MoMA to host “Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema”

[Simran_Singh]

This is part of the same retrospective that was held here in Toronto over the summer. I would definitely encourage those who can, to see some (or all!) of these films on the big screen.

MoMA, New York to host “Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema”

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York will hold a retrospective of Raj Kapoor (1924-1988) and showcase eight classics of the legendary actor, director, and producer from January 6 through 16, 2012.

“Largely unknown in North America—except to filmgoers of South Asian descent—Kapoor is revered not only in India but also throughout the former Soviet world, the Middle East, and beyond for the films he made during the Golden Age of Indian cinema. The exhibition is curated by Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and organized by TIFF, IIFA, and RK Films, with the support of the Government of Ontario. It is organized for MoMA by Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.”, says a press release issued by MoMA on Monday.

Presented in newly struck 35mm prints, Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema offers an introduction to one of the most ravishing and influential periods of world cinema. Kapoor founded RK Films in 1948, and it became the most important Hindi studio of the post-Independence era—and the one most commonly associated with the nebulous and often misunderstood expression “Bollywood.”

Aag (Fire, 1948), Kapoor’s first film as producer and director, reflects German Expressionist influences, and established the modern-day, hyper-romantic style that would become his trademark—combining contemporary Hollywood melodrama with the moral lessons and metaphors of the “mythologicals”: special-effects-laden versions of tales from the Indian epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Kapoor took the latent romanticism of prewar Indian commercial cinema and made it frank, intense, and personal, creating a new idiom for the expression of emotion that had little place in traditional Indian literature and drama. The exhibition opens on Friday, January 6, with Kapoor’s Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951), a modern-day version of the tale of Rama’s banishment of Sita. The exhibition also features Barsaat (Monsoon, 1949), the interweaving story of romantic Pran, played by Kapoor, and his more carnally driven best friend; Boot Polish (1953), which follows two orphans who are befriended by a kind smuggler and encouraged to join the boot-polish trade; Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai (Where the Ganges Flows, 1951), a comedy about a pilgrim who, at the river Ganges, is lured from his religious observances by a tomboyish, yet scantily clad, female bandit; Shree (1955), Kapoor’s most famous incarnation of his tramp persona; Meera Nam Joker (My Name is Joker) (1970), a selfreflexive masterwork that undermined the tramp persona Kapoor had carefully shaped over two decades; and Bobby (1973), which follows the teenage son of a wealthy family who falls in love with their maid’s granddaughter.

[bella]

Thanks for posting. I want to make as many as possible. Picking and choosing will be difficult. Any faves?

[Bollyphan]

Thanks for posting. I want to make as many as possible. Picking and choosing will be difficult. Any faves?

Shree 420 is one of my faves!

[Darshana]

This is fantastic news!! I wonder who curated it and who will come talk, if anyone - somebody should for sure.

I have always wanted to see Boot Polish, which gets mentioned in round-ups of the great ones.

I think Shree 420 [incorrectly titled in the article, which makes me wonder about the hands at the wheel here] is one of the best Hindi movies ever made, in any time period.  ALL songs fantastically great - they include "Phir Mein Dil Hai Hindustani."

And Awaara, which is also great, and carries Ram-Sita themes, with a young trim Raj and beautiful Nargis. One amazing production number in Awaara apparently took hears to make (the title song?). 

And then Bobby, directed by Raj, is India's first teenage movie and the introduction of Rishi and Dimple Kapadia, at about age 16 - look close and you can see mehendi on her hands as she is getting ready for her inappropriate marriage to Rajesh Khanna.

[bella]

Shree 420 is one of my faves!

Haha  Thanks. I own it and just watched it last week. Love it to bits.

[bella]

This is fantastic news!! I wonder who curated it and who will come talk, if anyone - somebody should for sure.

I have always wanted to see Boot Polish, which gets mentioned in round-ups of the great ones.

I think Shree 420 [incorrectly titled in the article, which makes me wonder about the hands at the wheel here] is one of the best Hindi movies ever made, in any time period.  ALL songs fantastically great - they include "Phir Mein Dil Hai Hindustani."

And Awaara, which is also great, and carries Ram-Sita themes, with a young trim Raj and beautiful Nargis. One amazing production number in Awaara apparently took hears to make (the title song?). 

And then Bobby, directed by Raj, is India's first teenage movie and the introduction of Rishi and Dimple Kapadia, at about age 16 - look close and you can see mehendi on her hands as she is getting ready for her inappropriate marriage to Rajesh Khanna.

