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India’s National Fortnightly Magazine | Frontline

100 Years of a Star

Remembering Raj Kapoor: Showman, star, and dreamer

Editor’s Note: Raj Kapoor’s India

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His gentle cinema dreamed of a just nation: socialist in soul, diverse in fabric, and wary of wealth unmoored from ethics.

Vaishna Roy

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Raj Kapoor’s cinema was scaffolding for a nation that was trying to reimagine itself after Independence.

The showman who accidentally documented India’s soul

If one can read a country through its films, Raj Kapoor’s cinema mapped India’s drift from post-Independence optimism to wealth-obsessed conformity.

C.S. Venkiteswaran

To think of Raj Kapoor is to hear Mukesh convey the truth of Shailendra’s lyrics: social truths, emotional truths, a community’s truth or a nation’s. In the picture, the playback singer Mukesh accompanied by the actor Raj Kapoor.

Song of the vagabond heart

A fine musician himself, Raj Kapoor introduced lyricist Shailendra and composer duo Shankar-Jaikishan, redefining Hindi cinema and their careers.

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Awara and the Constitutional question

Raj Kapoor’s 1951 film staged a cinematic dissent from postcolonial law, demanding dignity for the urban poor within the new moral order.

Lawrence Liang

A scene from Jagte Raho

Uncommon men, common dreams

The showman gave India a bunch of heroes who laughed through hardship, sang through socialism, and smuggled self-love into class struggle.

Aditya Shrikrishna

A tale of two Indias

How Netflix’s Jubilee turned Shree 420’s genuine working-class hero into a Cold War conspiracy, missing what made Raj Kapoor a global phenomenon.

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You can’t replicate Raj Kapoor today: Nasreen Munni Kabir

The writer and documentary filmmaker explores Raj Kapoor’s cinema, his political vision, and timeless collaborations with Abbas and Shailendra.

Raj Kapoor and Nargis

The showman and his songs

However far Hindi cinema has moved from its older idioms, Raj Kapoor’s song performances remain fresh and accessible to those who seek them out.

Jai Arjun Singh

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Acting innocent

In Raj Kapoor’s later cinema, innocence is no longer organic—it is a stylised deflection, a mask worn after the fall, not before it.

Prathyush Parasuraman

Prathyush Parasuraman

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The poor little rich man

Raj Kapoor’s films dressed up socialism for the big screen—but the class line was clear: the elite still got the starring roles.

M.K. Raghavendra

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Raj and his Kavi Raj

Shailendra, fondly called Pushkin and Kavi Raj, wrote the theme songs for every Raj Kapoor film from Barsaat in 1949 to Mera Naam Joker in 1970.

Ashutosh Sharma

Ashutosh Sharma

The “managing agency” set up by Raj in Shree 420

Shree 420 and the alchemy of Bombay’s capitalist dream

The 1955 classic is more than a parable of corruption; it maps how scams, gold, and real estate laid the foundations of Bombay’s post-war economy.

Ashish Rajadhyaksha

Raj Kapoor never stopped experimenting: Nasreen Munni Kabir

Kabir examines not only Raj Kapoor’s films but the radical spirit that animated them

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A member of the LGBTQIA+ community takes part in the 13th Annual LGBTIQ Pride March in Pune on June 8, 2025. India remains a country of 1.4 billion that produced the Kama Sutra and marvels at the erotic sculptures adorning its temple walls, yet remains deeply uncomfortable with sex and homosexuality.

NALSA promised dignity. This case will test its truth

As trans doctors seek the rights assured in 2014, the Supreme Court must decide whether its words were a mandate or a mirage.

Long treated as decorative, the Constitution’s illustrations are revealed as deliberate, symbolic interventions in India’s foundational legal text.

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In revisiting the illustrated Constitution, a new book restores the document’s artistic spirit and political imagination.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, when he was Governor of West Bengal, paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 52nd death anniversary, in Kolkata on January 30, 2007.

Eyewitness to a withering republic

Gopalkrishna Gandhi traces India’s moral and political decline with insight and grace, making this book a compelling read.

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Two Jenu Kuruba elders in Karadi Kallu hamlet. More than 150 Jenu Kurubas have reoccupied Nagarahole National Park, invoking the Forest Rights Act. Their action raises deep questions about the limits of conservation, delayed justice, and tribal autonomy in protected areas.

Tribal group in Nagarahole fights for forest land

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A crowd of fans gather in large numbers during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s felicitation ceremony after winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, in front of Vidhana Soudha, in Bengaluru on June 4, 2025.

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Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma during the ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2024 final against South Africa. Their abrupt retirements mark a shift from ceremonial farewells to quiet exits, mirroring the changing rhythms of Indian cricket fandom.

Cricket retirements no longer pull at the heartstrings of Indian fans

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In this interview, Grover tells Frontline that a film clicks or connects with people if it has honesty.

Art has to provide a creative way to resist: Varun Grover

Arts & Culture

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