The original vagabond

Gayatri Chatterjee's President's Gold Medal winning book, Awara, gives us an instance when four generations acted together in a film "" Randhir Kapoor, as the little boy, shown in the title montage, Raj his father "" the actor-director playing the title role, his father Prithviraj, playing the feudal advocate Raghunath, and in a very interesting cameo, his father Lala Bashesar Nath as the judge presiding over the courtroom scene.

But such trivia apart, Gayatri Chatterjee's book should be treasured by every discerning film buff. Apart from containing a detailed description about the making of the classic, Chatterjee's insights into Kapoor's directoral style, his Chaplin-meets-gangster era portrayal of the tramp and the underlining theme of class conflict "" between the 'have not' proletariat and the feudal urban capitalist "" Raghunath.

The book examines every possible aspect of Awara to try and understand not just its enduring appeal, but also its intrinsic merit as a milestone in mainstream cinema in its social and historical context.

Chatterjee charts the course of the showman "" the actor, director and filmmaker "" but briefly touches upon why she considered Awara the film to write about, and why she did not choose either of Aag or Barsaat, films prior to Awara.

One simple reason could be that Awara, in more than a titular way of paying homage to Raj Kapoor's probably greatest inspiration "" Chaplin. But the other and more plausible reason could perhaps be that in contrast to the gothic melodrama of Aag and the surreally romantic Barsaat, Awara, is much more a comment on the times. The best and the worst in their own ways.

Released on December 21, a year after India declared itself a Republic, the issue of class conflict raises its head in every frame. So much so, that Raj, to drive home the point to the euphoric rejoicers at the time of Independence, that the enemy was very much within, cast his father "" Prithviraj, as his ideological opponent in the film.

The question underlined time and time again is whether birth (or legacy) determines a person's fate or is it his actions "" the underlying principle from the Bible of Hindu India "" the Bhagavad Gita.

While the treatment of Kapoor as the lovable thief, the romantic outlaw, replete with Dickensian justification of his misdeeds, reminds one very much of the Hollywood gangster genre, that was to make a far better impression on the box-office years later, in the form of Ashok Kumar's Kismat, the core of conflict in Awara, echoes one of the most enduring set pieces in the mother of all Indian stories "" the Mahabharata.

While as a deprived outcast, Raj plays Karna to the hilt, there is the undercurrent of belonging that he craves for. However, while Karna, held his ground and loyalties till the last spoke of his wheel, succumbed to divine gravity, Raj, the protagonist, gives in to the conventional path and wishes to end up like his more socially-acceptable father.

Like most members of the audience he would any day lap up the beauty of songs, flowers and Rita's (the leading lady, played by his better half on screen "" Nargis) voice than perish in his hell of struggle, want and the constant fear of tomorrow "" a point the romantic makes through the dream and nightmare song sequences in the film "" arguably the best dream sequences ever to have come out of Radhu Karmakar's camera.

But more than mere ideological conflicts, Awara, the film is a reminder of what true-to-heart cinema is all about. Raj Kapoor's central theme across his films has been the feudal divide "" and he carried the thread of the patriarch being powerful yet helpless, bound by destiny and the practices of society, all along.

Like Ghatak's passion for partition and migration, Mrinal Sen's studies on the degenerative effects of capitalism, Raj Kapoor has constantly dealt with issues of feudalism from Awara through Satyam Shivam Sundaram to hi swan song Ram Teri Ganga Maili, without falling for the populist folly of typecasting.

Having said that, Awara, also shows up Raj Kapoor, at his performing best "" the unruly gangster, the masochist lover. The hero, who unlike the other tragedy-king Dilip Kumar, looks at the last frame of his film with hope in his eyes, and his beloved beside him. You walk out of the theatre with the same light in your eyes. And the book gives you every possible outlook on the film, that did it.

But sadly "" and this is what Chatterjee, should have provided a pointer to "" one does not get to read much about what led to the Chaplin act, the Tobu-cycle handlebar moustache and the quivering left upper lip, the representative motif of the loser in all his coming films and why he did not remodel himself as changing society brought with it the romantic idealist, the strong-willed patriot and finally the angry young man.

Raj in Awara may have been Gandhian, in the sense that he was a 'king' by name, but a fakir on the street, who had the choices of the world, but preferred to be the 'original vagabond'. We, nevertheless, wait eagerly for Ms Chatterjee's next coming.

AWARA

Gayatri Chatterjee

Penguin Books, India

Pages: XXV + 136

Price: Rs 275