When Raj Kapoor made a film on widow remarriage but ended up mistreating his female characters

Raj Kapoor's legacy is celebrated fondly by the lovers of Indian cinema but Prem Rog doesn't deserve a place in that hall of fame.

Written by Sampada Sharma

New Delhi | July 29, 2023 08:06 AM IST

5 min read

Prem Rog starred Rishi Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure in lead roles. (Photo: Express Archives)

Listen to this article

Your browser does not support the audio element.

The 1980s are often remembered as the worst decade of Hindi cinema. With the anger of the ‘angry young man’ subsiding, and the movies looking for their next big schtick, this decade saw movies finding it hard to tell the difference between being dramatic and campy. What was seen as exaggerated but enjoyable drama, or what Hindi film lovers like to call filmy, was now turning into an unintentional parody of itself. Regressive ideas were being peddled in droves and unlike 2023, no one was even pretending to be woke. One such film that was the embodiment of all these problems was Raj Kapoor’s 1982 film Prem Rog starring Rishi Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure.

Raj Kapoor believed in making socially conscious films and many of his earlier films like Awaara and Shree 420 were made with the idea that Indians deserved a better life. These films urged the government to take a better look at its governance and inspected why a newly independent country’s citizens had to resort to crime. But, as the decades passed and Raj Kapoor’s filmmaking evolved, this version of the filmmaker was nowhere to be seen. Towards his later years, Raj Kapoor started making movies with a ‘social message’ and more often than not, the message in itself was misunderstood in the movie and Prem Rog is a prime example of that. One can imagine that this film’s social message must have been ‘widow remarriage’ or at least humane treatment of widows in the society but the film chooses to pay more attention to the ill-treatment and launches into a lecture when it’s time to solve any problems.

Prem Rog is the story of a teenager named Manorama (Padmini Kolhapure) who comes from an affluent family and is married off at a young age. Her husband dies days after her wedding and she is raped by her brother-in-law. When Rishi Kapoor’s Devdhar runs into her at this stage of her life, he is reminded of the love he always had for her but the society won’t allow them to be together so, he decides to fight for his love. The film is over-the-top right from the start but it gets progressively worse. It pretends to be questioning the old ways but supports them anyway. For instance, one character gets a fake horoscope made for Manorama, but a few scenes later, her husband dies, implying that maybe they should have taken the horoscope business seriously. In another scene, the film thinks it is empowering Manorama by getting her remarried but the director chooses to treat her like an object who was once owned by her father, then husband and is now being transferred to a new owner.

Also Read | Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker celebrates toxic work culture to the point that it’s painful to watch

Another disturbing sequence of the film is the one where Manorama ges raped by her husband’s older brother and this sequence is scarring enough to haunt you for years. Yet, the film chooses to brush it under the carpet. Moments after Manorama is assaulted, she tells the rapist’s wife that she wants to go back home. The woman isn’t shocked and just calmly accepts that she has always known her husband to be a brutal man who is capable of such a heinous crime. Until the climax, this issue isn’t brought back and when the film decides to seek vengeance for Manorama, it is only because other male characters need something to be angry about. Prem Rog pretends to be the kind of film that’s made to empower women but is, in fact, an exercise in men trying to feel better about themselves by saving a damsel in distress so they can look macho.

On paper too, Prem Rog seems dated, even for the 1980s. This was the year when Mahesh Bhatt released the mature relationship drama Arth and at this time, the Indian audience was also exposed to Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi. Raj Kapoor’s film was one of the highest grossers of the year but as we know, this isn’t an actual yardstick for a film’s quality. Almost four decades later, the film doesn’t feel relevant and not because our society has become a perfect place for women but because this film wasn’t even relevant when it released. Raj Kapoor’s legacy is celebrated fondly by the lovers of Indian cinema but Prem Rog doesn’t deserve a place in that hall of fame.