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Awaara (1951, India) (aka Tramp,
or The Vagabond)
In director Raj Kapoor's acclaimed, blockbuster Hindi-language
social drama and musical love story (one of the most successful Bollywood
films ever made), commentary focused upon fate and nature (Does fateful
predestination or predetermination of social classes exist? If one
was once a thief, was one always a thief?):
- the main characters in a triangle of relationships:
embittered Judge Raghunath (Prithviraj Kapoor, the director's real-life
father), his estranged criminal son Raj (director Raj Kapoor) -
the
"Awara" of the film's title who was struggling to reform
himself, and Raj's school friend turned love interest Rita (Nargis)
- a Ward (or guardian) of the Judge
- the sparks of love and misunderstanding between Raj
and Rita - especially in the scene of Rita changing her clothes on
the beach just after swimming, when she claimed that gentlemen wouldn't
stare: ("Gentlemen don't barge in when ladies are changing dresses.
Don't you know that?"); when he asked about her label for him
("I'm no gentleman"), she teasingly called him junglee ("a
savage") and claimed: "I'm not about to give in to your
type" - he was deeply offended by her label for him, and roughly
grabbed and slapped her: "Savage? I'm a penniless, uneducated
tramp! I don't fit into high society. How dare I maul your fragile
body with my beastly hands. I told Ma that childhood friends, like
childhood days, are gone, never to return. Good of you to have told
me my class"; she apologized: "It was a joke, don't get
angry,"
surrendered to him, and they hugged
Heaven-and-Hell Dream Scenario: Rita and Raj
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- the 12-minute long musical dream sequence about
the uplifting power of love, and a tug-of war for Raj's soul, set
in a heaven-and-hell scenario; heroine Rita was in heavenly clouds
singing a love song beckoning to Raj below to join with her and
be saved: ("Without you, this moonlight is like fire. Do come....The
flute is not melodious without you. This life of mine is a melody
of pain. Do come"), while in the dark fires of Hell below,
Raj sang: ("This is not life. This is not life. I am burning
alive in this fire of life. The arrows of fire run through me.
I don't want this hell; I want the flower, the love, the friend.
I want the spring..."); he struggled to climb and crawl up
steps to be united with an overjoyed Rita (Rita: "My foreigner
has returned home. The thirst in my eyes is quenched. You are the
pearl of my heart. You are the light of my eyes. You are the remembrance
of my childhood. My foreigner has returned home. Now don't go away
breaking my heart. Don't leave me crying. You are under the oath
of my tears") and they walked together on a circular ascending
pathway and then along a glittering, meandering trail; suddenly,
Raj's father appeared with a gigantic knife - and Raj immediately
fell back to hell as he cried out: "Rita!"
- Raj awoke from his dream, screaming for his mother Leela (Leela
Chitnis):
"Mother, Mother, save me, Mother!"
- the final sequence - Raj was reconciled with his Judge
father and accepted as his legitimate son; Raj was imprisoned in
jail for three years for the self-defense murder of bandit Jagga
(K.N. Singh) (who had originally sullied Leela's name after kidnapping
her, and created doubts in the Judge's mind about their unborn son
Raj at the time), and there was hope for a future together for Raj
and Rita (they hugged each other through the jail cell bars)
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Raj and Rita
Argument Between the Lovers About His "Savage" Nature
Final Sequence: Raj Imprisoned But Hugged by Rita
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