By Hindustan Times
Time magazine has included Raj Kapoor's 1951 classic Awaara among 20 new entries added to its All-Time 100 list of the best films made since 1923, the start of the distinguished US periodical. Rethinking the movie masterpieces, Time critic Richard Corliss describes Raj Kapoor as
"the great star-auteur of India's postcolonial golden age of flicks - Cary Grant and Cecil B DeMille in a single handsome package."
"The '50s films he headlined and directed became huge hits not only in his newly freed homeland but additionally around the Arab crescent from Indonesia to North Africa," Time noted.
Kapoor, who modelled his screen persona on Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, was 26 when he filmed Awaara (The Tramp).
Time calls Awaara as "a glistening showcase for Kapoor and the good India siren Nargis (his lover onscreen and off)."
"And after all it is a musical, whose main song, Awaara Hoon, by the famed Shanker-Jaikishan duo, soared to the highest of the pop charts in India, the USSR and China."
The original All-Time 100 list published in 2005 included Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy, Mani Ratnam's Nayakan and Guru Dutt's Pyaasa.
Bollywood composer AR Rahman's score for Mani Ratnam's Roja (The Rose), the story of a girl whose lover is kidnapped by terrorists, was also among 10 Best Soundtracks.
Last week, Time magazine ranked Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 2002 film Devdas eighth a few of the ten greatest movies of the millennium (thus far).
