In ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ Raj Kapoor Visualized On A Story Of A Man Falling For A Woman With A Golden Voice, A Gorgeous Figure With A Scarred Face… Part 6

The subject of a beautiful face and a noble soul always enchanted Raj Kapoor. In fact, his first film Aag (1947) was based on the same subject. In this film, Raj Kapoor played a man with an ugly face but a heart of gold. But the film failed. However, Raj Kapoor‘s passion for the subject did not curb. He kept thinking and finally re-wrote a script of a gorgeous lady having a golden voice but her beauty is marred by an ugly scar on her face!

Thus he made Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978) regarded as Indian Cinema’s Most Daring film. Through this film, Raj Kapoor wanted to make sex attain respectability on the Indian cinema screen. Hence Raj Kapoor went beyond the limit of portraying Zeenat Aman’s sexuality. He presented his gorgeous heroine Zeenat Aman in the most ‘Revealing’ and ‘Appealing’ style of an Adivasi in the half clad saree with a major focus on her beautiful figure and her curvy long legs. In short, Raj Kapoor marvelously exposed every contour and curves of Zeenat Aman in his camera!!! Readers would be surprised to know; earlier Raj Kapoor had offered this role to top three Bollywood actresses’ viz. Dimple Kapadia, Hema Malini, and Rekha, however, each declined due to the sexual content in the film being the reason behind their denial! Eventually, foreign-educated Zeenat Aman with the sex-appeal accepted the role and rose to fame in this distinguished work of art in the film that earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress. She wore the most revealing clothes that was then considered a taboo and was the trendsetter to have influenced many new actresses to break away from their boundaries and limits. Besides, dressing Zeenat Aman in hot and revealing sarees, Raj Kapoor, went a step ahead and taking a leaf from the Indian Sanskrit text Kama Sutra Raj Kapoor depicted some intense intimate and sensual scenes, never shown on Indian screen!!! These scenes became a major hurdle because when the film was released it was widely condemned for its obscenity and nudity. There was a huge uproar as right-wing activists created an outburst on the nudity and vulgarity. Interestingly, despite the tumult, the Censor Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) had no issues with these scenes as Raj Kapoor had edited these scenes so elegantly that they did not look crude or provocative, instead it looks like beautiful poetry painted on the silver screen!!