By
Sharada Iyer
Thirty-six years back on June 2nd 1988, Raj Kapoor passed away leaving behind a priceless and cherished legacy which can never be rivalled. Considered to be one of the greatest directors of Hindi cinema and one of the pioneering actors of this film industry he was loved for his unique style of acting and filmmaking.
In his career spanning 53 years from 1935-1988, he acted in many iconic films and produced and directed several memorable films. However, he got the opportunity to play a double role in only one film titled Paapi, which released in 1953 and starred Nargis as his heroine.
His best on-screen pairing was with actress Nargis and together they set the screen on fire with their palpable chemistry. This blog is a glimpse into the lone double role film of his career- Paapi.
Presented by Ranjit Movietone, and directed by Chandulal Shah, the film had story, scenario and dialogues also by Chandulal Shah. The lyricists were Raja Mehndi Ali Khan and Hasrat Jaipuri and music was by S Mohinder. All 8 songs were sung by Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi and there was one shloka of a few lines by Manna Dey. Asha singing for Nargis in those early films was indeed a rare combination to watch! All songs were enjoyable especially the Rafi-Asha duet ‘Meri zindagi hai tu, mujhko teri justju…’
Double Role
Raj Kapoor plays an atheist Raju in one role, and a ‘pracharak’ (missionary) Swami Satyanand in the other role. As Raju he is extroverted, talkative, has no qualms borrowing money and being unemployed and is generally not one with a pure conscience. As Satyanand he is righteous, honest, writes books on ethics and loves spreading the message of morality. Basically, there are only two scenes where both the roles get to share screen space -first is when they meet by chance and second is in the end. Nargis plays Lachhi, the village milkmaid who loves Raju. Dulari plays Chameli, the flower girl who also loves Raju.
Basic Plot
Raju steals money from a gambling den to help Nargis square off her debt to a money-lender who threatens to marry her if the money is not paid on time. But things go awry as the police come after him. He runs to the station and gets on to the first train departing and enters a compartment where he meets his look-alike, Swami Satyanand. The train meets with an accident and Satyanand faints.
Faced with a good opportunity to escape the police, Raju decides to don the guise of Satyanand and masquerade as the missionary. Meanwhile Satyanand is mistakenly thought to be Raju and is sheltered by Nargis who cannot understand the drastic change in Raju’s behaviour. So how is the dilemma sorted out and what happens in the end? Read on to find out if you are interested in the details or else you can watch the film on YouTube, though the print is not very good.
Film in detail
Raju a youngster in the village is an atheist and neither believes in the religious dogmas being propagated nor likes the priests who do this and discourages the villagers from falling into their trap. But being illiterate they feel if they listen to the priest’s sermons, they will find solace after death. They throw out Raju from the crowd whenever he enters.
He is unemployed and as he likes the good life, he keeps account with shopkeepers to buy perfumes, cigarettes, alcohol, etc., though he never pays them, and has the habit of gambling also. He likes to buy flowers and tie around his wrist and Chameli the flower girl mistakenly develops feelings for him.
In spite of all these habits, the milkmaid Lachhi loves him deeply and with the money she earns, she secretly clears all his debts with the shopkeepers. She stays with her blind grandmother who would not allow her to marry Raju unless he finds a job. One day, she lends him money to start some business. He buys bangles, sells them and when he happily brings home his first income, she is upset that in this job he gets to touch the hands of so many young girls and that was giving her tension. Raju gets angry and asks her to leave him alone as he did not want to listen to every advice of hers.
This song ‘Chudiyan, le le gori…’ picturized on Raj Kapoor is on the lines of a Johny Walker style song:
Meanwhile the moneylender to whom her house is mortgaged threatens to have her and her grandmother thrown out if the payment of rupees 5000/- is not completed in three days, but would not trouble them if he could marry Lachhi. Raju asks all his shopkeeper friends for a loan but none have this kind of money. Chameli is willing to give the amount but on the condition that Raju should marry her and not Lachhi.
Disillusioned by all this, he decides to rob the gambling owner’s vault where he keeps his money. He manages to steal rupees 5000/- but unfortunately the owner wakes up and calls the police. During the chase that ensues, Raju runs to the railway station and boards the first train departing to escape being jailed. In the compartment, to his surprise he meets his look-alike Satyanand, whose personality is a complete antithesis of his own. He is calm, is not greedy for money, has no desires but to spread the message of righteousness and truth.
