should have been called Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! It’s an irritating exercise in complete and utter narcissism from Raj Kapoor.
Here is a quick synopsis (from the DVD cover, because I can’t be bothered):
If Raj (Raj Kapoor) had his way, he would have been a poet, not the engineer that circumstances made him into. The perfection of nature fascinated him more than the nature of mechanical things. One day Raj is sent to work at the Saraswati Dam, the exquisitely beautiful location. As Raj reveled in his new found paradise, his father visits him and tells him about his deceased mother’s wish that Raj should marry Chandra (Vijay Laxmi), the sophisticated daughter of a rich family friend. On his father’s insistence, Raj agrees to write to Chandra. The letter is sheer poetry, but it’s beauty completely wasted on Chandra who wants to ignore it. Neelu (Nargis), her teenage sister, moved by the writer’s eloquence and sincerity, acknowledges the letter on her behalf. Neelu’s reply sparks off a correspondence and then circumstances that lead Neelu and Raj falling deeply in love. Just when it seems that they will live happily ever after, Raj is diagnosed suffering from TB, a disease that killed his mother. A shocked Raj decides that he loves Neelu too much to commit her to an uncertain future and deceives her into believing that he actually loves Chandra. Does Neelu ever find out Raj’s selfless love for her? Will the two lovers be united again?
Why should anybody care? My mother, my sister and I all want to slap Raj, hard.
Here is one of the few bright spots: Pran as his (non-villainous) doctor friend, Kailash:
Raj spends a lot of time feeling sorry for himself and—more importantly—causing innocent, open-hearted Neelu to suffer. God forbid he should respect the girl he loves enough to tell her what’s going on, and let her make decisions about her own life and how she wants to live it.
No: it’s much better to let her suffer in ignorance, with her faith in her own judgment and trust in others completely ruined!
There are 45 self-indulgent minutes in the middle of the film that just switch from Neelu sobbing in the fetal position on her bed to Raj racked with consumptive coughing in a sanatorium—back and forth, back and forth. Neelu incidentally wears the exact same chrysanthemum-print outfit for months on end. I don’t think it’s a clever ploy to highlight her depression though; the film is not that intelligent. Maybe they had a very small wardrobe budget.
Anyway, I guess this endless loop of sobbing and coughing is supposed to drive home the point that we are supposed to feel sorry for him and admire his sacrifice; I just want him to cough up his lungs once and for all, and EXPIRE already so that we can all move on.
His self absorption doesn’t end there. He has to drag Neelu’s sister Chandra into his scheme (unwittingly on her part—she has no idea that he is the man who has broken Neelu’s heart). He flirts with her in front of Neelu, and leads them both to believe that he wants to marry Chandra. Why should he be honest with her either? Who cares if he ruins their relationship in the process? And breaks Chandra’s heart too? It’s all about him, him, him.
Then he emotionally blackmails Kailash into agreeing to marry Neelu (is there no limit to how many lives he can ruin?). He finally comes clean with Chandra—although he burdens her now too with the plea not to tell Neelu.
But after everything he has put Neelu through, he can’t bear to fade away quietly and let her get on with her life. No, he needs to go to her wedding gasping his dramatic last so that everyone can see how noble and self-sacrificing he is.
I guess it’s a good thing that Chandra tells Neelu everything (she’s much smarter and less selfish than Raj), although personally I think Neelu would be much better off with Kailash. Everyone applauds Raj’s “selfless love” and Neelu falls at his feet while Mom, my sister and I all gag in disbelief.
And then he doesn’t even die but miraculously gets better!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
Besides Pran, the other two bright spots in Aah (although not bright enough to make it worth watching): Rashid Khan as Raj’s TB specialist (in a most excellent Freudian beard and hairdo), and the music. Singer Mukesh plays a tongawallah in the final song as he carts a “dying” Raj to Neelu’s wedding.
Luckily, I watched Awara a few days later which was a much better film and so Raj Kapoor redeemed himself slightly.
Tags: bad Hindi movies, narcissism, Raj Kapoor
March 27, 2008 at 4:46 pm |
Hum, nice review, but it’s a pity this movie doesn’t live up to Raj Kapoor’s fame! I’ll just have to tug him down a little from his pedestal, then, I suppose!
Would you still recommend watching, or not AT ALL?
