Awaara

Plot synopsis:
Judge Raghunath is a wealthy district judge who convicts Jagga, a man whose father was a criminal, of rape on little evidence. The judge believes that "good people are born to good people, and criminals are born to criminals." Jagga later escapes and kidnaps the judge's wife Leela for revenge. When he finds out that she has just become pregnant, he releases her after four days and plans a different kind of revenge. Leela's reputation is smeared by suspicions that she was unfaithful to her husband and the judge throws her out of the house, rejecting her pleas that the child is his.
She has a son, Raj, and they live in poverty as a result of being estranged from the father. As a child, Raj befriends Rita in school, but he is removed from the school rolls while trying to maintain a job as a shoe shine, and Rita moves to another city. One day, Raj meets Jagga, who convinces him to adopt a life of petty crime in order to save his starving mother. Raj grows up into a talented criminal, going in and out of short stays in jail, and working for Jagga's gang, while his mother is under the impression that he is an honest businessman. Raj never forgets Rita, keeping her birthday picture in his home, though he worries that she would dislike him if she knew what kind of man he has grown into.
While planning a bank robbery with his friends, Raj realises they need an automobile. He snatches a woman's purse after she steps out of the car, but finds no keys, and pretends to pursue the thief to release suspicion from himself. After his elaborate act, he returns the purse to the woman, who is charmed by his personality and apparent selflessness. Later, when Raj successfully steals a car, he hides from the police in a mansion where he meets the same woman from before. Seeing the same birthday picture, Raj realises that she is his school friend Rita. Rita tries to ask Raj how things have gone since schooldays, but he jokingly hints that he is a thief, and she decides not to ask further. Rita is now a ward of the Judge, who suspects that the new man in her life is no good. As Raj and Rita fall in love, he starts wanting to turn away from crime and worries that Rita will not accept him due to his lifestyle. Rita still tells him that she doesn't care about his past, as she loves him no matter where he comes from.
Raj tries to quit his life of crime to work at a factory, but his employers fire him when they find out that he was a thief. Rita invites him to her birthday, to the disapproval of the Judge, who believes that the impoverished Raj must come from a bad family. Remembering the humiliation he felt as a child when he could not afford a gift for Rita's birthday, Raj goes back to Jagga for a money loan. Jagga mocks his attempts to reform and asks him to commit more crimes. Raj refuses, but ends up stealing a necklace from a man on the street, not knowing the man was the Judge. At Rita's birthday, when Raj gives her a necklace without a case and the Judge gives her a case without a necklace (he did not realise it had been stolen until then), she discovers that Raj is indeed a thief. Rita goes to Raj's mother and learns his whole life story. She decides that Raj is not bad, but was forced into committing crimes by bad influence and the desperation of living in poverty. Raj is ashamed, still believing he is no good for her, but she forgives him.
Raj goes to the Judge to ask if he can marry Rita, but the Judge is still stubborn and turns him away. Meanwhile, Jagga and the gang commit the bank robbery, but it goes wrong and they have to run from the police. Jagga hides in Raj's house, where Leela recognizes him and he attacks her. Raj enters and fights him off, killing Jagga in self-defense. Raj goes on trial for Jagga's death, where Judge Raghunath is deciding the verdict. Rita persuades him that Raj acted in self-defense and is innocent. When Leela comes to the courthouse, she sees Raghudath and chases after him, but is struck by car. Rita collects the testimony from Leela in the hospital, and later Raj is allowed to visit her. Leela tells Raj that the Judge is his father and asks her son to forgive him. But Raj becomes angrier at the Judge for making him and his mother suffer. He escapes from jail and tries to kill the Judge for revenge, but is stopped by Rita. Due to these actions, Raj is brought to another court, and is defended by Rita, who reveals the full truth to court. Raj chooses not to defend his actions and says that he is a bad man. He asks the court not to think of him, but the millions of other children who grow up in poverty and end up turning to crime because high society does not care about them. While he awaits his execution, Raj is visited by Judge Raghunath, who finally accepts that Raj is his son and tearfully asks for forgiveness. In the end, Raj is spared execution, but sentenced to 3 years in prison for his crime. He promises that after getting released, he will reform himself for Rita, who promises to wait for him.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
When I was little, my grandmother often told me about a movie from her younger ages - Awaara /released as Bradyaga/.
If I ask somebody, who is over 50 year old about that film, I am sure, that he will remember it.
And when the main actor - Raj Kapoor visited the country, thousands of people traveled to see him.
My grandma, who was one of the best portrait photographers at that time and was asked to make his pictures with the leaders of the country, remembers that he and his wife never acted like international movie stars.
First of all, it was so different from the Soviet films that were broad-casted at that time.
It was full of life, passion, love, music, and nevertheless - it was a social film - about the problems of the different classes.
