Watched ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ (1962) on Primevideo.
The only Indian movie I have given a rating of ten on ten on IMDB. Because it is flawless.
Actually, I enjoyed watching Hrishikesh Mukherjee films a lot more, but I gave them 9 or 8, a point or two shy of ten, because of a flaw or two in them. Every one of them in fact.
In this movie, I couldn’t find a single flaw. Hence, although the story belonged to a remote past, which I appreciated but couldn’t identify with, I had to give it ten on ten.
Based on a Bengali novel, 'Saheb Bibi Golam' by Bimal Mitra, it has been critically acclaimed, and has the best ever performance in Hindi cinema, by Meena Kumari as Chhoti Bahu, though a flop at the box office.
It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival, and was chosen as India's official entry to the Oscars. However it was not accepted as a nominee. The academy wrote a letter to Guru Dutt saying that a woman who drinks was not permissible in their culture. Go figure!
The story...
Calcutta of the late 19th century. Where Zamindar Chaudhrys live in sprawling palatial havelis/mansions. It is still British Raj, though there is only one scene in the movie to remind you of it.
The Chaudhrys rest all day, and soon as it is dark, they leave in their carriages for the city’s red light area, or have dance girls perform lewd dances for them in their havelis.
Staying at home by the wife is only for the henpecked, while consorting with dance girls and prostitutes, the mark of a true zamindar.
One of the Chaudhry brothers spends 10000 rupees on his cat's wedding! He brought the son in law from Persia whereas his rival zamindar married his cat to an Indian cat!
The futility, the depravity of it all…
Bhoothnath (Guru Dutt) arrives in Calcutta from his village to take up employment at Mohini Sindhoor, a vermilion making cottage industry. He takes up residence at a Haveli with his brother in law who happens to work there.
Subinay Babu (Nazir Hussain) is the owner of the Sindhoor factory.
His father was a devout Hindu but he is a Brahmo Samaji now.
He has a daughter Jaba (Waheeda Rehman), a perky young girl who chides Bhoothnath. About his name, among other things. (His proper name is Atulya Chakravarthy, his bua gave him the name Bhoothnath because he was born on Shivrathri)
They employ a Maharaj, a Brahmin cook, to prepare meals for their workers who cannot eat food cooked by the ‘maleech’ Brahmo Samajis.
‘Bas, itna sa bhaat?’ asks Guru Dutt of the Maharaj, looking at the rice on his plate
(Bhaat – is the term used for a rice preparation. It was only in Karnataka that I had known this word to be in active use, I had no clue it was used in other parts of India too!)
Mohini Sindhoor is reputed to help marital problems of all sorts. Applying it will ensure a woman’s marriage is a happy one, she has the loyalty of her husband and bring intimacy to an estranged couple.
‘Mere pitah kattar sanatani the, meri tarah Brahmo samaji nahi the. Mere pitaji ko Bhavani ne swapna mein mohini sindhoor ka vardaan diya tha’ says Subinay Babu.
Back in the haveli after work, Bhoothnath is intrigued by the decadent lifestyle of the Chaudhry brothers. The middle brother feasts his eyes on dancing girls all night, in his private courtyard.
The younger brother leaves the haveli night after night to visit a brothel and returns home drunk very late in the night.
Chhoti Bahu, his wife devises little schemes to keep him home, and begs and pleads with him to spend the night with her, but he spurns her, saying Chaudhrys don’t need their wives’ permission to leave the house and to do as they please.
The other wives are used to this lifestyle and even take pride in the manhood of their husbands, and call Chhoti bahu shameless for pining for her husband thus.
‘Haye Haye kyun karti ho? Mard aadmi hai mera devar. Raheez gharane ka mard jab tak raat bhar nach rang na dekhe woh mard kaisa?’
‘Main gareeb gharane ki beti hoon, itna janti hoon, ke swami ke liye hi aurat ka jeevan hai. Swami ghar pe na ho, toh ye zevar, singaar, ye jeena kis liye’
Bansi (Dhumal) is shown sprinting though the alleys of the red light area, and reaching Choti’s bahu’s husband, lying drunk in a house.
Yesterday Bahurani observed the Ashthami vrat. And you did not come home, he says.
‘Tanikh apne pair ka angootha is paani mein chuaiye. Jab tak bahurani aap ke pair Chua pani na pee layi hai, upwas nahi tod sakti. Kal se bhookhi baithi hai bechari’
The Chaudhry grunts, but Bansi somehow manages to dip the toe of his foot into a small cup of water, which Chhoti bahu will drink and break her fast.
