United Colors of Cinema: Bollywood's love affair with China

Published on 08-Apr-2019

Khushboo Razdan

Ai Dianshu, a retired education official, from Pingdu in east China's Shandong Province loves to hum his favorite song "Awara Hoon…" from the 1951 Indian classic "Awara."

The 62-year-old gets nostalgic while talking about the movie starring the legendary Indian actor Raj Kapoor. "I watched the movie with my wife in a nearby theater; it was in the 1980s soon after China launched the reform and opening-up policy. Back then, the film genres were quite limited but 'Awara' was a widely loved movie," Ai told CGTN Digital. He said that apart from the touching storyline and social message, the melodious songs of the movie appealed to him the most.

His daughter Ai Yan recalled how she grew up listening to the songs being sung by her parents. "The music is familiar to me as well, even though I never watched the film… I remember my father singing it often when I was a child," she said.

But what made "Awara" and its songs so universal? "The promise of hope," answered Shubhra Gupta, a renowned film critic from India. Calling Kapoor a cultural ambassador, she told CGTN Digital, "It was the time of nation-building, people did not have too much money and his films and music offered the idea of light at the end of the tunnel, a promise of rainbow in the sky after a long struggle along with seriousness and fun. He was very much like Charlie Chaplin. His songs 'Mera joota hai japani, yeh patloon englishtani… par dil hai hindustani…' (My shoes are from Japan, my trousers are English… but my heart is Indian) was a huge hit worldwide because it was deep-rooted in culture; everyone wanted to hold on to their culture but become an international traveler at the same time."

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