A few years ago I have the chance to watch this movie.
Something that you can tell for every really good film.
Featuring superb (and appropriate) musical interludes by the Shankar-Jaikashan team, this film effortlessly blends a wide range of influences: noir, gothic horror, neo-realism, and the surrealism of Jean Cocteau all come into play.
Raj Kapoor and Nargis are one of the finest screen couples of all time, equaling if not topping Jean-Louis Barrault and Arletty in Children of Paradise, another possible cinematic influence on Kapoor, who also directed.
I have always like watching movies.
Raj Kapoor craftily weaved them in the almost three hour-long classic.Behind the melodrama is the social commentary.
Children growing up in squalid areas is an important issue tackled.The musical sequences showed the movie's multi-faceted nature.
One of the most popular films of all time in India.
This is not the case with the films of Indian director, Raj Kapoor, especially in Awaara, a 1951 film and the later Boot Polish.
These films call attention to the less fortunate and, in the case of Awaara, the vagabond whose life of crime is the inevitable outcome of growing up in the slums.
In Awaara, Kapoor's real father (Prithviraj Kapoor) plays a heartless judge who accuses his pregnant wife (Leela Chitnis) of infidelity after she was kidnapped by bandits and throws her out of his home (the logic of this eludes me since she was already pregnant when kidnapped).
Raju, played by the director Raj Kapoor as an adult and by his brother Sashi Kapoor as a child, is born on the streets and grows up in the slums.
Raj has little to comfort him except for a picture hanging on the bare walls of his house of Rita, his childhood sweetheart played by the stunning Nargis, a real life lover of Kapoor.
The romance between Raj and Rita is one of the central motifs of the film and the chemistry between the two is electric.
This is especially evident in the boat scene where she performs an exotic dance to the Dum Bhar song, and after she calls him a junglee (savage) and he slaps her in an incident that serves to bring them closer together.Raju, the tramp, is forced to live on his wits but does so with humor and a Chaplinesque charm.
She puts the judge on the witness stand and asks pointed questions about how he condemned his wife and child to a lifetime of poverty.
Rita holds him and society responsible for the conditions that led Raju to commit his crime and asks the judge to forgive him and admit that Raju is his son.
Awaara is reminiscent of both 40s film-noir with its dark cobblestone streets and menacing shadows and, in its social conscience, of the great Italian neo-realists like de Sica.
But basically, Awaara is still in the Bollywood tradition; that means drama, romance, music, comedy, and action -- all put together in a total package to appeal to a wide audience.
With great songs and dances, amazing dream sequences, style and panache, strong drama, and an inspiring message, it is not surprising that Awaara became one of the most popular films in Indian cinematic history.
A magnificent film - entertainment (singing dancing, sweet, sweet pathos) and excitement - who can forget the crazy Heaven/Hell sequence.
The film is marred only by Raj's occasional violence to the character played by Nargis.The songs are of a consistent hight quality.
I was marveled and for a long time the movie remained in my heart.
I was humming the Awaara Hum all the time, I was imagining myself as Raj, I was thinking at Rita.
I started to consider myself a grown up: after all also Raj started in the movie as a kid and became a grown up.
I knew now his songs, I knew so all I needed to be a grown up.Well, I was a kid; it seems that also grown ups were in love with Awara; someone told me of a respectable physician who had been seen hanging around and humming Awaara Hum.And this was what was happening those times in Romania.
Kids and grown ups were humming the songs, imagining themselves as Raj, unconditionally in love for Rita, kids considering themselves grown ups, grown ups behaving like kids.The life of this movie was becoming a legend.I watched again the movie, a couple of days ago, on TV.
Of course it gave me an immense pleasure and I began (jokingly this time, while clearly happy) to sing Awaara Hum again.Did I notice this time something that I had missed years ago?
The actor playing the father of Raj was also in real life the father of Raj Kapoor.
The same with the actor playing Raj as kid: he was the brother of Raj Kapoor.
As for Nargis, the great actress playing Rita, she was in real life the great love of Raj Kapoor.
You see, in 1949 the Japanese Ozu had created Late Spring, followed by Early Summer in 1951, the same year Raj Kapoor created Awara; I consider Ozu one of the greatest masters of cinema; in 1956 the Indian Satyajit Ray would create Pather Panchali, which is maybe one of the most profound movies of all times; followed by Aparajito and then by The World of Apu. Well, Awara stands, courageously, in my preferences among the movies of these titans, and this because it has a secret of his own.Many noted the Chaplinesque dimension of the tramp created by Raj Kapoor in Awara.
But, it's not only Charlot in Awara; you feel there also the air of films noirs, while the romance, saturated with music, has a surrealist poetry.And maybe here is where the secret lies: this movie was created with the pleasure for creating cinema; with the passion to succeed in bringing on the screen a perfectly popular movie.
