TIME's Richard Corliss updates our All-TIME 100 list of the greatest films made since 1923 — the beginning of TIME — with 20 new entries
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Raj Kapoor, Awara
By Richard Corliss Jan. 19, 2010
He was more than the primal star of Indian cinema. To most of the planet, Raj Kapoor was India in all its vitality, humanity and poignancy. Awara (1951) and the other '50s films Kapoor directed, produced and starred in with Nargis, his muse and mistress, were sensations not only in India and throughout the Arab world but in the Soviet Union (where the movies' songs became top hits) and Communist China (Mao once named Awara his favorite film). A Ronald Colman lookalike, Kapoor wanted to be India's Charlie Chaplin; Awara translates as "The Tramp." He plays Raju, son of a stern judge (Kapoor's own father Prithviraj) who had banished his wife after she was abducted, perhaps ravaged, by a brigand. Raju, not knowing his prominent, blighted parentage, grows up a vagabond, falls in love with the judge's adopted daughter (Nargis) and is charged with a crime that must be decided by … his father. With a wild dream sequence, enough passions and plot anomalies for a dozen Hollywood soapers, and a luminous, startling seaside seduction, Awara serves as a superb primer for Indian cinema and its actor-auteur, forever revered as The Great Showman.
Next Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing
Behind the List
That Old Feeling: Secrets of the All-Time 100
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
The Apu Trilogy
Bande à part
Bride of Frankenstein
Children of Paradise
Chungking Express
City of God
Closely Watched Trains
The Crime of Monsieur Lange
The Decalogue
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Dodsworth (1936)
Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Drunken Master II
The 400 Blows
Farewell My Concubine
The Godfather, Parts I and II
Goodfellas (1990)
Ikiru
It's A Gift
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Last Command
The Man with a Movie Camera
Miller's Crossing
Mon oncle d'Amérique
Nayakan
Ninotchka
Olympia, Parts 1 and 2
Pyaasa
Schindler's List
Sherlock, Jr.
Singin' in the Rain
The Singing Detective
Smiles of a Summer Night
A Touch of Zen
Ulysses' Gaze
Umberto D
Wings of Desire
Yojimbo
Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
James Cagney, White Heat
Faye Dunaway, Chinatown
Cary Grant, Notorious
Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity
Jean Renoir, The Rules of the Game
Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing
Bill Murray, Groundhog Day
Brigitte Lin, Swordsman II
Gone With the Wind, 1939, Victor Fleming, U.S.
Tenth Avenue Angel, 1949, Roy Rowland, U.S.
Sailor Beware, 1951, Hal Walker, U.S.
Diabolique (Les Diaboliques), 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot, France
School Girl, 1971, David Reberg, U.S
There's Something About Mary,1998, Bobby and Peter Farrelly, U.S.
Anatomy of a Murder, 1959, Otto Preminger, U.S.
Gun Crazy, 1949, Joseph H. Lewis, U.S.
The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957, Jack Arnold, U.S.
Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990, John Patrick Shanley, U.S.
10 Best Soundtracks
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at RKO
Jules et Jim
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
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