Time magazine has included Raj Kapoor’s 1951 classic Awaara among 20 new entries added to its list of All Time 100 Greatest Films made since 1923, the year the prestigious US periodical was first published.
Rethinking the movie masterpieces, Time critic Richard Corliss describes Raj Kapoor as “the great star-auteur of India’s postcolonial golden age of movies – Cary Grant and Cecil B. DeMille in one handsome package.”
“The ’50s films he headlined and directed became huge hits not just in his newly freed homeland but also across the Arab crescent from Indonesia to North Africa,” Time noted.
Raj Kapoor, who modelled his screen persona on Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp, was 26 when he filmed Awaara.
Time calls Awaara “a glistening showcase for Kapoor and the great India siren Nargis (his lover onscreen and off).”
“And, of course, it’s a musical, whose main song, Awaara Hoon, by the famed Shanker-Jaikishan duo, soared to the top of the pop charts in India, the former USSR and China.”
The original All-Time 100 list published in 2005 included Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy, Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan and Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa.
Bollywood composer AR Rahman’s score for Mani Ratnam’s Roja, the tale of a woman whose lover is kidnapped by terrorists, was also among 10 Best Soundtracks.
Last week, Time magazine ranked director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2002 film Devdas eighth among the 10 greatest movies of the millennium (thus far).
https://movies.ndtv.com/movie_story.aspx?Section=Movies&ID=ENTEN20120204608&subcatg=MOVIESINDIA&keyword=bollywood&nid=216733
Tags: Awara Raj Kapoor
