी रूसी फिर भी दिल है हिन्दुस्तानी

This famous song from the 1955 movie ‘Shree 420’, tells us that how Raj Kapoor was celebrating patriotism towards the newly Sovereign Nation. Not just in ‘Shree 420’, Raj Kapoor portrayed the Russian ballad and music in his movie ‘Mera Naam Joker’. Although the movie was a super-duper flop at that time, later it gained popularity after the demise of Raj Kapoor. In an interview with Shekhar Gupta at Raj Kapoor awards for excellence in Entertainment, Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor, sons of Raj Kapoor revealed that once his father rejected the invitation of China government because he was overweight at that time. He stated:

“One day, he called me and said he got an invite to visit China because his films are very popular there and we all are going to China! He was very excited and so were we. While we were making arrangements, two days later he called me and said, ‘I am thinking, let’s not go to China. They are in love with the Raj Kapoor of Awaara, Shree 420, and look at my size now! I don’t look like that anymore.”

Love chemistry between Raj Kapoor and Nargis :

In 2011, Rishi Kapoor visited Kashmir and the places where his first movie’ Bobby’ was shot. The movie was directed by his father, Raj Kapoor, and was the hit movie of that time. He revitalized that how his father used a real-life incident of meeting with Nargis for the first time. Yes! The love story of Raj Kapoor and Nargis is a famous story of Bollywood. Raj Kapoor always wanted to use this life-changing meeting scene with Nargis in any of his movies. He got a chance in ‘Bobby’! Raj Kapoor and Nargis were deeply in love.

This fact was evident in their on-screen chemistry in almost 16 movies in which they worked together. But unfortunately, Raj Kapoor was married when he met Nargis and they later parted their ways. Raj Kapoor was madly in love with Nargis and that is the reason that he immortalized Nargis by using the famous scene of the movie ‘Barsaat’ as the official logo of R.K. Studio. There was a scene where he was holding Nargis in his one arm and violin in his second and this became the iconic symbol of love.