A movie openly looking for popularity because made by someone in love for the people, someone loving to tell stories to enjoy the attendance.
As I was a little child I could not now about the movies but that day my mother, grandmother, my uncles wife all got together and prepared delicious foods, and watched that movie on TV.
Perhabs on that day all women in Turkiye were watching that film.
Mavi Boncuk, a delicious movie has reference to this film.
On that movie Munir Ozkul says: - Aaah Awaara (at the time he looks to Awaara's poster) I've grown my children by selling it's tickets, played for 6 months on those days.It is a fact that Awaara was a great success, on those days a film was playing for only a week but Awaara was in vision for 6 great months.
I only remembered a scene from the film I watched when I was 6 years old, this is the scene that Raju stole a watch.
Then 3 years ago I bought this film and watched with friends, my friends were very impressed with the movie, and we watched again and again.Awaara is a milestone for Turkish cinema, it is filmed again by great Turkish actor Sadri Alisik in 1966.
Adalet Cimcoz and Ferdi Tayfur spoke Nargis and Raj Kapoor in Awaara's Turkish dubbing version and film is great with that excellent dubbing.Films song is also sung in Turkish lyrics by Sadri Alisik and song was also a hit..
This is a classic Bollywood movie and seminal Raj Kapoor - Nargis vehicle, forcing home to the audience all manner of stereotypes, prejudices and assumptions before systematically dismantling them all with a sledgehammer.
It was another of RK's successful and respectful attempts at mass entertainment mixed with mass education, generations later it's all so obvious that unfortunately we can lose sight of how much good it did at the time and just how well-intentioned it was.I was watching the colourful Suraj a while ago and was reminded of old black and white Awara which I hadn't seen in decades – it's another take on once a bandit's son always a bandit's son; or, Blood vs Destiny.
Delinquent wastrel and felon Raj is the kicked about son of a strict old-fashioned judge (played by Prithviraj) which neither of them realise, he and childhood friend Nargis who is now the judge's ward fall in love and, well, it spirals out of control for everyone.
Some lovely noirish photography and atmospheric flashback scenes complement a melodramatic storyline, and there's even time for an admirable dream/nightmare sequence.
It's a marvellous, if very contrived film with plenty of ideas, some tremendous images and great music by Shankar - Jaikishan as it is but as usual for me whenever the incomparable Lata sings it's turned into something even more special.
According to Lata it took a whole night to record the music for the dream sequence.So many sincere films made over the last 50 years have no morality, at the most charitable most don't even know the meaning of the word; so what's so bad about a film having too much?
Imho, even though poverty still breeds crime while Our Betters still deny it, Raj Kapoor's finest film..
an Indian film.
in the East of Europe, under the Comunist regime, the Indian films have had a special status.
but Awaara was more than a successful Indian film.
because it reminds the joy of life and the deep pain.because it is , like the childhood fairy tales, story of courage and self determination and love difficulties , sacrifice and happiness.
and, sure, for Raj Kapoor.
in the East , the Indian film was an open window.
Well, after getting hammered to the wall about my review of Sholay, I'm back again to review another bloated piece of Indian film-making.
At 2 ½ hours, Awaara certainly has a lot to live up to..A prisoner is on trial for hitting a judge!
All of this is answered as we, of course, go into FlashBackLand..Awaara begins with a wife of a would-be magistrate who is kidnapped by a thief for a few days.
(But not before we get many MANY clichéd shots of windows open, drapes blowing in the wind!) Soon, the child is born into poverty, and is forced to lead the life that, at least what the magistrate says, was given to him.He meets a cute little girl, and she invites him to her birthday party, but he is ostracized because of his societal standing, and is soon arrested for a crime and is send off to juvvy prison.When he gets out several years later, he goes back to the only life he knows, which is crime, and during a somewhat botched robbery, he bumps into a lady.
Perhaps Raj Kapoor's greatest film.
Release in 1951, the film was a huge hit not only in India but also in the then Soviet Union, Turkey and other nations.
Raj Kapoor plays his Chaplinsque character in this character.
Nargis delivers a great performance as Rita.
The film also showcases the poor living conditions of the slums.
The chemistry between Raj Kapoor and Nargis is perfect.
Performances put by Pritviraj Kapoor and Leela Chitnis are also good.
The musical score seems perfect.The title song-"Awaara Hoon" was a huge hit when the film was released.
The movie is both entertaining while at the same time conveying a strong social message..
Ah, the Indian film industry.
