The latest version of this page moved to indiancine.ma - ​Click here

Shri 420

aka Mr 420 1955 177’ b&w Hindi d/p Raj Kapoor pc R.K. Films? st/co-sc K.A. Abbas co-sc V.P. Sathelyr Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri c Radhu Karmakar m Shankar-Jaikishen lp Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Nadira, Nemo, Lalita Pawar, M. Kumar, Hari Shivdasani, Nana Palsikar, Bhudo Advani, Iftikhar, Sheila Vaz, Ramesh Sinha, Rashid Khan, Pesi Patel

Having played a tramp in Awara? (1951), Kapoor elaborates his vagabond image further with this sentimental story about Raju (Kapoor), a country boy carrying the archetypal bundle on the end of a stick over his shoulder, who tries to make his fortune in Bombay. The city is presented in terms of Abbas’s familiar stereotypical contrast between the corruption of the urban rich and the warm-hearted poor (e.g. Pawar as the fruit-seller). Raju falls in love with Vidya (Nargis), a poor schoolteacher who has a paralysed father. Maya (Nadira) is the femme fatale who embroils Raju in a decadent life. Raju is seen gambling, playing the trumpet in a club, surrounded by dancing-girls (the number Mudmud ke na dekh), and he becomes a conman in the employ of Maya’s friend Seth Dharmanand, a ruthless capitalist.

When he is used to swindle the homeless, Raju rebels and a lively chase involving a bag of money provides the bridge to the happy ending. Opening with the Chaplin number Mera Joota hai japani (sung by Mukesh), the film includes some of the star’s most famous star songs: the carnivalesque Dil ka haal sune dilwala (sung by Manna Dey) and the best-known Kapoor-Nargis duet, performed in the rain as they fall in love, Pyar hua ikraar hua (sung by Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar).

Film