LOVE THAT TRANSCENDS SOCIALLY DEFINED BOUNDARIES


I was on a flight back from Delhi a couple of weeks ago when I happened to watch once again the classic Hindi movie – Amar Prem. A film that never fails to move me – each time I see it I am able to understand a different facet about it. This movie is what I would refer to as a “complete package” – it has a beautiful story, great music and good acting! It is also a movie that was probably far ahead of its times ..

Most often movies try to portray love within the confines of a defined relationship – father/ mother – son/ daughter, young man- woman/ boy- girl, and so on.. But this movie is about love beyond such definitions.

The story is about Pushpa a poor young woman who is in a abusive relationship with her husband. Her husband remarries as she is childless and throws her out of the house. When Pushpa goes back to her poor old mother she is not exactly welcome there. She falls prey to  a middle aged man in the village who lures her with promises of a good job in Calcutta and sells her to a brothel in the city. She accepts her fate as a woman of the night.

It is by chance that a rich and unhappy man, Anand,  is brought into the red light district in a drunken state by a coach driver. He is about to leave the place when the haunting voice of Pushpa singing a song holds him back and then draws him to her. A man in an unhappy married relationship with his socialite wife he finds in Pushpa a companionship that his wife is unable to provide. There is a touching scene where he names some traditional dishes ( which he hears his friend say he had for a meal)  and asks Pushpa if she knows how to make them-she looks very surprised and asks  him “Will you eat if I make them?”. He says with a smile “ Why not!”

In the midst of all this is a little boy Nandu who lives in a house bordering the red light district. Nandu has a step mother who does not care for him. While playing in the streets one day he happens to run into Pushpa who develops a fondness for him. She spoils him with sweets and food and he gets from her the love that his step mother denies him. For Pushpa it is a fulfilment of her yearning for mother hood.  Nandu’s family does not want him to visit the “disreputable” woman and so he has to do this without their knowledge.  So we have Anand who is married but actually relates to another woman and we have a child who loves this same woman like his mother. They are almost like a family – the three of them not in anyway related to one another! 

Anand’s family is of course not at all happy that he is seeing a “prostitute”. So his wife’s brother comes one day and threatens Pushpa with dire consequences if she lures his brother in law away from his wife. Pushpa promises that she would not see him again and so the next time he comes to visit her she refuses to open her door and  tells him never to come to see her again.

Meanwhile Nandu falls ill and is predictably not taken of properly by his step mother. It is Pushpa who goes back to Anand with a request to send a good doctor to treat the boy. Again, a wonderful scene where the doctor asks Anand as to how he was related to the boy. Anand tells him “ I am not related to him. I had come to you with a request for treatment from the boy’s mother”
 
Days go by. Pushpa loses her youth and her looks and has to work as a maid in a boarding house. Nandu grows up is a successful engineer and is posted in Calcutta. He scours the streets ingfor “her” – as he refers to Pushpa.  Anand is older and is his kind but sharp talking self with a sarcastic sense of humour. When Nandu’s son falls ill he seeks out the same doctor who cured him as a child. It is at the doctor’s clinic that he runs into Anand. Together they look for  Pushpa.

Meanwhile Pushpa chances at the boarding house her husband who is on the brink of death. He is blind and delirious having no one to care for him. It is she who cares for him – in a very impersonal way as a maid who works there. But when he breathes his last she behaves like a hindu woman accepting widowhood – breaking her bangles on the banks of the Ganges!

Towards the end both Anand and Nandu manage to find Pushpa and it is Anand who tells Nandu to “take your mother home” !A wonderful scene where you see Nandu and Pushpa seated on a rickshaw going past a procession that is bringing in the idol of Goddess Durga for the nine day puja- very symbolic of a homecoming

While the film Anand has often been stated as being one of Rajesh Khanna’s greatest. I think this movie is by far a better one. The character that he portrays is a fine balance between a person who carries sadness in his heart with a smile on his lips. He is sarcastic and he hates high emotions. There is this famous dialogue in the movie “Pushpa I hate tears”!! (I remember seeing on so many people’s status messages on face book when the news of his death got around.) But it is the same hero who actually wipes off tears and walks away in the last scene after bidding goodbye to his beloved.

But what is so unique about the entire movie is the way it has so beautifully woven together the lives of three individuals – a man, woman and a child into a bond of love that is outside of socially defined relationship. It is very non judgemental of the “fallen woman” explaining very clearly the circumstances that got her to where she was. It also shows the deep conditioning that Indian women have towards marriage and widowhood in that final scene when Pushpa formally becomes a widow after her hsuband’s death – very impersonal and devoid of any emotions. Being his widow was probably as much a dutiful thing for her to as being a wife would have been.

The film is also a social commentary of the times that it is set in - 1950s/ 60s . There is a lovely song “Kuchh to log Kahenge, Logon ka kaam hai kehna” – roughly translated it means “people always say something – it is their job to do so.”-  bringing out the falseness of gossip and so called morality. There is this other wonderful number that celebrates the broken heart “Yeh kya hua, kaise hua” which Anand sings when Pushpa closes her doors to him.  And ofcourse who can forget the famous “Chingari koi bhadke, toh sawan usey bujhaey. Sawan jo agan lagaey use kaun bujhaey”- meaning “ If a spark flares into a flame the rain can douse it but when the rain starts a fire who can put it out?”