These sound fantastic. I'm so excited as I have been so keen on the music from that time.Phir Mein Dil.Hindustani  is looping through my brain as I write.

[Simran_Singh]

This is fantastic news!! I wonder who curated it and who will come talk, if anyone - somebody should for sure.

As mentioned in the article, it was curated by Noah Cowan, who is the Artistic Director of the TIFF Bell Lightbox here in Toronto.

ETA: Seeing Shree 420 and Awaara on the big screen was wonderful.

I also enjoyed Barsaat which is very lush and poetic, but may be overly-melodramatic for some modern sensibilities.

The new print of Bobby was lovely to see as well.

[CrossingRebecca]

Fellow Bollywhaters in the New York area--anyone want to try to get together for some of this?  I live far enough away that it is a hassle to go into the city--but a hassle that can happen.  I realize coordination should take place via PM's, but I wanted to cast the net out there.

I'm torn between wanting to watch again what I already love, and wanting to see things I've had a hard time tracking down.  I've seen and greatly enjoyed Shree 420, Awara, and Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai. 

[bella]

Fellow Bollywhaters in the New York area--anyone want to try to get together for some of this?  I live far enough away that it is a hassle to go into the city--but a hassle that can happen.  I realize coordination should take place via PM's, but I wanted to cast the net out there.

I'm torn between wanting to watch again what I already love, and wanting to see things I've had a hard time tracking down.  I've seen and greatly enjoyed Shree 420, Awara, and Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai. 

Same same. Seeing on the big screen Shree 420 would be great but time constraints/travel may mean venturing to the new old.

We should try for a get together as the time nears.

[Bollyphan]

Fellow Bollywhaters in the New York area--anyone want to try to get together for some of this?  I live far enough away that it is a hassle to go into the city--but a hassle that can happen.  I realize coordination should take place via PM's, but I wanted to cast the net out there.

I'm torn between wanting to watch again what I already love, and wanting to see things I've had a hard time tracking down.  I've seen and greatly enjoyed Shree 420, Awara, and Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai. 

Definitely interested!

[Darshana]

yes interested!

Though - though this is totally  mean to say - movies at MoMA are often a depressing experience - so the more of us together the better.  Some of the audience is people who just go to anything, and some of them are there to "relax," i.e. nap; it's all in this underground cinema hall, which should not matter but seems to.  A non-Indian/non-getting-it audience in that space is oppressive.

So I say we have a mission really, to bring the place alive, laugh at right things, etc.

[bella]

Fellow Bollywhaters in the New York area--anyone want to try to get together for some of this?  I live far enough away that it is a hassle to go into the city--but a hassle that can happen.  I realize coordination should take place via PM's, but I wanted to cast the net out there.

I'm torn between wanting to watch again what I already love, and wanting to see things I've had a hard time tracking down.  I've seen and greatly enjoyed Shree 420, Awara, and Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai. 

We are getting close. Any dates for anyone yet? I am going to try for Fri 6:30 screening Awaara. Then try for Monsoon sometime on Sat. 2:30.
And Darshana you are so right. I saw Jodhaa Akbar there and the space is claustrophobic .

[bella]

From NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/movies/moma-presents-a-raj-kapoor-film-festival.html?_r=1&src=dayp

By RACHEL SALTZ
Published: January 5, 2012

It’s one of the most famous sequences in Indian movies. And, not surprisingly, it’s a song. A Chaplinesque tramp with holes in his shoes, too-short pants and a slightly goofy hat skips down a country road and sings these lines in Hindi: “My shoes are Japanese/These pants are English/On my head is a red Russian hat/But still,” he says, pointing to his chest and delivering the kicker, “my heart is Hindustani.”
Enlarge This Image
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive.

Raj Kapoor in “Awaara” (1951).
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University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive.

Kapoor's frequent co-star Nargis, here as a country girl left behind in “Barsaat” (“Monsoon”), from 1949.
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Indian International Film Academy.

Kapoor with Kamini Kaushal in “Aag” (“Fire”), from 1948.

That heart belonged to Raj Kapoor, and his song — a simple statement of patriotism in a globalizing world — struck a chord with audiences in the young Indian republic when it appeared in “Shree 420” (1955). And not just in India; it was a hit in the Middle East and the Soviet Union too. Some middle-aged Russians can still sing it.

Kapoor (1924-88), called the Great Showman — no small tribute in an industry besotted with showmanship — looms large over the Indian film landscape. But how to explain him and his work to those who didn’t grow up with Hindi movies?

