A flop when released, but considered a classic with cult following today, Raj Kapoor’s magnum opus ‘Mera Naam Joker (my name is joker)’ is one of my favourite films. Semi-autobiographical in nature, made by Raj Kapoor himself, the story is of Raju a clown in a circus, who must always make people laugh, no matter how unhappy he is within. In the words of his circus manager, no matter what happens, he needs to always have a smile on his face because, ‘the show must go on’. Along the course of the film Raju loves & loses again and again. This circle of hope and pain is conveyed very effectively by the use of a joker doll which Raju owns. Everytime he falls in love, he gifts the toy to that woman, only to have it come back to him in the end. The doll is a metaphor for Raju’s heart which no one wants.
I relate to Raju’s experiences in the movie – we tread-on with a smile on our face even with pain in our bossom. One particular scene from the movie stood out to me. Raju’s mother who sees him perform a stunt dies in the middle of his act, but, the circus manager does not let Raju stop. With no choice, Raju comes onto the stage to continue his act. He goes onto philosophize on the three stages of life and finally death. He says “life is a circus, and this show is of 3 acts – childhood, youth, oldage. And after that, irrespective of whether you are my brother, sister, mother or father, nothing remains. All that remains are the empty chairs, empty stages, empty tents & the empty cage without the bird which neither belongs to you nor to me.”
sunith says
The writing is really good , but i really dnt have the experience to understand.
Nandini Sutrave says
Truly said. This was the biggest flop for RK but today stands on of his best projects that he had ever created. There is a scene in the same movie where he cried out for his mother. Infact if you see the whole movie he was a lucky charm of girls that he fell for, you never know that even we are lucky for some ppl. The songs in this movies still remain a great classic. 🙂 Nice post. 🙂