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.