As an actor, Kapoor was a leading man who played poets and misfits and lovers. With the actress Nargis, he made up one of Hindi movies’ great romantic couples. And he could be comic too, as in “Shree 420,” in which his everyman tramp is not above the old slipping-on-a-banana-peel gag. (No one is spared: Nargis takes a tumble too.)

As a director and producer, eventually with his own studio, Kapoor lived the auteur’s dream. In a mostly formulaic and conservative industry, he made inventive, personal films that were entertaining and accessible but also something more. Socially conscious and Socialist-inclined with nation-building themes, they resonated in — and maybe even helped to define — a newly independent India busy inventing itself.

For those who have never seen a Hindi movie or are curious about Kapoor, the Museum of Modern Art’s well-chosen eight-film series Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema, opening on Friday, is an excellent place to start, focusing mainly on Kapoor’s heyday, the late 1940s to ’50s. And for those already familiar with Kapoor, the series offers a rare opportunity to see his films as they should be seen: on the big screen, in new 35-millimeter prints.

With its restless hero and inventive visuals, “Aag” (“Fire,” 1948), made when its director-producer-star was just 24, announces a new voice on the scene that all but shouts, “Look at me!” Filmed in gorgeously stylized black and white — pools of darkness are broken by shafts of light, and eyes glow out of faces cast in shadow — it combines expressionism and homegrown melodrama to tell the story of a soulful upper-class young man (Kapoor) who breaks with his conventional family to pursue a career in theater.

Living on his own terms, the hero searches for truth and beauty and long-lost love. But this isn’t just his story, he says, it’s the “story of youth.” He knows that “creating your own destiny isn’t easy” — are you listening, young India? — yet prefers a path full of obstacles to the comfortable life he would lead in his father’s house.

Set in Kashmir, “Barsaat” (“Monsoon,” 1949), a moody romance, also takes place in a world of inky black and whites, of shadows and light and backlighted haloes. With songs by the team of Shankar-Jaikishin, whose music would become the sound of Kapoor films, “Barsaat” follows the parallel stories of two city boys, a poet (Kapoor) and his romantically cynical friend (Prem Nath), who fall in love with country girls.

Kapoor is paired with Nargis, and while there’s no kissing — this is Hindi cinema, after all, which had a long-running ban on it — Kapoor the director finds ways to give their scenes an erotic charge beyond the actors’ obvious chemistry. Watch as he rubs her head or grabs her hair or calls her to him with the siren song of his violin. (She even licks his fingers, calloused from playing.)

In “Awaara” (“The Vagabond,” 1951), perhaps his best movie, Kapoor tries out for the first time his tramp persona, though briefly, in the title song. Both song and film were enormous hits abroad, especially in the Soviet Union, where bands serenaded Nargis and Kapoor with the tune when they visited; in China, Mao was said to be a fan.

Here Kapoor’s not a pampered upper-class fellow, but a fatherless boy, Raju, raised in the Bombay slums, who falls into a life of crime. Written by K. A. Abbas (who also wrote “Shree 420”), the movie mixes mythological themes (the story of Raju’s parents, told in flashback, echoes the epic the Ramayana) with social ones: Can a good man come from the gutter? Can the cycle of poverty and crime be broken? Can a man be judged by who his father is — or isn’t?

There’s also a class-crossing love story, another favorite Kapoor theme, as Raju falls for Rita (Nargis), a lawyer and the ward of a magistrate who just happens to be the father who cast out Raju and his mother. (Kapoor’s real father, Prithviraj Kapoor, a distinguished stage actor, plays the magistrate.)

If “Awaara” is his best movie, “Shree 420” (“Mr. 420”), a clown-rags to well-tailored riches tale, is probably his most emblematic. Looking for work, his outsider tramp lands in the big city, Bombay, where he finds a home along a footpath with other poor people and falls for a schoolteacher, played of course by Nargis. Their moonlit, rain-soaked love song, delivered as they wander along the footpath, the city glittering just beyond, is a justifiably famous four-minute distillation of movie magic.

The tramp, though, becomes corrupt, a city-slicked swindler. (The number in the title refers to the section of the Indian penal code that deals with cheating and fraud.) But he’s redeemed at the end, making common cause again with the poor and powerless as they rise up to agitate for the simple right to housing.

