Movie: Shree 420 (Mr. Cheat)
Director: Raj Kapoor
Year: 1955
Stars: Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Nadira, Nemo and Lalita Pawar

Snapshot of the Story

Raj Kapoor was the biggest and probably the first big show man of Indian cinema. He tried his luck in acting, direction and as producer. He was the man with special charisma that increased as his career grew.
Shree 420 was the super hit movie of the 50’s era with towering performances from Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Shree 420 is known for its classical romance and unforgettable romantic scenes in the rain where Raj Kapoor and Nargis share the same umbrella that gave it an exquisite feel. Raj Kapoor was the master in his art and was amongst the very few who knew what audience wanted and whatever he did created magic on the silver screen.

Raj Kapoor's Charisma in Shree 420

Storyline

The story of Shree 420 is of Raj (played by Raj Kapoor) a humble guy coming from a small town to the city of dreams in Bombay in search of a job. Shree 420 beautifully portrays how difficult is to survive in Bombay at that time and how Raj finds his way and does not hesitate to choose the right path when realized that he is in the wrong company.

Raj is full of enthusiasm, self belief and has an innocent charm about him. But he takes no time to learn that living in Bombay he needs to be a sharp and cunning man. Bombay is the place he finds his true love. Vidya (Nargis) is a poor girl and takes care of her parents by earning her bread and butter as a school teacher.

Struggling to find a decent job for himself, Raj meets a businessman Sonchand (Nemo) and gets attracted by his luxurious lifestyle. Raj starts to believe that he also can become rich, but he is not aware about the Sonchand’s evil intentions. On the other hand, Sonchand offers Raj to work on his new project. Sonchand is working on the project where we would be building homes for poor people available at very cheap rates. Raj soon finds himself as a victim of dirty tricks by Sonchand and there are no real intentions by Sonchand who only wants to make money and run away with it. Raj feels sorry for what he did and goes to those poor people and hands over the bond papers to them preventing them from becoming homeless.

When the story is revolving around the intense drama it also has the romantic angle to it as Raj and Vidya fall in love with each other, Nargis played the role of Vidya and looked stunning. Her femininity, expressions and her innocence only shouts the fact that she is born to act and with release of “Shree 420” Indian cinema has witnessed the birth of new superstar in the form of Nargis.

Sharkar-Jaikishan's romantic music

“Shree 420” did turn out to be the super hit movie with a simple story and towering performances of Raj Kapoor who looked very much a small town guy and has that innocent charm about him. Nargis was excellent and her beauty and eyes did much coupled with her dialogs. Shree 420 is directed by non other than Raj Kapoor himself, which is quite an achievement to be in the shoes of both an actor and director. Raj Kapoor was the only other actor in the Indian cinema and probably in the world who played this dual role in his career. Legendary Shankar – Jaikishan created the vibrant and romantic music of the decade and the song “Pyaar Hua Iqraar Hua” still fresh in everyone’s memory and “Mera Joota hai Japani ye Patlun englistani Sar pe lal topi rusi par phir bhi dil hai Hindustani” became a trade mark of the movie aka “Wearing torn Japanese shoes, English trousers, a red Russian cap but with an Indian heart”

Rating

9/10