My school library has a decent amount of Bollywood films, but not many oldies. That's why I was very pleased to see Awara on the shelf, and I checked it out immediately. After I watched it I glanced through a few Bollywood blogs, and I was surprised to see this listed on so few of the blogs I checked. I suppose there are reasons for it not to be a popular pick, but there are also some strong reasons to watch it. I'll just tell you two, these being:
Reason 1: Little Shashi! I make it a point never to read back covers before I watch the movie—they tend to give away too much—so I was very surprised and happy when Shashi showed up as the young Raj. He looks just like himself (i.e., adorable). He actually gets a fair amount of screen time, too, and acts extremely well. The cover informs me that this was the only child's role he ever played. See how cute he is!
Reason 2: The song at the end of this post. It's quite trippy, which is usually a plus in my book. I especially love the fallen column slide. Of course, the devils dancing in hell are quite entertaining, too. The helpful back cover informs me that this was the first dream sequence in Hindi cinema. Obviously, it caught on.
In case you were curious about what reasons would make you not want to watch the film, I'll share one of those. Prithviraj Kapoor plays Judge Raghunath, and Raj Kapoor plays his son, Raj. Judge Raghunath firmly believes that honesty is hereditary. Predictably, Raj becomes a thief, but he does inherit another characteristic of his father's—mistreating women. Judge Raghunath throws his wife out of the house while she's in labor with Raj because he suspects (falsely) that she was raped. Raj slaps his girlfriend until she falls to the ground when she tells him it's ungentlemanly to look her way when she's changing. (Both of the women seem to think they somehow deserve this treatment, too.) This made the rest of the story a bit less satisfactory.
Still, the movie has its points. I mean, it has Little Shashi! That's worth something. Also, it's a must-see if you're a fan of the Kapoor clan; it's got Prithviraj, Raj, Shashi, and Wikipedia says that "Prithiviraj's father Dewan Bashwanath Kapoor also played a cameo role in his only film appearance." I'm not quite sure, but I have a guess about who he played.
Reason 1: Little Shashi! I make it a point never to read back covers before I watch the movie—they tend to give away too much—so I was very surprised and happy when Shashi showed up as the young Raj. He looks just like himself (i.e., adorable). He actually gets a fair amount of screen time, too, and acts extremely well. The cover informs me that this was the only child's role he ever played. See how cute he is!
Reason 2: The song at the end of this post. It's quite trippy, which is usually a plus in my book. I especially love the fallen column slide. Of course, the devils dancing in hell are quite entertaining, too. The helpful back cover informs me that this was the first dream sequence in Hindi cinema. Obviously, it caught on.
In case you were curious about what reasons would make you not want to watch the film, I'll share one of those. Prithviraj Kapoor plays Judge Raghunath, and Raj Kapoor plays his son, Raj. Judge Raghunath firmly believes that honesty is hereditary. Predictably, Raj becomes a thief, but he does inherit another characteristic of his father's—mistreating women. Judge Raghunath throws his wife out of the house while she's in labor with Raj because he suspects (falsely) that she was raped. Raj slaps his girlfriend until she falls to the ground when she tells him it's ungentlemanly to look her way when she's changing. (Both of the women seem to think they somehow deserve this treatment, too.) This made the rest of the story a bit less satisfactory.
Still, the movie has its points. I mean, it has Little Shashi! That's worth something. Also, it's a must-see if you're a fan of the Kapoor clan; it's got Prithviraj, Raj, Shashi, and Wikipedia says that "Prithiviraj's father Dewan Bashwanath Kapoor also played a cameo role in his only film appearance." I'm not quite sure, but I have a guess about who he played.
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