March 27, 2008 at 5:10 pm |
Not AT ALL. Unless you enjoy self-pity, narcissism and torturing those you supposedly love.
I know I’m attacking a sacred cow here, but the only Raj Kapoor films I’ve ever liked were Shri 420 and now—as I said above—Awara…
March 28, 2008 at 10:50 am |
I feel somwhat better, because I – umm- cant stand Raj Kapoor- I find ALL his movies showed his character as highly improbably, and almost always wallowing in oceans of self pity (Mera Naam Joker- eugh- that was the ultimate self indulgence me thinks).
And Pran is adorable.
I also think its almost fun (though the diseases arent) how Bollywood “adopts” a new disease every decade to kill off characters with- the 50s had tuberculosis, the 60s and 70s had drugs, the 70s and 80s had cancer, and the 90s-current have aids :S
March 28, 2008 at 11:42 am |
Oh thank god I’m not alone!!!!! :-) Thank you Shweta.
I find his whole movie persona—the “Chaplin-esque” characteristics he’s so well-known for—so disingenuous (in the true sense of the word—i.e. lacking sincerity, pretending to be unsophisticated, falsely ingenuous):
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disingenuous
But his reputation is so huge that even I am scared to admit it.
I do so love Shammi and Shashi though. And Prithviraj too—he was the best thing in Awara by far.
March 28, 2008 at 9:48 pm |
Ahh, Memsaab, I’m happy to hear about someone who feels the same way about Raj. The first Raj movie I saw was Sangam, which was OK, but I partly had to force myself to like it given Raj had this big rep. I watched Awaara next, which blew me away (!), then Teesri Kasam, which was similarly awesome, and followed it up with Aag, which was pretty awful. I’m now moving through Shree 420. I must say, I think Raj was certainly capable of being very charismatic and poignant (e.g. the scenes of reunion between him and Nargis in Awaara are divine, and the latter half of Teesri Kasam is likewise perfection), but he could also tend so easily and blatantly into self-absorbed and indulgent histrionics (most of Aag, most of Sangam).
I must say Shashi was much more consistently lovable – and he knew how to share the screen, as well! (And he kept the weight off for longer…)
The problem is that Good Raj is SO good that I’m eager to watch more of his films in the hopes that I find more of the Awaara/Teesri Kasam actor. But it seems like a lot of his fame was built on the Raju/Tramp character and, even though I’m enjoying Shree 420 so far, I also find the character of Raj (1) a bit hard to believe, as you say, and (2) a bit of a rip-off, too. Hey, Shashi never based his whole image on Indianizing a Western icon!
Anyway, I’ll remove Aa(aaaa)h from the list. Perhaps Barsaat? I love the Raj/Nargis duo. I think the key is finding something where Raj can (1) share the screen, and (2) be subtle. Because that’s when he really is pretty damn awesome.
March 29, 2008 at 9:50 am |
By all means remove Aaaaaaaah from your list. I have Barsaat and Teesri Kasam, although I haven’t watched them yet. I think Aag was the first film I wrote on this blog about, and I hated it too.
He did have a gift for music, though, I’ll give him that much!
March 31, 2008 at 10:15 pm |
Memsaab,
Nice review! Aah is essentially a lot of good music in service of a really bad plot. But then, so are many other movies from that period – too much overwrought melodrama set to some amazing tunes.
Raj was capable of some amazing stuff, as in Awaara, but every once in a while, he plumbed the depths with movies like this one.
Hindi films have this obsession with dying protagonists — one could track the progress of medical science by looking at the diseases they die of. TB was big at one point, then cancer ruled the roost for a while (leukaemia mainly) with a dose of brain tumor for variety. Now that there is a new strain of TB out there with a lot of medical research focused on it, it won’t be long before someone dies of it in the movies.
Heart disease usually comes in as a plot device (one of the characters has heart disease and shouldn’t be given any shocking news, happy or sad), although it too got its due in Kal Ho Na Ho (alternate title: How to die for three hours in NY).
~r
April 7, 2008 at 4:43 pm |
Memsaab,
Have you seen Jagte Raho? Raj is not directing, but he’s really quite good, and the film is a very interesting experiment in the exploration of the public unconscious.
