Dear Deceiver: Agni Pariksha versus Chhoti si Mulaqat

Posted on by

0

In 1954, the Bengali novelist Ashapurna Debi’s book Agni Pariksha was adapted for the silver screen, into a film starring relative newcomers Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen – who had made a mark as an onscreen couple just the previous year, in Shaarey Chhuattar.

Agni Pariksha was the story of a woman caught in a dilemma, torn between the man she loves and the man (whom she hasn’t met for more than a decade) to whom she was married as a 14-year old. The film was a smash hit, with great music, and succeeded in cementing the Uttam Kumar-Suchitra Sen pairing.

… and then, 13 years down the line, Uttam Kumar produced and starred in a Hindi remake of the film: Chhoti si Mulaqat, opposite Vyjyanthimala. The film flopped miserably.

Why? Why was Agni Pariksha such a hit, Chhoti si Mulaqat such a dud?

I examine these two films for LnC’s Silhouette Magazine, for the ongoing retrospective on Uttam Kumar. Click here to read the full article, and do check out the other articles that form part of the mahanayak‘s centenary celebrations.

Amar Bhoopali (1952)

Posted on by

10

Aka The Immortal Song, a Marathi film directed by V Shantaram, about the Marathi poet Honaji Sayaji Shilarkhane (1754-1844).

Given that Indian cinema (and not Hindi cinema, but several other regional film industries as well) have always focussed heavily on songs, it’s hardly a surprise that films based on the lives of singers and/or poets have been made time and again. In Hindi, there’s been everything from Meera to Mirza Ghalib to Kavi Kalidas; in Gujarati, I’ve seen Kalapi, about Sursinhji Takhtasinhji Gohil ‘Kalapi’. And then there’s this, about Honaji.

The story begins in Saswad, where Honaji ‘Hona’ (Panditrao Nagarkar) lives with his mother Vithabai (Lalita Pawar) and his wife (?). This is not actually their home; they used to live in Pune with Hona’s uncle. However, the uncle was part of a tamasha troupe, and Vithabai found that a potential bad influence on Hona. She didn’t want him to get corrupted, so she shifted the family to Saswad, where Hona now spends his time being a cowherd.

Continue reading →

The Indian Love for ‘It Happened One Night’

Posted on by

10

(And a brief review of Naadaan, 1951).

Over the past couple of days, I’ve watched one of Dev Anand’s earlier films with Madhubala, Naadaan. Ever since I watched Kaala Paani as a child, I’ve checked out every film in which they’ve worked together and which I’ve been able to lay my hands on: Jaali Note, Sharaabi, and now this—all in the hope that another film of theirs might be able to bring together that all-around excellence of Kaala Paani.

In the case of Naadaan, there was another incentive to watch: the fact that this was based on Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934). This film, which stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is a classic romance based on opposites attracting: not only is the heroine a very wealthy woman and the hero a not-too-well-off journalist, but she is, furthermore, in love with a completely different man. Pampered by her widowed father, the woman throws a hissy fit and runs off to her lover when her father refuses to let her marry him. The woman soon realizes that her father has organized not just a search party but has also offered a reward for anyone who can give him information about his fugitive daughter’s whereabouts—all calculated to scotch any attempts at her getting to her lover. But the journalist (who scents a good story) takes the woman under his wing, and gradually their initial friction gives way to friendship, and then to love.

Continue reading →

Nayak (1966)

Posted on by

14

In Satyajit Ray’s 1966 film Nayak (‘The Hero’), the eponymous ‘hero’, the hugely popular superstar Arindam Mukherjee (Uttam Kumar), is travelling by train from Kolkata to Delhi to receive an award. He is sharing a compartment with a family, of whom the father, Mr Bose (Ranjit Sen) spends most of his time outside the compartment. The mother (Bharati Devi) is left pretty much on her own to look after their teenaged daughter Bulbul (Lali Chowdhury), who is unwell and is lying on the upper berth.

When Arindam first enters their compartment, the effect of his arrival is palpable. Bulbul has been reading a book; one look at him and the book ends up beside her, forgotten. On the berth underneath, Mrs Bose, having settled in (and informed Arindam that her daughter is a fan of his) surreptitiously opens her handbag, takes out a mirror and takes a quick peek at herself.

Such is the effect of close proximity to a celebrity.

Continue reading →

Songs that end a film: Ten Favourites

Posted on by

49

Many years ago, I had done a post of credits songs: songs that appear at the beginning of a film, playing as the credits roll. Not just music, not just a verse or two, but a full-fledged song, often (as in the case of Garjat barsat saawan aayo re or Rangeen bahaaron se hai gulzaar Chinatown, to give just two examples) songs that were there only through the credits; they didn’t appear otherwise in the film.

Some readers suggested it might be interesting to find songs that did the opposite. Songs that ended a film, but were complete in themselves. Not (as is common in a lot of films) a verse or a refrain from an-already-heard song that is reprised at the end. Not like the hit love song of which the refrain is played again while the happy couple, now married, go off into the sunset.

