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100 Years of a Star
Remembering Raj Kapoor: Showman, star, and dreamer
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
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Raj Kapoor’s cinema was scaffolding for a nation that was trying to reimagine itself after Independence.
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.
Juhi Saklani
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
Editor’s Note: Raj Kapoor’s India
His gentle cinema dreamed of a just nation: socialist in soul, diverse in fabric, and wary of wealth unmoored from ethics.
Vaishna Roy
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 Prime Video’s Jubilee turned Shree 420’s genuine working-class hero into a Cold War conspiracy, missing what made Raj Kapoor a global phenomenon.
Trisha Gupta
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.
Varrun Sukhraj
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
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
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
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
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
Varrun Sukhraj
Videos
WATCH | Pakistan holding UNSC positions will be a challenge for India: Michael Kugelman
WATCH | Pakistan holding UNSC positions will be a challenge for India: Michael Kugelman
WATCH| Pakistan has always considered India as an existential threat: General N.C. Vij
WATCH | No matter how close Bangladesh gets to China, its focal point is India: Syed Badrul Ahsan
WATCH | India has now got the strategic space to act against Pakistan: Ajai Shukla
WATCH | ‘India and Pakistan still very much on razor’s edge’: Ramanathan Kumar
WATCH | ‘India and Bangladesh are destined to work together’: Sreeradha Datta
WATCH | R.K. Radhakrishnan in conversation with Indologist R. Balakrishnan
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AHMEDABAD PLANE CRASH
Air India flight crashes in Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff, over 200 feared dead
Visuals from the wreckage area showed charred bodies being pulled out in what is India’s biggest air disaster since 2020.
Frontline News Desk
SUM AND SUBSTANCE
Finger in the dyke
Rate cuts and tax breaks will not solve India’s real problem: a squeezed middle class with no money to spend. Growth needs more than monetary magic.
Mitali Mukherjee
CLIMATE CHANGE
India’s climate exodus has begun
Floods, drought, and rising seas are driving migration across India. Yet there is no national policy to recognise or support those forced to move.
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WAQF AMENDMENT
A mosque beside the law
Delhi’s Sher Shah Suri mosque deserves protection. Neglecting the historic waqf site in the High Court undermines legal consistency and public trust.
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Current Issue
Remembering Raj Kapoor—The Lede
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
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Remembering Raj Kapoor
Editor’s Note: Raj Kapoor’s India
His gentle cinema dreamed of a just nation: socialist in soul, diverse in fabric, and wary of wealth unmoored from ethics.
Vaishna Roy
REMEMBERING RAJ KAPOOR
Song of the vagabond heart
Juhi Saklani
Remembering Raj Kapoor
Awara and the Constitutional question
Lawrence Liang
Remembering Raj Kapoor
Uncommon men, common dreams
Aditya Shrikrishna
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