The bottle of pity overflows. Review on Mera Naam Joker

Raj Kapoor’s movies always carried an element of pity in them. Be it  “Aag”, “Aawara”, “Shree 420”, “Jaagte Raho”, “Sangam” or “Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai”, there was always a becharapan in his protagonist. It reached its peak with “Mera Naam Joker” where the hero lived a tragic life to make lives of his loved ones merrier.

By 1970, Raj Kapoor had already established himself as the greatest showman. He had always nurtured an ambitious project where he wanted to bring alive the life of an entertainer. He chose the Joker who laughs at his own cost. The team was in place. K.A. Abbas wrote the script and dialogues, Rishi Kapoor played the young joker. Shanker Jaikishen gave the music. There were guest appearances galore with almost all the leading stars of that time– Rajendra Kumar who played himself, Dharmender, Manoj Kumar, Padmini, Russian Ksiena Rabiankina and Simi Garewal. The movie had a Russian collaboration too. There was a name missing though. Lata Mageshkar was at loggerheads with SJ and Raj Kapoor at that time. So, all the female songs in the movie were sung by Asha Bhosle. The film bombed badly at the BO. Raj Kapoor couldn’t believe it. He had to make Bobby  3 years later to bring RK banner back with a bang.

Mera Naam Joker tells the life story of Raju in three phases. His childhood, his youth and later his middle age. He loses out on his love in each phase.

 Track 1:

As  a teenager, he has a crush on his teacher played by Simi Garewal. He is too young and confused to understand his feelings. He is a fatherless child and when he asks his mother(Achala Sachdev) what his father did for a living, she recounts the tragic event when his father who was a joker in a circus died when he accidentally fell down from the trapeze. While he breathed his last, people clapped assuming it was a clownish act. Young Raju instead of getting discouraged, takes up his father’s legacy of making others laugh. He soon realizes that one has to pay a heavy price for the same – his own happiness.

 Analyis:* The first hour of the movie is engrossing. Rishi Kapoor plays the young Raju with great ease, bringing along the shy, hesitant and confused character with a heart of gold alive. Manoj Kumar sheds his Bharat Kumar image to play Simi Garewal’s beau. The complexities of the characters and emotions are built up well. Dialogues are touching.

 Track 2:

As Raju grows young, one day he happens to be mistaken as a part of Russian troupe which arrives in India for Gemini circus. Later, when truth is out and he is questioned, his becharapan saves his skin and he is taken up as the part of the circus – as a Joker. Raju rejoices as he cannot believe that his childhood passion and father’s legacy is now his profession too. He falls for a female performer in the Russian troupe. His mom somehow comes to know that her son too has followed in his father’s step. She visits the circus without Raju’s knowledge. As she watches Raju fall from the trapeze, she dies in shock. Raju has to perform his clownish act immediately after his mom’s death. That is the most tragic part of the movie.

Analyis:

Entertaining again. Touching again. The circus is taken up as the backdrop and Raj Kapoor is back at what he does best. His Chaplinesque acts(reminiscent of “Shree 420”), his fling with the female performer in the Russian troupe, his emotional upheavals – all are brought out well.

But sadly, from here starts the downfall of the movie. Ideally, the movie should have ended here. There was no need to go beyond that. Fine, Raju lost his childhood crush because age was not on his side. Fine. Raju couldn’t go ahead and accept the Russian belle as the love of his life as language, country and culture came in way.

But see, what he chooses to do next. Raju is not yet old enough. He is yet to meet more women and more sufferings in life.

Track 3:

The Russian troupe had to return and Raju was left with his loneliness and poverty again.  He encounters a ruffian Meenu master(Padmini) with a dog Moti in a slum. They join hands to make some money for a living. They perform their tamasha at meena bazaars and streets. Soon, Raju comes to know that Meenu master is actually Meena(courtesy an accidentally exposed breast of Padmini) and is heartbroken at why she told him a lie. Soon, Meena tells him why she had to get under the garb of a male to save herself from the world. As expected, they hug and kiss and make up. They also start a performance at Nautanki and then the big break comes in the life Meena when she gets a break as a heroine in her idol Rajendra Kumar’s movie.

 Analysis:

Weakest part of the movie. Was not required at all. The bottle of pity was already full. The audience had done enough of tsk tsk and oho and ‘bechara’ for Raju. Raj Kapoor dragged them back. Gave them an extra peg with soda and ice. He had started off the movie as flashback where all the people from his life are invited to his last show where he plays – of course the Joker. The clownish acts, the song( Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan) and the opera like surroundings. Simi Garewal with her wig looked awful. And she carried the same expression she carries while expressing sympathy and awe at her guests in her Rendezvous. Raj Kapoor carried the show on and on –“Jayiyega nahin, abhi show khatam nahin hua” - he cried.The audience had had enough.

The Padmini track reminded me partially of Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman in Guide when Rosie played by Waheeda Rehman is on her way to success as a dancer and Raju guide(you see the namesake!) watches in helplessness. It made no sense to me. The movie could have been better with some editing. The ambition overtook the craftsmanship. The showmanship took over the BO acumen. Music was just about okay. Yes, you may remind me of the highly poignant “Jaane Kahan gaye wo din” and “Jeena Yahan marna yahan”. But the rest was a big letdown. Specially Asha Bhosle songs for Padmini(“Daag na lag jaaye” and “Ang lag jaa Baalma”) were awful. Lata Mageshkar was badly missed.

The climax was the weakest part of the movie. It did not build up in the way Raj Kapoor may have thought. The audience did not react the way he wanted them to be. The reason was simple. There was not a build up of story towards the end. There was no element of suspense or interest left.

This movie’s graph went up in the intial one hour, plateaued in the next and just nosedived in the third. The movie could have followed a better style of story telling. Maybe, the three stories and characters could have been interlinked to give a story a proper semblance. Instead, the three stood like separate identities as the life of the joker assumed more significance.

I had heard many raving about this movie. Expressing shock at why it proved to be a BO disaster. Although I would highlight a few strengths to summarize I would also like to bring out the weaknesses.

Continued in comments section.