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Awaara is most popular film of all times
Agencies Posted online: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 at 1341 hrs
The 1951 Raj Kapoor starrer Awaara, which has been seen and enjoyed by a large number of people across the globe, can be a candidate for the title of the "most popular film of all times", feel British film experts. Dina Iordanova, professor at the University of St Andrews, and other experts cite several texts and anecdotal evidence to state in a special issue of the journal South Asian Popular Cinema that Awaara may be a candidate for the title of the "most popular film of all times". The journal issue maps the career of Indian films in various national contexts outside South Asia and includes several papers exploring the popularity of Indian films in places such as Greece, Bulgaria, Africa and Turkey. The papers cast fresh light on the popularity of Indian films beyond the better-known overseas markets such as the US and Britain. The special issue is titled 'Indian Cinema Abroad: Historiography of Transnational Cinematic Exchanges' and is co-edited by Iordanova and Dimitris Eleftheriotis of Glasgow University. Iordanova and others write extensively on Awaara in the issue. Recalling her Bulgarian origins and childhood, Iordanova said "I knew Indian films long before I had met any living Indian. We knew next to nothing of India and the Indians; we did not know much of the personality of Raj Kapoor either. "However, the fascination with a film like Awaara (Brodyaga in Bulgarian) was everlasting; everybody knew the actor's ever-singing dancing persona. Nothing could match up to the experience of watching Awaara; this film was more fascinating than any other I can remember," she said. "Even though repeat viewing is not typical for the cinema going practices of Bulgarians, many admit that they have seen Awaara numerous times. Why such fascination? The copy that we were watching was fairly old; the film was overlong and markedly over-the-top. Yet it was so absorbing. "It was a film that, in an unabashed manner, revealed a whole different world where preposterous melodrama came across as completely legitimate, where improbable misapprehensions triggered infinite suffering and obstinate injustices, where people were not ashamed to be overemotional and were solemnly preoccupied with enchanting adoration," said Iordanova. Terming the film a "candid praise of love and affection in the Indian movies that was truly enchants all, she said "Awaara remains a truly enduring global hit, yet one that is understudied and under-researched." "Indian cinema was internationally popular for a significant period, starting in the 1930s and peaking around the 1960s. There were massive exports of Indian films and massive international interest in it. "However, as these exports and acclaim did not target the West, we really have no record of the intensity of these cinematic exchanges other than sporadic references and anecdotal evidence," Iordanova and Eleftheriotis wrote in the journal. It was difficult to think of any other film from the 1950s that was seen in so many countries and was as widely acclaimed as Awaara. Most film history books, she added, analysed other films and mentioned Awaara only in passing, "yet I cannot think of any other film from that period that would have enjoyed such popular success transnationally".
Iordanova said that in University of St Andrews, they are making sure that Indian cinema is properly represented in the teaching and they regularly screen classical and new Indian films for the students.
Link:
http://www.screenindia.com/news/Awaara-is-most-popular-film- of-all-times/294574/
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