Sharmila as the heroine has very little by way of dialogues in the entire movie. She conveys more by her silence – all the wonderful dialogues are Rajesh Khanna’s ! The man is not really great by way of acting. However what I think he was very lucky with was the fact he lived and worked during a time when the directors were good and so were the stories and music . The movie’s success can be attributed as much to Shakti Samanta, R.D. Burman and Kishore as to Rajesh. You remove one and the  magic goes! I read somewhere that Rajesh Khanna had apparently watched the original Bengali  version with Uttam Kumar “Nishipadma” 7-8 times before he agreed to sign this movie. I have not seen the Bengali version but it is on my list of “to watch” films

A movie that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Although I know that the hero of the movie “hates tears” I could not help them flowing down my cheeks. A foreign lady sitting next to me on the flight actually asked me “Are you alright?” 

Air India may give us lousy service but their in-flight movies are definitely good ones! They are also edited well, where you get to see the best parts with the best songs intact!





Comments

  1. That is one cute movie review:) I have not watched this movie, just for the same reason you say- " I hate tears". Sad there are no such movies with such depth in storyline these days:(

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  2. I haven't seen this movie but your description is remarkable and would make anyone want to see itRajesh khanna's acting isnever loud and his sad smiling face is possibly apt for this film.Sharmila has always been silently eloquent.The other greats directorr,singer have made this memorable from your account.The highlight is that you are an alchemist that can turn even a base metal into gold and in this case you had a golden film in your hands.

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  3. Meera,

    You took me back by so many years. This movie was really out of its time but was superb in each way. Now a complaint, you visited Delhi and no time to meet. Please do tell when you are here again.

    Take care

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  4. How are you doing meera?
    Hope you are much better today?
    Please take plenty of rest,
    wish you quick recovery.xxx
    Yes! i have watched the film!
    It is a classic like pretty woman!
    I also wept at the scenes where the step mother maltreated Anand and the brother's of her client came to threaten her. She was beautiful!
    As i watched the film, i realized some women venture into prostitution out of circumstances and we should not be judgemental.She eventually left the trade and was scouring pots for a lodge home, for her upkeep. People mocked at her but she didn't mind them. Was so happy when Anand traced her. The brothers of her client warned her so that his marriage will not fail. The wife at home was not happy another woman was taking her husband's attention away from her, so she had to protect her own interest. The heorine on her part was sent away from her home by another woman because she was childless. See the irony of life?!
    Nevertheless, She found a 'husband and son' away from the defined relationship expected by the society. Why her own mother did not welcome her back portrays how the society treats divorcees, hence, many women stay put in a suffering marriage.
    It was an enjoyable film, like the dance and songs.
    The soul of the departed director rest in peace.

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  5. OMG Ibhade... YOu have seen that film so far away in Nigeria? it really makes me feel so happy! You know the hero of the movie Rajesh Khanna passed away last month- sad...!!! As you say, life for a woman is always filled with struggles. Few women enter prostitution by choice - most of them are trafficked into it and some do it out of extreme poverty.

    @ Jack uncle, I know it is probably a movie from your generation but it holds a fascination for all generations. It is a timeless classic. My time in Delhi was so hectic that I could hardly meet anyone. May be sometime later..

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  6. I haven't watched this film but I have heard that this is a timeless classic. Your movie review and the way you dived straight into the pearls of wisdom that are hidden in the storyline of this film caught my attention. I think it's a film I'd love to watch. And I really liked the dialogues you've specifically mentioned as well.

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  7. Pretty late coming to this post. Well well, who can forget the movie and the song,"Chingari koi bhadke, toh sawan usey bujhaey......". Kishore Kumars's perhaps the best,.

    You are right about Rajesh Khanna. He was not a great actor, but he acted during the age in the Indian film industry when directors ruled and so dd Kishore Kumar.That made the difference and some beautiful poised heroines with him.



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  8. @ Swapna you MUST watch this film. Your life is not complete without it... Try flying Air India you might just run into a flight that is playing this movie.

    @ Anil, Chingari is a very special song. It has a very soothing and calming effect - the sound of the lapping water and the guitar. The music gave "colour" the story and its depth!

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  9. first time hearing someone say something nice abt Air india :)

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  10. Namaste....
    In reading this i can't help but think perhaps i have seen this movie? Love movies that dare to cross boundaries and buck the status quo. Ah it’s been a while since I have watched Indian movies, I cut my teeth on them growing up in the Islands (Trinidad & Tobago) to me they just don't make them like they use to. Though I know modernization/evolution is inevitable I detest seeing the internalization of the fallacies of "whiteness" override the authentication of heritage & ethnicity replace by shame and self-negation. It is ok to embrace change however the erasure is something i have little tolerance for.

    Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed.
    Rhapsody

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  11. @ Rhapsody Phoenix I am amazed at the number of people across different countries who have watched Indian movies. Yes, Indian movies today are not what they used to be - there is a lot of falseness that has crept in.

    @ Ashok the movies are the only things that are nice about Air India

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