The MoMA series also includes two later color films made at a time when Hindi movies were becoming Bollywood — the term was coined by journalists in the ’70s — and Kapoor was struggling to recover his place in the industry. “Meera Nam Joker” (“My Name Is Joker,” 1970), a maudlin working through of the tramp and clown themes, was a colossal flop. An older, puffier Kapoor looks ill matched with his young leading ladies. But “Bobby” (1973), a teenage love story starring Dimple Kapadia and Rishi Kapoor (Raj’s son), was a colossal hit that ushered in a vogue for tales of young love.

Bollywood movies today don’t look much like the Kapoor films from what MoMA calls the Golden Age. But the Kapoor dynasty stills flourishes. Raj’s brothers and sons have been stars, and now two of his grandchildren, Kareena and Ranbir (they’re cousins), are hard at work in the family trade. Both are actors, but both — is anyone surprised? — may have a not-so-secret dream: to direct.

“Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema” runs from Friday through Jan. 16 at the Museum of Modern Art; (212) 708-9400, moma.org.

[nali476]

My cousin ran into Ranbir Kapoor during Christmas weekend in a NYC restaurant. Maybe he is here to attend this event .

[Darshana]

Just home from seeing Awaara there tonite.

The amazing thing - sold out!! never seen this before for a Hindi movie shown to a non-Indian audience.  Maybe 4 S Asians there, 2 of them people I knew.  Most of audience stayed to the end and clapped.  Nice - but so different to watch a Hindi movie with a "white" audience--you can definitely feel the lack of something - bonding, warmth, love for the actors, humor.

Also an unusual amount of interpersonal tension in audience - my friend and I got there too late to sit together, both of us
separately assailed by other audience members.

[bella]

Truly a great experience to see so many people captivated by the two movies I saw, Awaara  and Barsaat. People applauded both movies.

In line for the ladies room  firangi women asking a mature Indian woman so many questions about Raj Kapoor and Nargis .
They were so sad when she said they were all deceased.

And walking down the street I heard to very young Indian girls talking about how absolutely handsome RK was. I had to interrupt to say yes I agreed and added he had such nice hair..  They were amused.

[Darshana]

How did you like Barsaat, Bella?  I've never seen it!

I think I'll go at least to Bobby next weekend.

[bella]

Barsaat was excellent. Innovative  cinematography and at least two big dance numbers a lilttle like Busby Berkley. Music was great.Cute bit throughout when RK plays the violin and she says Sitar.  Also after some dialogue she sniffs at times as part of her mannerism I loved that.!!

I  noticed the subtitles (dialogue) were very poetic ,smart ,realistic and at times funny. Something that galls me about most modern Indian film. They seem lazy.
The film belonged to Nargis.  I had not seen her in anything but Mother India (years ago)which I will re-watch  having thought it was" over the top" And of course Shree 420. Now I can't get enough of her. Will be searching Netflix etc.

Bobby was my other pick  but Sunday eve will not work for me. Shashi on the big screen and introducing Dimple ?? That's too much fun.

[Darshana]

Yes introducing Dimple!! But it's RIshi starring in it - it's his first movie I think!  And in one scene DImple has, irrelevantly to the movie, henna on her hands because she ran off and married Rajesh khanna around then - twice her age and on the way down, I think.

[Darshana]

I ended up seeing Awaara and Shree 420 in this festival - amazingly both were sold out - they moved Shress 420 into a bigger hall to accommodate the interest - and more amazingly, the crowd was 90% "white," mostly on the older side, like the Museum crowd in general.

I am sure this is a first for any Hindi movie-related event.  It definitely goes to the credit of the power of the NY Times and their excellent article by Rachel Saltz.
Just amazing to me.  (And as some people know, I have been going to every kind of Hindi movie-related event in Manhattan - and Los Angeles and London
on occasion, for that matter - for about ten years.)

Audience liked Shree 420 and clapped at the end.  Audience tried only once to launch a "knowing laugh," and once again, as at Awaara, it didn't
work.  (In Shree 420, the knowing-laugh-launch was attempted at that song where Raj K, drunk, goes to Nargis' house after a party and she rejects
him for what he's become - when he turns to leave her soul, depicted as a ghostly Nargis in white, strains to follow him, though she stays
where she is.)

[DCgal]

This is now shooing at the PFA in Berkeley!  I missed it on my trips to NYC this year, but am going to try to catch some of it here.  Unfortunately, lots of conflicts means I will miss a bunch.  But even 1 - 2 are better than nothing.

I saw Barsaat tonight and thought it was phenomenal.  I've never seen Nargis before, and she was lovely.  Songs I recognized (lots of classics!), and very touching.  Great filming, great acting, great message, great story.  Sigh....

http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/kapoor