Saaransh- Movie Review

 

 

 

 

Saaransh ( 1984)

Cast:  Anupam Kher(as B.V. Pradhan), Rohini Hattangadi(as Parvati Pradhan), Soni Razdan(as Sujata Suman), Madan Jain (as Vilas Chitre), Suhas Bhalekar (as Vishwanath)

Writer and Director:- Mahesh Bhatt

Music:- Ajit Verman, Vasant Dev(lyrics)

 Review

Movies are generally meant for entertainment. Then there are some movies which are successful in leaving a lifelong impression about the realities of life within those 120 odd minutes. These become timeless as their concept will lose relevance only with humanity. Saaransh is one such classic.  A movie which even after 31 years of its release doesn’t give any sense of obsolesces. The struggle of hope is still fresh and significant. 

An unconventional movie, where the lead actors represent a not so popular segment of the society; an old aged  couple. After 3 decades, I find a lot of people around me who have sent their children abroad to study or work and are living alone in their homeland. They would flaunt their children being abroad but deep within would be suffering from loneliness.  The taboos of the society in terms of accepting a woman aspiring for a not so socially acceptable career, living alone as a Paying Guest and having an affair still have their presence in society.

The movie portrays a stark interplay of the vicissitudes of the extremities of human emotions. The situations which intensify the swirl of emotions and make someone stoic are displayed. It exhibits the response of humans when they reach a stage where the life seems meaningless, hollow and one wants to put an end to it. It exposes the brutalities and cruelties of life and is deeply moving on the portrayal of despair and hope during the course of time. It shows the after effects on death on the people lived by.

B.V. Pradhan (Anupam Kher), a veteran freedom fighter, an atheist, struggles through a myriad of emotions including a stage of stoicism in the movie. He struggles with feelings and attempts to commit suicide; believing that it is better to die in respect than to live in humiliation. The same man, who was once not even desired to live, transforms into a fearless man full of zeal, grit, passion and belief when he finds the purpose of his life.  He who could go to any levels in order to protect the paying guests life. As a debutante, at an age of 28, he has played a role of a 60year old man and it seems nobody else could have done it better.

Parvati Pradhan(Rohini Hattangadi), his wife, on the other hand, is an ardent believer of God. Faith is a very strange emotion. If put at wrong places, can prove to be disastrous and the absence of it is also no good. That is one reason that researchers have proved that those who are religious remain hopeful towards life and hence are less likely to be depressed as compared to those who are not.

Losing your child is undoubtedly the greatest grief that a parent can have in their life. This movie shows a struggle in bearing the deep loss. A reason to find a meaning in life when all seem to have lost is essential.

The movie begins with the old man obsessed with the memories of his only son who was killed by goons in New York. It is excruciatingly painful to accept such harsh truth. The old man was in a state of denial and dreamt of his son and would also wake up in the middle of the night and write letters only to realize that the reader is no longer alive.

When B.V. Pradhan (Anupam Kher)attempts committing suicide, his wife offers to go along with him and he readily accepts it. Those scenes make your heart skip a beat when you see the husband offering poison to his wife to fulfill her desire of dying as a non- widow.  The movie shows a beautiful transition in the belief regarding suicide. When B.V. Pradhan (Anupam Kher)wanted to commit it, he believed that one needs the courage to commit a suicide. Later towards the end of the movie when Parvati Pradhan(Rohini Hattangadi) accepts the fact that her son is dead and won’t come back, she offers to end her life with her husband and that’s when B.V. Pradhan (Anupam Kher)realizes that suicide isn’t courageous. You need bravery to stand up, find a purpose and live.

On numerous occasions, the movie has shown that though people are running in a race and are probably forgetting the ethics and human values being desired to be exhibited by one human being towards another, humanity is still alive. Be it the scene where B.V. Pradhan (Anupam Kher) had to go to superior authorities to collect the ashes of his dead son from the customs or when he had to meet and plead to the Minister ( who turned out to be his student   )to save the lady from Election aspirants goons from aborting the baby . On one hand, there is a dirty play of power and politics, yet there are proofs that the human values are not yet dead.

The movie proves the quote that when all is lost, hope remains.

The love and the deep connection between the old couple are worth observing. The care and concern for each other, the acceptance of differences in thoughts, taking a decision to end the lives together and then to support each other at various points is commendable.

The struggles of a female are also one of the beads in the thread of the movie. Sujata (Soni Razdan) blindly trusts her boyfriend to marry her while she is bearing his child. Vilaas(Madan Jain) son of the politician, remains spineless to take a stand and continues to fool around for most of the time.  Despite this, Sujata is headstrong and decides to do go ahead with her decisions not depending on anyone.

The character of Suhas as Vishwanath shows the importance of having a genuine best friend who sticks through thick and thin, who understand you in and out.

Towards the last leg of the movie, Anupam Kher realizes that his real partner is his wife and takes her out for her daily morning walk which was routine with Vishwanath. His best friend isn’t jealous but believes that he is like Lakshman.

 Movie ends on a very philosophical note, the last dialogue when they see that the place where Anupam Kher had unclenched his wrist full of ashes, has transformed into a beautiful patch full of budding flowers, he says that “ there is an end to you, there is an end to me, but there is no end to life” . Just like the universal laws, life can also be only transformed from one form to another. The human body goes to ashes and bloomed as flowers.  It represents the completion of the cycle of life and death.

