Monday, August 29, 2005

Arbitrary stuff from Romania - VII - Raj Kapoor

Old Hindi films and film-music are extremely popular in Romania. Raj Kapoor is the unofficial Indian ambassador to Romania. Shame, me not seen that many Raj Kapoor movies. It is quite common to listen to cabbies humming songs like 'Awara hoon... ' or 'Mera jhoota hai japani... '. Guess, the prime reason why Raj Kapoor is a darling to this nation is due to the kind of roles he donned during his prime-days. Raj Kapoor's movies talked about socialism and during those days this country was also ruled by communists/socialists, so Raj Kapoor also became the unofficial ambassador of Communists/Socialists. So, government started showing Raj Kapoor movies in national television. Since the people hardly had any interaction with foreign culture(except for the Soviets) and Hollywood was kind of out of bounds for this poor-country, Raj Kapoor's movies became an instant hint.
But none of the natives are aware of the new-wave Bollywood cinema and Hollywood's charm has hijacked the current generation of Romanians. Not sure, the current wave of Bollywood cinema has any ideals to offer to this country, certainly not in the calibre of Raj Kapoor.

Nehru is also highly revered in this country, because of his ability to stand-up against both the Soviets and USA.

No comments: