Osian's Auction Catalogue The Greatest Indian Show On Earth | September 2014

Lot 70a “There was nothing that could stop them, nothing that could separate them. She was everything that life meant to him. Sometimes in life two people come together, nothing can separate them. This was it. The love, the quarrels, the tears, the fights, the reconciliations, the oneness - they were like one soul.” Actress Neelam, close friend to both Raj Kapoor & Nargis, reprinted in Bunny Reuben. Raj Kapoor - The Fabulous Showman. Mumbai: Bunny Reuben / Virgo Books 1988; p.117. “Awara is a significant film in the annals of our film history for several reasons. It came when the nation was barely four, and RK Studios was taking its first steps in what was to be an extraordinary journey. Not to forget the process of putting together a team: Raj Kapoor as actor-director, Shanker-Jaikishen as music directors, KA Abbas and VP Sathe with their skills for dialogue and story, Hasrat Jaipuri, once a bus conductor, but gifted with the ability to wield the pen like few others, as lyricist... Incidentally, in many ways Awara was a family get-together of the Kapoors. It brought together four generations of the family in a single film: Prithviraj’s father, Bashesharnath plays a judge in the filmn. Besides Prithviraj and Raj, the film has ten year old Shashi Kapoor and four-year-old Randhir Kapoor. Not to forget Prem Nath, Raj’s brother-in-law...Awara marked the coming together of MR Achrekar, whose sets were so impressive in the film that many came to see rather than the stars, and Radhu Karmakar, the cinematographer who was to be with Raj Kapoor through thick and thin.” Vijay Lokapally, reprinted in Ziya Us Salam (Editor).’Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema’. New Delhi: Om Books International 2012 ; p.63-66. 120 LEADING HEROINES AND THE CLASSIC FILMS 1949 – 1972 NARGIS AS FOCUS