Take away quote from the movie, “ Tumhari jhurriyo main to mere jeevan ka saaransh hai” ( Gist of my life lies in the wrinkles of your face).

Overall a power pack  full exploring and struggling with questions about  life, death, faith, love, commitment, betrayal, solace, peace, acceptance, devastation and above all hope, would unfailingly leave you spellbound. The movie is well woven and has intrinsically fabricated so many aspects that there isn’t a moment of lull.

The songs were successful in giving imbibing a meaningless and depressing thought in the mind. I really liked the following lines from one of the songs:-

“Aasma hai wahi aur wahi hai zamin

Hai makaan gair ka gair hai ya hami”

 

Tidbits about the movie:-

•         India's official entry for the 1985 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category

•         Debutant Anupam Kher was only 28 at the time, but his performance as the 60-plus retired headmaster BV Pradhan bagged him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Dor- Movie Review

 

 

Dor, literally meaning a string or rope. The purpose of this particular object is to connect two or more distant things. The  title of the movie is well justified wherein  people unrelated or distant in terms of region, religion , gender (referring to Shreyas Talpade) are connected with a string, string of hope . Unlike the typical bollywood movies, wherein all the humanly or beyond humanly or the heroic characteristics are framed to be exhibited by the male actors, the lead actors of this movie are “actresses” who have both superbly justified their roles.

The movie has dared to go beyond the stereotype and shown a glimpse of the valor, strength and courage of the other gender too.

 The young , pretty and innocent Meera(Aisha Takia) from a typical Rajasthani family is full of enthusiasm and loves to go beyond the restrictions of enjoying a dance and dreams of a life full of love with her husband but is not daring to go beyond the impositions and has accepted the life as it has been presented to her. On the other hand,  Zeenat (Gul Panag) from Himachal has dared to do carve out life at her own terms.

The condition of widows and a glimpse of what mental turmoil they had to (quite a lot still go through) in parts of the country are well exhibited. It made me realize that the society has imbibed a feeling in females from very early in their childhood that their source of happiness lies with someone else and this someone else is typically a man. In childhood, that man is either her father or brother on whom she is dependent mentally and economically. She is made to believe that she isn’t capable of taking care of herself and hence has to resort to the strengths of her brothers and father to protect her and guide her in deciding the trails of the path that she would walk. After matrimony, she takes pride in her husband, who she is made to believe is the sole source of her happiness. Mind it, only happiness, for all sorrows, she herself is responsible.  The widow is deprived of all sorts of pleasure, joy or any sort of happiness as to suffer in grief till her death. The society snatches away the basic right of being happy. The role of Dadi(grandmother ) depicts as to what happens when they go through it. The accumulated grief and feeling of being out casted from a normal life enthralls jealousy. They loathe when others from the same gender are happy. However the change in heart happened in the movie when she sees her own grand-daughter-in law to suffer from the same. The sense of belongingness is such that a lot of people feel happy or satisfied when others suffer from the same pain as they have been. It gives them a pleasure to have a companion in grief and because it satisfies their need of belongingness.

Girish Karnad’s role left me wondering about the sanctity of relationships. He sent off his son to earn in order to repay the debt for his haveli at the cost of happiness of his family members. Moreover, when he agreed to trade off his daughter-in-law for his greed to satisfy the false pride of social repute relating to the ownership of the haveli, it instilled a fear of probably not trusting the intentions of materialistic human ever. You never know he may trade off anything , reminded me of the famous gamble in Mahabharata.

The role of Zeenat( Gul Panag), proves again that if you want something bad enough, the universe conspires to bring it to you. She only had one objective clear in her head and she received support on the way, from the truck driver, from the Behroopiya( Shreyas Talpade) to reach her destination.

The importance of friendship and a heartily connection between people for a happy life is also illustrated. We seek connecting with people, who inspire us to grow, move out of the cocoon and more than anything, inspires to be happy. The take away statements from the movie “You need to decide the course of your happiness. The actions that you take are your decisions for your happiness but then you should also have the strength to face the consequences.

The last scene, wherein Meera(Aisha Takia) hands over the forgiveness note to the Zeenat (Gul Panag)and then after a while when Zeenat lends her hand inviting her to join in the journey was exquisite. The expressions made words unnecessary. Any dialogue would have spoilt the moment. Non verbal communications are less likely to be left to misinterpretations sometimes.  

 I couldn’t help but compare the scene with DDLJ when Shahrukh lends his hand for Kajol. The differences were that firstly, the previous doors of the train coach in DDLJ were open and Kajol could have entered through the previous door, whereas in Dor, the other doors were closed .Technical team’s responsibility probably. Secondly, Kajol was running to Shahrukh to find her happiness in the hero while Aisha Takia was running to Gul Panag for her own happiness.  

The movie also has a melodious sound track. The song “Ye Hosla” is one of the most inspirational songs that bollywood has given.  The Rajasthani folk song “Kesariya Balam” beautifully portrays the yearning while inviting someone to visit your homeland.  

Overall, it is a movie inspiring to break the norms which chain the inner happiness to the ground, a message to display the power of the string of hope to convert into a rope of hope with strength of the magnitude to change the lives, a motivation to unleash the happiness potential curbed and cornered by false impression of the strength lying in others with a caution to take responsibility and ownership of the actions and subsequent consequences.