Page 40 - Seniors Today December 2020

Rajan agrees to back the play with Kewal as
writer and director. He discovers a nameless,
homeless (the shadow of the Partition
reaches popular cinema) woman (Nargis),
whom he names Nimmi and casts as the lead
in his play. Unfortunately both men fall in
love with this Nimmi, who loves Kewal.
To repay his debt to Rajan he tries to
persuade Nimmi to marry Rajan. He then
burns his face with a flaming torch. The
stage catches fire, theatre is burnt to the
ground and Kewal is disfigured. Nimmi is
repulsed by his face now and accepts Rajan’s
proposal. Kewal believes that only the real
Nimmi would understand and accept him.
The story returns to the present, when it
turns out that the bride (Nigar Sultana) is
the original Nimmi. She accepts him for
his inner beauty and they decide to start a
theatre company together.
The debut-making director got good if not Raj Kapoor established his romantic-hero image with his
very first production
brilliant performances from his actors and
the film had exquisite music composed by
Ram Ganguly, with wonderful songs like
Dekh Chand Ki Ore, Dil Toot Gaya, Kahe
Koyal Shor Machaye Re, Zinda Hoon Is
Tarah.
This film was tough to sell to distributors,
and not a box-office success, but it was a test
tube for Raj Kapoor to learn his craft on the
job, and he was ready to please his audience
with the RK-stamped films that followed.
Even the flop Mera Naam Joker, that nearly
wrecked him financially, is now praised for
its artistic merit.
Seen today, Aag seems melodramatic and
self-indulgent; still, it had all the hallmarks
of a nascent artiste, who hit the popular
entertainer stride with his next film, Barsaat
(1949), the success of which allowed him
to set up RK Studios (in the east Mumbai
suburb of Chembur) and also gave him the
frame that inspired the memorable RK logo. Shashi Kapoor playing the young Kewal

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