Actor, director, and mogul Raj Kapoor (1924–1988) was one of the giants of Indian cinema, and is synonymous with the rise of the monolith known as “Bollywood.” Largely unknown in North America — except, of course, to millions and millions of fans of South Asian descent! — Kapoor is revered not only in India but throughout much of the rest of world for the fi lms he made during the Golden Age of Indian cinema.

Beginning his career as an actor with his father Prithviraj’s famed theatre company and then in small fi lm roles beginning in 1935, Kapoor founded RK Films in 1948, the most important studio of India’s post-Independence era. He made his debut as a producer, director, and lead with the hit fi lm Aag (Fire), in which he starred for the fi rst time with his onscreen muse, the celebrated actress Nargis. Deriving his screen persona from the smirk and swagger of Clark Gable, the heightened emotions and showmanship of Gene Kelly, and, most importantly, Charlie Chaplin’s underdog heroism and sense of pathos, Kapoor rapidly became the biggest superstar of Indian cinema. Meanwhile, his stylistic innovations as a director — from the expressionism and gritty neorealism of his early fi lms, to his introduction of epic-length musical numbers, to the eye-popping, Technicolor delirium of his more commercially-minded late period — helped set the template of the Bollywood fi lm as it is today. Along with their modern-day, hyper-romantic style, Kapoor’s fi lms had another hallmark: a deeply felt concern with social issues that paralleled the reformist and nation-building efforts of Gandhi and Nehru.

Kapoor himself saw his impact in more modest terms. He viewed his contribution as taking the latent romanticism of pre-war Indian commercial cinema and making it frank, intense, and personal, creating a new idiom for the expression of emotion that had little place in traditional Indian literature and drama.

“My shoes are Japanese,

These pants are English,

The red hat on my heat is Russian,

But still, my heart is Indian.”

This exhibition of thirteen legendary Kapoor fi lms, many of them in newly struck 35mm prints, celebrates one of the most ravishing and infl uential periods of world cinema and the extraordinary talents of an artist known in India as The Great Showman.

Acknowledgments: “Raj Kapoor and The Golden Age of Indian Cinema” was curated by Noah Cowan, Artistic Director, TIFF Bell Lightbox (Toronto) and was organized by TIFF, IIFA (International Indian Film Academy), and RK Films with the support of the Government of Ontario. 

Series introduction and program notes adapted from descriptions written by Noah Cowan for TIFF.

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ALL AGES WELCOME! ANNUAL $3 MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENT IN EFFECT FOR THOSE 18+

Applicable B.C. fi lm classifi cation (rating) for each fi lm is provided with fi lm descriptions and/or will available on our website.

All films in Hindi with English subtitles.

AND THE

BOLLYWOOD’S GREAT SHOWMAN:

GOLDEN AGE OF INDIAN CINEMA

RAJKAPOOR

RAJ KAPOOR, “MERA JOOTA HAI JAPANI”, SHREE 420  [music by Shankar-Jaikishan, lyrics by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri]

M E D I A S P O N S O R S

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