I can’t really agree with you about his being disingenuous, though. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t seen enough of his (bad) films? But you know, art is artifice through and through, so a good artist is never 100% ingenuous. I wouold therefore refrain from using this category to criticise an artist.
And then the Raj Kapoor I know can create enough art for me to say that he’s ingenuous enough. Ingenuous in the sense that we forget his disingenuousness.
April 7, 2008 at 5:28 pm |
Ramsu: “How to die for three hours in NY” = :-D
Yves: Well, more people agree with you than with me; but I can’t stand his innocent country bumpkin act. I think Raj is better in movies that he did not direct (eg Andaz which is a movie I enjoyed a lot)…
April 11, 2008 at 3:04 pm |
I thought I was alone in my hatred of all things Raj Kapoor. His innocent country bumpkin meets Chaplin act, his wallowing, his narcissism, his holier-than-thou ‘the world poops on me, but I am such a nice guy for not losing faith in mankind’ routine – all make me look around desperately for heavy objects to hurl.
Even music wise, I have issues. Admittedly there is reasonably good music in RK films, but the Shankar-Jaikishan/Raj Kapoor output got repetitive after a while. And while I am sure people will lynch me for saying this – I think Mukesh sounds so much better when he is NOT singing for RK on screen. I realize that RK is what gave him fame, but I still prefer his non-RK work. (Mukesh for Kalyanji-Anandji, for instance.)
Yay. Such happiness comes at having found you.
April 11, 2008 at 3:30 pm |
I think of Mukesh more as Dilip Kumar’s voice, which enables me to love him. He was a very cute tongawallah in this unbearable movie, too :-)
I am glad you have found us, too: welcome!
April 11, 2008 at 3:49 pm |
I am not particular fond of Dilip Kumar either, so thinking of him as Mukesh’s face is not helping matters for moi :) Rafi is who I imagine Dilip always singing in. Especially when he is broken-hearted.
But cute tongawallah, I can handle. It isn’t enough reason to watch Aah (it made an appearance on Zee TV recently, but I avoided. Smart, I am.) but it makes me happy for Mukesh.
And ooh. I notice Boston in the Tehelka writeup? Hello from a fellow Beantowner :)
April 19, 2008 at 7:39 pm |
Raj Kapoor did not direct the film, so maybe he didint care about the film? (He was probably thinking about making Shree 420). Anyway, I did not like the movie either , but the music is better than I expected.
June 7, 2008 at 6:08 pm |
Wait till you see Barsaat. *chuckle*
June 7, 2008 at 9:48 pm |
Barsaat is worse???? That cannot be.
July 19, 2008 at 12:19 am |
I saw the song you got your first screencap from on YouTube and was intrigued. Thank goodness you reviewed it here because I couldn’t find a synopsis anywhere and might have actually rented the stupid thing!
July 19, 2008 at 9:09 am |
I would rather stick needles in my eyes than ever watch this thing again.
September 8, 2008 at 10:11 am |
The 2 Raj Kumar movies that I remember liking genuinely are Teesri kasam and Jaagte Raho. Infact Jaagte Raho was one of the first films that I was surprised by how much I liked. Would definitely recommend that one.
September 8, 2008 at 10:23 am |
OMG did I just commit the faux Pas of the century??? Yes! I referred to Raj Kapoor as Raj Kumar. Unforgivable!! This just proves that I suck at multi-tasking (watching Joroo ka ghulam, reading your blog starting from post#1, and keeping an eye out for my boss :P)
September 8, 2008 at 10:43 am |
No problem Karishma, we’ll just go with RK ;-) I have Jagte Raho and Teesri Kasam…but have to steel myself to watch them. I did like Andaz, Shree 420 and Awara but this film was just UNbearable!
September 11, 2008 at 2:50 pm |
>> should have been called Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! It’s an irritating
>> exercise in complete and utter narcissism from Raj Kapoor.
LOL ! and he is not even the director (dir: Raja Nawathe) . Both Nargis and Vijayalakshmi are stunning in the movie though, and the excellent music makes the film bearable.
Raj Kapoor has of course indulged in narcissism elsewhere too, MNJ and Sangam being prime examples.
Very interesting you mention Mukesh as Dilip Kumar’s voice … I find the whole the tonga situation quite similar to the setting of Devdas returning to see Paro …
Cheers !
Amarendra