Book review
Raj Kapoor’s Awara, released over half a century ago, is widely regarded as a classic of Indian cinema. With its socialist message, the unprecedented intensity of its central romance, the memorable songs and the hugely popular character of the vagabond—the tramp as the quintessential ‘common man’—the film captured the imagination of a young, independent nation. It also made Raj Kapoor perhaps the most famous Indian in the erstwhile Soviet Union, China and the Middle East.

In this award-winning book, first published in 1992, Gayatri Chatterjee examines every aspect of Awara to try and understand not just its popular and enduring appeal but also its intrinsic merits as pure cinema. By situating it in a historical, social and political context, and decoding key shots, sequences and songs, she analyses the different levels at which the film works.

Containing over 100 photographs, this exhaustive study brilliantly uses a single landmark film to investigate the complex and often fascinating phenomenon of popular cinema in India.

• Published by Penguin Books India
• Published: 15 September 2003
• Imprint: Penguin
• ISBN: 0143029800
• Edition: Paperback
• Format: Format: B
• Extent: 160pp
• Classification: Cinema


About the author Gayatri Chatterjee is an independent scholar working in Film and Cultural Studies. Based in Pune, she teaches in India and has lectured widely in USA and Europe. She is the author of a study of Awara (1992), which was awarded the Swarna Kamal, the President’s Gold Medal for the Best Book on Cinema.