‘A worshipper of nudity’: Raj Kapoor chose hypersexualisation for last heroine Mandakini

Mandakini was the lead actor of Raj Kapoor's last film, Ram Teri Ganga Maili.“I was a worshipper of nudity. I think it all started because of my intimacy with my mother, who was young, beautiful, and had the sharp features of a Pathaan woman. We often bathed together, and seeing her in the nude must have left a deep erotic impression on my mind. There is an excellent Urdu phrase, mugaddas uriyan (sacred nudity), which describes this perfectly. In my films, bathing scenes recur often.” This is how Raj Kapoor described his fascination with the female body in his daughter Ritu Nanda’s book Raj Kapoor: The One and Only Showman. And if you have seen Raj’s last feature film, Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), you can see this thought in action. Many films from Raj’s later career, like the one mentione