Watching an old film...

When I took the Guru Dutt CD from Aagan, I never knew that I was soon to be bowled over by its contents. I am not an avid viewer of cinema, though I do appreciate a selected few. But those few are never ... what we call "arthouse cinema". I have no qualms in declaring that I find "arthouse cinema", as labelled today, quite boring. But the film I recently watched, Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam, belongs to an era when there was no separate genre of "arthouse films". That is another way of saying, that the film has a staple diet of tragedy, comedy, songs, intense acting, a great storyline, and a social issue, rightly blended. I belong to an age where the so called superhit movies are compromised with overdoses of songs and skin displayals,with the least necessity of acting, definition of characters, where cinematography means capturing foreign locales in digital colors, whereas the art films are fed with 2 hours of dialogues or silence, no comedy, good cinematography, but zero entertainment. Saheb Biwi Ghulam, and most other films of those era, are made of the good points of these two categories.
Everyone knows the story of the film, so no use brooding all over again. What struck me in the film, was the simplicity of its presentation. Nowhere you find half baked characters, and yet, magically, you can always interprete the characters your own way. This is also the case with the Raj Kapoor cinemas of the era, like Anari, Chori Chori, Shri 420. There were entertainers, they were superhits, they had a couple of songs, and yet, they had intense acting roles, and well defined stories. Above all, the audience then, used to appreciate films like these..hence sahib biwi ghulam was a superhit inspite of having a tragic ending.
What struck me most was the contrast between the two leading ladies- Jaba and Choti Bahu. Waheeda Rehman portrayed the role of Jaba with complete naturalness. That was a time when theatrical acting was prominent. As some people say, the advantage of present day cinema is the natural acting, while the actors in old age films were highly melodramatic. I agree to some extent, but I found Jaba different...it never seems in the film that Waheeda Rahman was acting...it was as if she was Haba herself. So was Guru Dutt as bhootnath. their interactions and histrionics never made me feel that I was actually watching an adaptation from a classic...where the normal thumb rule is..treat the script like a drama.

Meena Kumari as Choti Bahu is the highlight of the film. She gave one of the finest performances in Indian cinema. Her role gave her every chance to be melodramatic, yet she wasnt. Drunk or no drunk, her performance was constraint, and yet, stellar. It is a rare example of a classic beauty, and an excellent actress combined. Whereas she looks simply ethereal in most scenes, like the song "Piya aiso jiya mein", her performance as the drunk bahu is a landmark. for eg, the scene in while she, being drunk, tries to wear a saree, the song "na jaao saiyyan", the last scene in the carriage, which is bound to make you shed tears, where she's optimistic about life even in her death, are bound to remain in your memory long after watching the film. she was not sensuous, she was just trying to be an ideal housewife to a husband who believed that the real gem in being a man is not avoid his own married wife, and spend nights over with other women. and Meena Kumari played it convincingly. I had heard of Meena Kumari as a tragedy queen...but...she's simply the queen!!!

The cinematography is awsome, particularly the parts portraying meena kumari. so are the songs, mainly sung by asha bhonsle and geeta dutt, and composed by our very own hemant kumar.

The just thought that I should share my experiences of watching the film, with my friends through the blog. I wont say its a must watch film...that depends upon your taste, but its rightly a milestone movie.