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Here’s the article from Filmfare 1954:
Raj Kapoor & Nargis who hasn’t heard of these romantic screen lovers? Since their visits abroad their fame has spread over four continents & not even those great romantic screen pairs of yesteryear Gilbert & Garbo, Fairbanks & Pickford were more widely known or received greater adulation than this team of Raj Kapoor & Nargis.
Even people who have never set foot inside an Indian picture house people who boast of never having seen an Indian film are familiar with the names of Raj & Nargis.
In the countries where their films have been screened, Raj & Nargis have become prototypes for cinema-crazy young boys & girls. To them Raj & Nargis symbolises love, romance & gaiety. They’re perfect lover’s two happy people in a careworn, war-tone world of sighs & heartbreaks.
What makes these two clicks anyway? What is it that makes them universally popular year after year when countless other screen pairs have faded into oblivion after a few pictures together?
In just one word- two, rather the answer is teamwork. Yes, teamwork which is slick, to the point, fresh in its outlook, and bubbling in its enthusiasm. Theirs is a fusion of two artistic souls working towards the same goal.
Listen to what Nargis has to say about it. “Before I started working with Raj, I found that my ideas were bottled up, so to say. No doubt I was inexperienced at the time, but I was full of ideas & there was no one with whom I could discuss them freely.
With Raj, it’s different. We seem to have practically the same views & ideas, the same outlook on all subjects.” It was in Aag, Raj’s first independent venture that these two first appeared together.
Found One Another
It cannot be said that they clicked with the picturegoer right away, but what is important is that they had found each other and from then on was established this wonderful young team that took Indian youth by storm. Curiously enough, this screen pair seems a trifle incongruity, perhaps, lending them charm and franchise.
Raj, a fiend for work, serious and conscientious when the occasion demands it, is essentially a clown, a charming playboy full of fun and mischief, and a typically Gallic “joie de vivre”. He has the heart of a boy and the mind of a genius.
Nargis the Indian screen’s most gracious young lady, is the antidote to Raj’s frolics. With her charm, poise, good manners, and serious outlook, she is the real anchor of this team. One complements the other. Raj lights her up with his boisterous fun; she tones him down with her sedateness.
In “Papi” this influence was most evident. The first half of the film, if you remember, displayed the finest example of teamwork ever seen on screen.
Andaaz, Barsaat, and Awaara were the crowning glories in the careers of Raj and Nargis. While in Andaaz each of the three principals- Dilip, Nargis, and Raj have equally important roles and the romantic element was more or less divided in Barsaat and Awaara the romantic overtures of this popular team sizzled life frying bacon.
Young India went mad over these lovable lovers. Boys and girls all over the country began overnight to look, dress, and act like Raj Kapoor and Nargis.
Make Believe Out
Yet Raj Kapoor himself does not quite approve of the accent on romance where the team is concerned.
He says: “The days of the dashing screen lover, swinging from chandeliers and climbing parapets to win his lady love are gone. The world has changed and with it our young men and women. Romance of the palpitating kind has no place in the life of the average Indian youth. Today’s young man has burdened with care and more often than not his pockets are empty.
He cannot spend his time gyrating with his sweetheart in the moonlight. If he gives her a present it will probably be a circlet of flowers plucked from a public garden.”
And this is the type of romance which Raj Kapoor and Nargis now went to typify on the screen. The kind of romance today’s young men and women will easily understand and accept because it is the kind they are experiencing in this practical world.
But what of escapism? Do not young people want to get away from their drab surroundings and live in a romantic make-believe world?
Well yes, says Raj, but in that case, I would make an outright fantasy so that the exotic romance can be in keeping with the imaginary make-believe characters. But if the film is about life in India today then make-believe definitely out. The youngsters must not have a chance to form wrong impressions.
Wise words these and of course Nargis agrees wholeheartedly. There it is again. She and Raj have the same ideas think along the same lines.
They are working partners in every sense of the word. The only survivors of the star system here, they continue to be in the limelight even when they are not making pictures.
The R.K. Studios at Chembur is filled with young blood-eagar enthusiastic workers who look to their young boss Raj & his sweet and intelligent partner, Nargis, for help & guidance.
The team spirit is inculcated in all of them. Naturally, because they work with the world’s most perfect team.
Both of them believe that filmmaking today should be in the hands of young people for they understand present-day problems as their elders cannot.