No. These are songs which appear only at the end of the film. Not necessarily at the climax: Yeh mahalon yeh takhton yeh taajon ki duniya comes near the end, but there are several scenes beyond that. But songs which actually end the film.

Continue reading →

Prisoner of Golconda (1954)

Posted on by

14

Aka Golconda ka Qaidi: a film made both in Hindi as well as English, though I’ve only seen the English version, not the Hindi, which I couldn’t find anywhere, despite much searching.

Prem Nath directed and starred in Prisoner of Golconda, which also starred his wife Bina Rai and his younger brother Rajendra Nath (whose debut this was, going by the film’s credits). I don’t remember now how I happened to stumble upon the film on YouTube, but I was immediately intrigued; Indian films in English from that era always have that effect on me. What’s more, on a web page, I saw it mentioned (as it turned out, incorrectly) that Prisoner of Golconda was a fantasy. This, I decided, was a film that might merit watching, since the last Prem Nath-starrer fantasy I saw, Aab-e-Hayat, was a thorough entertainer.

But no, Prisoner of Golconda is no fantasy at all. This is a patriotic film, a story set in the early 1940s, and Prem Shankar (Prem Nath) is a police officer, an ASP, who comes to the rescue of a besieged police station where the local officer, Zorawar Singh (Hiralal) has found himself surrounded by a crowd of irate locals. These people, full of anger for the high-handed ways of the British government (and, naturally enough, seeing in the police the embodiment of that colonial government) have been on the rampage. They have already set fire to a post office and are now getting ready to destroy the police station as well.

Continue reading →

Mere Humdum Mere Dost (1968)

Posted on by

16

When Dharmendra passed away earlier this year, it struck me that while I have watched many of his films—from both before and after 1970, the cut-off year for my blog—I have reviewed relatively few. I decided, therefore, to make amends. By watching, for instance, Aaye Din Bahaar Ke and Aaya Saawan Jhoomke. Here’s another one, teaming Dharmendra with one of his more frequent co-stars, Sharmila Tagore.

The story begins on a road where Sunil (?) is walking along with his father, Hari Ram (?). Daddy, walking in the middle of the road [? Why? Also, you know what’s going to happen when a character walks in the middle of the road], is hit by a car, and the next we see, he’s dying in hospital, with Sunil, Sunil’s younger sister, and their mother (Achla Sachdev) looking gloomily on while a policeman tries to get Daddy’s final testimony. Daddy manages to gasp out an accusation: Seth Vishwanath has murdered him; the car accident was no accident. He dies, and the cop goes off to arrest Sethji.

Continue reading →

Stage Fright (1950)

Posted on by

9

After a long, long time, a review of an Alfred Hitchcock film. Hitch has been one of my favourite directors ever since I (then aged twelve) first watched The Lady Vanishes. In the first few years of blogging, I ended up reviewing most of my favourite Hitch films from before 1970: The Thirty-Nine Steps, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Spellbound, Lifeboat… and others. But it’s been a while, and this film has been lying among the bookmarks on my browser, waiting to be watched, for quite a while now.

The aptly-named Stage Fright is set in the world of theatre, where Eve Gill (a very young Jane Wyman) is an aspiring actress. She has still not quite managed to make it into any productions, really, but she is hopeful. When the story begins, though, Eve is not acting or rehearsing: she’s busy helping a friend of hers who’s in trouble. Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is likely to get implicated in a murder, and Eve is driving him to (hopefully) safety.

Continue reading →

Ten of my Favourite Songs of Dissent

Posted on by

35

(And some related emotions, not all dissent. Defiance, inspiration, perseverance, etc).

Dissent is the lifeblood of democracy. An elected government has to be held accountable. If it gets the bouquets for the good it does (which, by the way, is simply the result of it doing its job), it must also be ready to face the brickbats for when things aren’t done properly. When corruption, misuse of public funds, manipulation and other maleficence comes into the picture, a government that shrugs off responsibility, refuses to apologize or take effective measures to mitigate the impact of the problem—must be taken to task.

Continue reading →

Ten of my favourite workplace songs

Posted on by

70

Several months back, as I was posting my housework songs list, I couldn’t help but think that there are a fair number of songs, too, of people going about singing as they do other work: paid work, not just the unpaid labour that is housework. Work done with the hands, especially—repetitive, monotonous work which requires little focus—is easily accompanied by a song. A workplace songs list seemed doable.

My original plan had been to restrict the songs in this list to those where the singer works as he/she sings. But then I realized that a few of my very favourite songs have people singing in their workplaces, though not necessarily working at the same time. While I have tried to ensure at least some of these songs have people working while singing, some are merely what the title of the post indicates: workplace songs. Whether you’re actually working, or taking a break while you sing a song.

Continue reading →