Ironically the train meets with a minor accident and the compartments experience violent shaking. Both are jolted from their seats and fall on the floor but after a while Raju gets consciousness. Not being very high on moral values, he takes this as a great opportunity to escape the clutches of the police and dons Satyanand’s attire and dresses Satyanand in his own discarded clothing. He hides till the injured victims are moved from the train and continues his journey.
When the train reaches its destination, he is shocked to find many people waiting to garland him addressing him as ‘Swamiji’ and generally showering him with love and respect as they take him to be Swami Satyanand. He is taken to a gathering and asked to address the followers waiting to listen to him. He starts by stating that he is no ‘mahatma’ but he is a ‘paapi’ or sinner and does not deserve this respect. The plan backfires and the crowds hail him to be a pure soul who has the guts to call himself a sinner.
Now that there is no escape and Raju sees people donating money, he decides to continue his masquerade until he gets hold of rupees 5000/- which he lost in the train accident. Then he would be able to rescue his Lachhi from the clutches of the moneylender and go back to his old life. He starts reading the books written by Satyanand and amasses enough information to deliver sermons to the people including children and the youth.
Meanwhile in the village the news of the train accident spreads and to save Raju from being caught by the police, Lachhi decides to look for Raju among the wounded people. She comes across Satyanand and taking him to be Raju, she brings him home and hides him in her house so that he is not caught by the police.
Though Satyanand is grateful he cannot understand Lachhi’s behaviour towards him as she constantly scolds him for playing the fool and pretending to not recognize her when honestly, he has never met Lachhi. He keeps telling her he is not Raju. She tries her best to jog his memory by telling all incidents from their past and singing songs but to no avail. She starts getting frustrated and annoyed with him and thinks he is putting on this act so he can marry Chameli.
Chameli begins to suspect that Lachhi is up to no good and complains to the village policeman to search Lachhi’s house as she is sure Lachhi is harboring the thief, Raju. When the policeman searches the house, he sees Satyanand and taking him to be Raju, puts him in jail and his repeated pleas that he is not Raju fall on deaf ears.
At the ashram, with each passing day, Raju is ridden with guilt for what he is doing and feels bad that he is fooling innocent people. He is angry with himself that to escape the police he has donned the façade of the type of man he had always abhorred. He keeps having talks with his conscience and feels if there is God, he would like to know why a sinner like him has been chosen to play the role of a righteous man.
One day Lachhi’s grandmother expresses her wish to meet the Swamiji and when the two make their way to meet him, they are stunned to find that it is their very own Raju who is pretending to be the Swamiji. Raju is also shocked to see them.
She goes at night to meet him alone and questions him as to how he can fool the people like this, and shun the very girl who had loved him always. He tries to send her away by saying that now this is the path he has chosen and he cannot come back. She vows to sing every night till her songs pierce his soul to come out of this masquerading act.
She tries to enter the gathering and announce in front of everyone that he is a fraud and not the real Swamiji but gets thrown out. Raju’s guilty conscience keeps pricking him as a part of him just wants to give up all this act and go to his Lachhi but he does not have the guts to own up in front of the people. Finally, the village policeman reaches the meeting place where Lachhi is thrown out and enters to find that he is the culprit Raju who had run away with the money and hatches a plan to make him confess. The next day, Raju is cornered into admitting his crime of having fooled the people and is arrested.
Back in his village, he decides to complete his term in prison and come out a clean man with a clear conscience. He thanks Swami Satyanand for having inadvertently put him on the path of righteousness and promises to follow that path all his life.
After completing his prison-term he comes out and is happy to find his Lachhi waiting for him.
A few thoughts
The film had a linear narrative with no great twists but the thrill of seeing Raj Kapoor in dual role makes viewing the film worthwhile. He acts well in both the roles. Nargis was superb. She was always a natural actress and here also she shines in the role of the village belle. The film is very different from the usual romantic films of Raj Kapoor and Nargis as the tone of the narrative focuses more on the youth going astray in society and less on their romance. The dialogues were good and songs were enjoyable.
Here are two more lovely songs from the film:
Song: ‘Tera kaam hai jalna parwaane, chahe shama jale ya na jale…’
Song: ‘Kaun kahe unse jaake ae huzur, hamara kya kasoor…’