Raj Kapoor is often called the ‘showman of the millennium’ and rightly so. Very few commercial filmmakers have experimented with cinema the way he did. He proved his mettle both as an actor and a filmmaker. One of his most controversial and well-known films was the magnum opus Mera Naam Joker. The movie delved into the life of a clown working in a circus and the juxtaposition of tragedies in the clown’s life along with his comic acts at the circus. It had a very deep philosophical theme and has been Raj Kapoor’s most expensive film. Yet the movie failed at the box office.
Raj Kapoor was utterly affected by the failure of Mera Naam Joker, which later became a cult classic and was called way ahead of its time. Now, coming to the controversial part of it, the movie contained a nude scene, which was not just uncommon then but still is in commercial cinema presently. Famed actress Simi Garewal performed a nude scene in the film, where she is seen bathing without a pinch of clothes in a river. Raj Kapoor chose to film the scene from a long-distance shot, not to make it look vulgar.
Simi Garewal played a boarding school teacher in the film and a 14-year-old Rishi Kapoor, who played the younger version of his father Raj Kapoor, was shown to be infatuated with her. The context of the scene in question was justified as the scene was meant to show the protagonist’s realization of his sexual desires, as he watches his teacher in the nude from afar and marks his transition from a child to adolescence.
It was not the only time Simi Garewal appeared nude in cinema. She also appeared topless in the Indo-American production Siddhartha, where she was cast opposite Shashi Kapoor. On the other hand, Raj Kapoor continued to make films with bold content, presenting Zeenat Aman and Mandakini in semi-nude avatars in Satyam Shivam Sundaram and Ram Teri Ganga Maili, respectively.
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