While it wasn't as jarring as having characters belt out jaunty numbers in the middle of their family crises in Mother India, Raj Kapoor's Awara is most definitely melodramatic enough to have the singing seem both out-of-place and completely appropriate.The film is a bit of a social plea to LOOSEN UP, depicting a harsh but respected judge (Prithviraj Kapoor, the director's own father) who sentences an innocent man on the conviction that a criminal's son would end up on a criminal.
His blind belief is put to the test when he is estranged from his wife and son, Raj (director Raj Kapoor), who in turn grows up to become a petty thief.The film's plot, criticism and metaphor are fairly obvious, and the film is of course WAY too long (at a whopping 168 minutes), but more fascinating to examine is the relationship between Raj Kapoor and his father Prithviraj.
It gets that sort of grandiose, but never falls apart, and despite its length and simplistic plot, it never lost me for good, and although it didn't knock me out like the greatest of Indian cinema, it was definitely a worthwhile marathon jaunt.{Grade: 7.75/10 (B/B-) / #12 (of 16) of 1951}.
I do not like Indian films.
and the virtue is, in many senses ,of Raj Kapoor.
It was in my home country, Romania, where it was a Huge Success, actually, Huge Success is less said, it was more than that, it was like a cult film and even more than that.
It did not impress me at all, you need a lot of love for film and patience to watch it all.
It's still well done - it's a Bollywood classic - but the actors' play, especially Jagga (K.N. Singh) and Justice Raghunath(Prithviraj Kapoor) is too exaggerated.
Actor-producer-director Raj Kapoor has given many excellent movies to the Hindi movie audience, yet Aawara stands tall among them all.
It's a movie which is not only considered a classic by critics from all strata and categories but also got thumping commercial success also.
As far the development of characteristics and personality traits are concerned, nurture has a much bigger (perhaps the only) role in that instead of nature or the acquiring of things by birth.Aawara starts with the trial of Raj Kapoor with his biological father, Prithvi Raj Kapoor being on the other side and his lady-love, Nargis as his defence attorney.
The story moves to flash back with the abduction of Prithvi Raj Kapoor's wife, Leela Chitnis by a baddie, K.N. Singh.
However when she returns, she has to face the horrible truth of suspicion in the eyes of her household members that she was raped by K.N. Singh and the child being carried by her in her womb belongs to K.N. Singh and not Prithvi Raj Kapoor.
The insect of suspicion, eats up the wisdom of Prithvi Raj Kapoor and he expells his pregnant wife from his home.
She gives birth to a son and fosters him under the hope that he will become a learned man like his father.
However, poverty and hunger throws him in the arms of K.N. Singh only who is hell-bent upon inflicting a life-long bitter revenge upon Prithvi Raj Kapoor who had ensured a harsh sentence for him.
He develops Raj Kapoor as a baddie only and one day himself gets killed by him.
Ultimately the father recognizes and embraces his son who is sentenced to prison for the murder.Aawara emphatically underscores the fact that it is ultimately the nurturing and the environment which matters in the development of the personality of a child.
Raj Kapoor has given admirable direction to the story, written by Khwaza Ahmed Abbas.
The scene in which Raj Kapoor beats himself behind the wall to win the heart of Nargis, is hilarious.
The use of moon in the song - Dumb Bhar Jo Udhar Munh Phere is a marvellous example in this context.Raj Kapoor was a shrewd filmmaker.
The movie supposedly underscore the supersession of nurture over nature.
However when Nargis tries to convince Prithvi Raj Kapoor that Raj Kapoor is indeed his son, she brings the point of his anger which is a ditto of his father.
This shows the triumph of nature, not nurture.The technical and production value aspects are quite according to the standards set by Raj Kapoor for the movies of his banner.
This black and white movie reminds of the noir cinema of the forties.
Raj Kapoor's permanent cameraman, Radhu Karmakar has caught the mood of the movie very well through his camera.The music of Shanker-Jaikishan is great.
The song - Aawara hoon had almost become the national anthem at the time of the release of the movie and even today, after sixty years, it is as popular as it was at that time.
The other songs of the movie are also no less by any means.The performances of Nargis, Leela Chitnis, K.N. Singh etc.
I will mention two actors- Prithvi Raj Kapoor who has delivered a towering performance in the role of judge Raghunath and Shashi Kapoor who has played the childhood version of Raj Kapoor quite briliiantly at the tender age of 13 years.
Raj Kapoor, as the perennial Raju, has again done well with his mannerisms.In the end, I just put up one point which always haunts me whenever I read any such thing or any such movie (including the Ramayan) that to which extent it is justified to harass a woman under suspicion of being raped and carrying an illegitimate child in her womb due to that incident.
Though the movie was made in 1951, still the people's psyche is more or less the same in the Indian society.
Had Raj Kapoor's mother, Leela Chitnis been actually raped by K.N. Singh, would Prithvi Raj Kapoor be justified in expelling her from the house (that too in the pregnancy state) ?