One Line Review: Boot Polish is the finest quality black and a white feature film that teaches the lesson of dignity and earning the bread by working rather than begging.
Youtube Trailer Boot Polish
Starring: Ratan Kumar, Chand Burke, Kumari Naaz
Director: Prakash Arora
Release Date: 20 August 1954
Introduction
Boots Polish is a movie that touches a movie, and you can move the audience deeply into your mind in some places. While watching this movie, I think it is difficult to stop their tears. The writer Bhaan Prataap, director Prakash Arora and the Ultimate Visionary Raj Kapoor harmonized to make memorable films. I have seen it many times because I do not get bored anywhere. More children-based Bollywood films came later, but this film is definitely in its own league.
Plot Summary
Two orphan boys get forced to beg by their abusive and prostitute aunt after their father left them abandoned. But they meet a wise crippled man, John, who teaches them the lesson of dignity and shoe polishing. They then choose to earn their meal by shoe polishing rather than begging.
Quality in black and white era
I have no doubt to admit that in terms of quality, this black and white film is an excellent film by all standards. This film has excellent scores in every department, whether it is art direction, photography, performance, background music, or music. This is amazing! This movie belongs to the children’s artists Master Ratan Kumar and Baby Naaz, both of whom provide performances that will be memorable for a lifetime. They make you smile, they make you cry. Mainly, they are the ones who made this movie a winner until the end. The audience will lose their heart for these innocent faces and their innocent behavior. Among them, the experienced artist David deserves a special mention. He has never underperformed his entire career, and Boot Polish has shown great talent.
Produced by superstar Raj Kapoor, who has a funny guest appearance as a sleeping train passenger, and staged by debutant Prakash Arora, who is part of Kapoor early works Aag and Barsaat ruled as assistant director, the film tells the story of two children who try to get through life with dignity. That hit the nerve of the time because India was bitterly poor after independence and filmmakers tried to give the population hope and at the same time to call on people not to lose sight of central qualities such as humanity, honor, and righteousness because of the sheer poverty. The leitmotif for this comes from the mouth of John, played by ’50s supporting actor David: “Better to die than beg! Do something with your own hands, make your money!”. The film in no way ignores the fact that this is easier said than done, but it does present this principle as a desirable ideal, otherwise, according to John, the poor would remain beggars forever.
Marvelous Acting performances
David received the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for this committed role. “Boot Polish” also won the prizes for the best film and the best camera – against the competition from Bimal Roy’s Parineeta, “Taxi Driver” with Dev Anand and Mehboobs Khan’s Amar. The film was even shown in Cannes, which is not surprising since the whole film world was hot for neo-realistic world cinema. The touching film fully deserves attention and awards. Although the story is a bit predictable and a few of the songs interrupt the narrative flow, “Boot Polish” offers a lot of material for the mind and two great child actors. The convincing Ratan Kumar appeared in a few works before, but then fell into oblivion and stayed afloat as a choreographer and man behind the scenes.
Conclusion
Naaz, who already dances impressively and enchants with her gaze, is even better. It was not for nothing that she made dozens of films as the child star “Baby Naaz” (such as the young Paro in Devdas ) before moving up to supporting blockbuster roles in the 1970s. But “Boot Polish” is probably one of her best-known roles, as there are only a few works in India’s film history with children as leading actors in which they are not overshadowed by a well-known star. Here the film belongs entirely to Naaz and Ratan. You suffer and rejoice with them and, above all, you hope that they will manage to get out of the gutter. With this life-affirming basis, “Boot Polish” is rightly a small classic.
