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

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.

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.