Boot Polish is remarkable for being the precursor to cinema about street children and also for the cult of ghost-direction that many illustrious filmmakers in Bollywood devised as a means of spreading their creative wings. Raj Kapoor credited the direction of this film to his assistant, Prakash Arora.
A year ahead of Satyajit Ray’s Bengali masterpiece Pather Panchali, producer Raj Kapoor brought the neo-realism of Vittorio de Sica into mainstream Hindi cinema with Boot polish.
Two young actors (Baby Naaz and Rattan Kumar) play orphans left to beg on the streets by their aunt. The film’s credibility emanates from the utterly natural performances by the two little actors. The fine and now forgotten actor David as Uncle John, the do-gooder with a heart of gold, helps the two children find their bearings and learn to live with dignity. Raj Kapoor’s cameo appearance on a train, where the two kids look at the blue-eyed passenger and wonder if he is the Raj Kapoor, reconfirmed the film’s neo-realistic credentials and also evinced a smiling curiosity out of the audience.