Chaudhvin Ka Chand is among the purest of Hindi movies I have seen, in terms of the language. Even though the movie opened with English titles, ladies before gentlemen, the only English words heard throughout were a few utterances of ‘municipality’, ‘doctor’, ‘inspector’, ‘judge’.
There have been very many triangular love stories based on the misinterpretation of words like friendship and sacrifice, and 49 years after its release the movie of course feels cliché-ridden even though it is not overly melodramatic. But setting it in the times of Nawabi Lucknow makes it more believable. Nawab Pyare (Rehman) falls in love with Jameela (Waheeda Rehman) the first time he sees her. Fate has it that he arranges the marriage of his best friend Aslam (Guru Dutt) with Jameela in his attempt to escape his own “match fixing” and to track his love and marry her.
“Tragedy ensues,” I thought to myself, and while it did, I was pleasantly surprised by how it unfolded. The conflict which is immediately clear to the audience was used to create ample suspense for the majority of the movie, gnawing our minds to ask when and which of the characters finds out first. This uncommon choice was not only fresh by itself, but also bought enough time for Aslam and Jameela to get intimate, to raise the stakes.
When Aslam and Jameela are alone for the first time, Waheeda Rehman’s expressions – a mixture of apprehension, coyness and curiosity – accurately convey the first days of a marriage. Keeping everything aside, this one scene 45 minutes into the movie has preoccupied me in the last few days.
ye duniyA agar mil bhi jAye to kyA hai! I watched the Telugu remake of Pyaasa, malle pUvu a couple of times before. It is a beautiful story of a struggling poet (Guru Dutt) and a hooker with a golden heart (Waheeda Rehman), two well-known stereotypes, though they were not yet stereotypes in 1957. At least not in Indian cinema.
There is something amusing when a party hosted by a publisher is attended by well-to-do poets who exchange poetry during drinks, when poetry isn’t just read but a poet idolized and his anniversaries celebrated, when the world gets poetry-mania like Potter-mania.
Two characters, however, the ex-lover Meena (Mala Sinha) who jilted the unemployed poet to marry a rich publisher (Rehman), and the publisher who understands that an immortalized dead poet makes more business than an encouraged struggling poet, are to me more interesting than the doe-eyed protagonists.
Pyaasa is often considered the greatest of Guru Dutt’s, but I liked it the least among the three of his movies I have watched until now. It may be because it was the oldest of the three, or even because Guru Dutt was also its director. I felt an abuse of close-ups, sometimes in awkward camera angles, exposing some shady expressions that were better off when viewed in longer shots.
Guru Dutt had a knack for creating a mystery, perhaps a skill he acquired during his initial thriller days. It along with the aura that the queen of tragedy possessed possesses greatly benefited Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam. Of the three movies I watched this weekend, this was the most haunting, and the mystery of Chhoti Bahu overshadows the radiance of Jameela.
Atulya ‘Bhootnath’ Chakraborty (Guru Dutt), a middle-aged civil engineer visits the site of his new assignment and the ruined bungalow which is being deconstructed reminds him of a past voice that has haunted him since his youth… The young educated rustic comes to Calcutta for a job in the times of East India Company. He gets it in a factory beside the Chaudharys’ haveli. During the day, he tries not to fall in love with the factory proprietor’s daughter Jaba (Waheeda Rehman), and in the darkness he is drawn to the residents of the haveli.
He strikes an unusual bond with Chhoti Bahu (Meena Kumari) of the haveli. He cares for her and she confides in him, and that is how we get to know her. Even though the movie is titled Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, it is the story of Chhoti Bahu, or at least the only story we care for. This wife of a zamindar is trapped in the haveli surrounded by long walls and tall traditions, and is abandoned by her husband for a pleasure-giving courtesan. Depressed and determined to win him back, she tilts the status quo by accompanying him in his daily binges.
Meena Kumari enlightened me that it is not a tragedy when a protagonist is cursed by fate, but that it is when a strong struggling character is crushed by the consequences of his or her own actions. Her end is not a slow melting of the heart but a sudden shocking heartbreak.
The Guru Dutt team made these movies with great care for strong settings, well-etched characters (even the stereotypes) and novel screenplays. All three characteristics go hand-in-hand and create a synergy that makes the movies memorable. Take away any one of those characteristics, they could still have been good movies. Take away two, they would be like most movies.
Image Sources: IMDB, IMDB, IMDB
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