Kapoor Khazana: Cinema Props

No, not those kind of props, but, you know, ACTUAL, props!

Along with the retrospective film series Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema, the TIFF Bell Lightbox has arranged a small display of props from various films.

They include such delicious items as one of Dimple Kapadia's dresses from Bobby:

 
I apologize about the glare, but the display is on the wall in the stairwell, and there wasn't a good angle  to take the picture and cut the glare.  What struck me about this was how tiny it was!  Okay, some of you have heard my opinion that Dimple's costumes in the film  were all one size too small for her, but still, I stood there looking at this dress and thinking what a wee slip of a thing she was in that film.

There's also Shashi Kapoor's jacket from Awaara (where he plays the younger, child version of Raj Kapoor's character in the film):

 
Again, apologies for the glare.

Some of you might want to avert your eyes for this next one, or scroll quickly to the next picture, because they also had the clown doll from Mere Naam Joker:

 

And Raj Kapoor's dafli:

 
(Oh, archivists and conservationists, avert your eyes from the label pasted on to the dafli....sigh....)

Which of course, is from this film:

 

And if all that weren't enough to move me to tears, there was this:

 

The accordian from Sangam, as well as Raj Kapoor's famous tramp hat and shoes.  I bet you'd like a close-up of the shoes, right?

 

Like Dimple's dress, I was struck at how small the shoes were.

And because I can't resist a chance to watch the hat and shoes in action:

 

 

If you're interested in seeing the props in the films, the TIFF Bell Lightbox will be showing them as follows:

Bobby - Sunday, August 7th at 8:15 p.m.

Awaara - Friday, July 8th at 3;00 p.m.

Sangam - Sunday, July 3rd at 12:30 p.m.

Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai - Thursday, July 7th at 6:30 p.m.

Mera Naam Joker - Friday, July 29th at 1:30 p.m.

Shree 420 - Friday, July 15th at 3:00 p.m.

 I *highly* recommend checking out all the films in the Raj Kapoor and the Golden Age of Indian Cinema retrospective.  It's a rare chance to see some of these films on a proper cinema screen.  I went to see Barsaat yesterday, and although I've seen it maybe five times, nothing compares to the experience I had yesterday.  Nothing.  In fact, if I could afford tickets to every single one of these films, I'd be seeing them ALL! 

(Also?  I read on Wikipedia that RK Studios has all the props and sets to all their films.  This may be an exaggeration, but really, if they have even a fraction of them, wouldn't it be FABULOUS to see an exhibit of them sometime? Oh, I'm telling you, FABULOUS!!)

Comments

[Dolce and Namak]

Ok, I know this is going to be totally silly but my first reaction on seeing the shoes was not "they're so tiny" (that was actually my second reaction), it was: "hey, they're brown!!". For some reason in my head the props should have been in black and white too, or variations of grey :D

And squee for capturing these for posterity, I am so lazy with pictures, so it's good to know I can find it all here after the exhibition is done :)

[katherine]

I had seen them last week when they finally had them there for the event on Sunday, but I didn't have my camera with me -- made a point of bringing it with me yesterday, cos I knew I'd kick myself if I didn't take some photos.

I wasn't surprised at the colour only because they had read as "darker" to me in the B&W. Of course, you know I'm disappointed they had neither his tramp sweater, nor Rishi's scarf from Bobby. :-)

[Maxqnz]

From way up here at the top end of the world, where such treasures will never come, THANK YOU for these great photos.
Like Dolce_and_Namak, I'd mentally pictured black shoes too. Could you see any actual evidence of their country of origin? :)

[katherine]

Nope, they are pretty well worn and because they're all scrunched like that there's no way to see if there's still a label or something inside. We shall have to take the song's word that they come from Japan.

:-)

[dustdevil.liz]

Thanks for sharing these pictures, it's pretty amazing that any film props from that era are still around! We can only hope that a future IIFA-related exhibit will feature Rishi's sweaters (even if they are shrunken and moth-eaten at this point.)

[katherine]

You know, Liz, I have the distinct impression that the Kapoors are sitting on a gold mine of memorabilia and records and props, and the thought of it makes the archives student in me salivate. At the event I went to last Sunday, Randhir spoke about going back through the records to try to figure out why Barsaat (I think it was Barsaat) had been given an A certificate, so I'm guessing they have a whole lot of stuff that would make for an excellent exhibit. And likely quite a few books.

[Ness]

I know you warned me but THE CLOWN!

Seriously though - so jealous of your IIFA experience! (and did not expect the shoes to be that colour).

[katherine]

Hahaha - I will confess, the clown managed to creep me out just a little, too, and I don't even have a thing about clowns.

[bollywoodeewana]

Wow thanks for those great photos, I've always wondered about all those props and costumes we see in movie, but its great to see some of them have been kept and I've makde some contributions to kapoor khanzana which I've linked below

http://bollywooddeewana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kapoor%20Khazana

[katherine]

@bollywooddeewana Thanks! I've added them into the list of links!