Ujala (1959)

Watced the movie ‘Ujala’ on Netflix.
1959. Shankar Jaikishan (music), Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri (lyrics)

Being old school, I love anything that takes me back to old times, good or bad...anything that has a grounding effect on me.
And this movie had the effect of grounding me. Devoid of all pretense and ostentation, humble, simple, sincere and down to earth.
Took me back to Doordarshan, Vividh Bharati, and may be a part of my childhood…

It was a bit of a test in endurance though. Poverty, hunger, starvation, children dying. Made endearing all the more because of the simple joys of life and humour even in the midst of such threadbare existence.

Ramu (Shammi Kapoor) is the sole breadwinner of a large and poor family. He is sincere, hard working. His penury and hardships cannot move him astray to dishonest ways but the hunger of his little siblings and the burden of his old widowed mother prove too trying and for their sake, he allows himself to heed the tempting invitation from Kaalu, a blackguard, a petty thief and joins his gang. To return to his moral path but to be swayed again by a blow from destiny.
Until at last, he makes his final return to the home of honesty.

You can feel the compulsion of Ramu as you watch him surrounded by hungry siblings, a sister to be married, house owner demanding seven months rent of 14 rupees and a kid sister dying in the hospital waiting for an operation.
Just when he resolves he will quit pick pocketing, there is fresh trouble at his door, on one side and on the other, that gangster, alluring him with the ten rupees on which his life depends, for one last crime in a dark narrow alley.

As you see, with a wrench in your heart, a person beg and plead in helplessness, not for his own sake but for his kid brother crying for milk, or his sister run over by a speeding car, you rethink the qualities of self respect, self worth, self esteem and their rather exotic nature.
What would it mean to to starve your 5 year old children to uphold your lofty ideals that mean nothing to them? It would be selfish. Cruel. It would be like someone enjoying at others’ expense.
It also makes you see how easy, cheap and meaningless our own ‘self respect’ and ‘esteem’ are, in our present time.
Clearly, they are no big deal in times of financial well being and material abundance.
But how difficult and impossible they must be for those neck deep in poverty, whose only hope is the mercy of some generous soul, some kind hearted savior.

It takes a movie like this to appreciate the strength of character of those of our forefathers who tread the right path in the face of the compulsions of poverty, wretchedness and desperation.

My own grandfather walked on fire but did not stray from the path of honesty and uprightness.

The Acharya in the ashram who appeared on the scene at a crucial moment offering sixty rupees, would appear like too much of lucky coincidence, and unrealistic, if not for the fact that there really existed in those times, people of such noble nature full of lofty ideals though they would seem an oddity in these times.

The ending could have been simpler without all that circus and such far fetched extra ordinary complications.

A trivial and insignificant thing that I have to say a lot about, is the water tank, in the outskirts of the town.
The top of the tank is the bad guy Kaalu's place of dwelling. It is the scene of a scuffle between Ramu and Kaalu in the climax. Ramu falls down while crossing over to the other end of a rope that connects the tank and another building and nearly dies.
The thing is, this water tank from which a fall is supposed to be fatal is actually only about eight or ten feet tall.
It's endearing to see the gentlemanly understanding between the movie makers and the audience, the understanding that the audience will appreciate the movie makers' limited resources and will ‘get the message’, never mind the simple humble inaccurate visuals.
When today's moviemakers use all their resources and take you to Switzerland and Paris and exotic locations but there is no sincerity in their movie making, the sophistication of the visuals doesn’t matter.

A bunch of songs that I grew up listening to are now strung together by this movie.
Duniya walon se door, jalne walon se door,..
Jhoomta Mausam, Mast Maheena,…
Ho Mora Naadan balma na jaaane dil ki baat…

A beautiful song I discovered was ‘Suraj zara aa paas aa, aaj sapnon ki roti pakayenge hum’. Its poignant because its gay; a happy, children’s song, sung by Ramu to divert his little siblings’ attention from their hungry stomachs towards hope and dreams of fun foods that he promises to bring them one day. And the group of hungry children led by Ramu sprint down the streets, spring in their step, twinkle in heir eyes, singing of fun foods, roti and ghee and curry they will have one day.
Just how poignant!
It is a song of those yesteryears, of almost all households…
The very down to earth Manna Dey’s voice is tailor made for the 'threadbare' theme of the movie and particularly this song.

Another song that I hadn’t heard before was - Ab kahan jaye hum,… I must listen to it again.

Mala Sinha, ‘Chabili’ in this movie, is a cowherdess, a 'gwalan'. Double or triple chin. Awkward was her 'Rrrrraaaaaam kasam' at the beginning and end of every line. Boring exchanges between her and Shammi. The love story is hardly there. You have to believe it without seeing it.

A pocket picker had picked a 1000 rupee note from the territory of a rival gang. That reminded me of my father who had said, he had seen a 1000 rupee note those days, I forgot where...