One night, Bhoothnath is summoned by Chhoti Bahu in her quarters. It is a scandalous thing, and Bhoothnath enters her presence in trepidation wondering what is in store for him. As he sees her, he is stunned by her beauty.
Chhoti Bahu asks him to bring her the mohini sindhoor hoping it will bring her husband to her.
When he does, she dresses up for her husband, adorns herself with jewels, ornaments, wears kohl and applies a generous amount of the sindhoor both on her forehead and on the parting of her hear.
But in vain…the husband walks away, her beauty lost on her…
You cannot offer what she does, says he to the wife. Be my companion in drinking, dance for me can you, asks he. She cringes and writhes at the thought of it!
When she summons Bhoothnath to her chamber again, it is for a bottle of alcohol.
He refuses vehemently but gives in when she says it is the only way he could see her happy and united with her husband.
Intoxicated with liquor, she succeeds in keeping her husband home for days on, laughing in mirth and wallowing in bed.
But the day comes, when the husband leaves, having had enough of her company.
‘Main kya karoon?’
‘Wohi jo doosri bahuein karti hai. Gehene tudwao, Gehene banwao, kaudian khelon, soo aaramse’
Jaba is attracted to Bhoothnath and he begins to reciprocate too.
But Subinoy Babu, her father, arranges to have her engaged to Supavitra, a fellow Brahmo Samaji and while on his death bed, entrusts Bhoothnath with the wedding preparations.
Heartbroken, Bhoothnath leaves, but sometime later, a secret from Jaba’s childhood is uncovered.
Jaba's grandfather who was a Sanatani had sneaked out his grandchild when she was one year old and got her married to a boy from a Sanatani family, because her father had deserted Hinduism and embraced Bramho Samaj
As the zamindars waste away on dance girls and brothels, and fly pegions in competitive rounds with their rivals, the munshis, the bookkeepers and other managers of the estate swindle their wealth, getting their signatures on important papers, selling their property for coal mines in bad condition, in return for bribes from owners of those mines
And thus, all is lost.
The haveli is a ghost of its splendid self.
Chhoti Bahu becomes a hopeless alcohol addict.
I will stop here, letting you watch the ending for yourself…
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While the movie tells you that the Brahmo Samajis were treated as maleech (untouchable) and they had to employ a maharaj, a Brahmin cook to feed their labourers, it does not tell you how the Brahmo Samajis regarded the Brahmins.
It was in Tagore’s Gora that I read about this. The Brahmo Samajis who had walked out of Hinduism disgusted with caste and other such exclusive social norms, had become conceited and exclusive themselves, to the extent that a Brahmin was not allowed to enter the house of a Brahmo Samaji through the main door, but a side or back entrance was reserved for these Brahmins who the Samajis looked down upon. The samajis did not marry their children with Brahmin boys and girls!
I wonder why the movie omitted this.
The Chaudhry’s comment about the wife not having much to offer her husband, when compared to the prostitute, is worth pondering.
Though India is the land of Kamasutra and men and women were trained in the art of love, at some point, perhaps when the society was going through a phase of decay, a sense of shame became associated with sex. Women were expected to be shy, demure, even reluctant in the nuptial chamber, merely cooperating with their husband when they persisted and persuased, out of a sense of duty and obedience.
Procreation was the only purpose of the union between man and wife, and indulgence or pleasure were seen as a mark of decadence. Base and lowly.
Given how ashamed our women folk feel of their own bodies in the green rooms even today and change from one outfit to another while being careful they are never fully unclothed at any stage of changing, one can be sure that these women were partially clothed even while intimate with their husbands.
Even laughing aloud was frowned upon.
When the bold and brazen prostitute flirted and made merry with her male companion, offering him fun and excitement, thrill and pleasure, could you blame the man for leaving the wife’s side?
You would think, things are changing today, and women are aware of sexuality, they are bold and all, but no, there is something else to plague us today. The influence of the west, the west’s idea of seduction. The richness of Indian love and erotica is lost and we have other substitutes for it, it seems…romance is nowhere to be seen, quick seduction is al we are left with.
The movie also shows other evils that had befallen the Bengal society. Ceremonial purity, untouchability, superstitions, practiced more rigorously by widows.
‘Itna purdah karti hai woh?
Sirf purdah kare toh theek, unhe toh choot chaat ka bhi rog hai, vidhwa jo thahari’
‘Unka haath ashudh hua hai’ (She was airing clothes on the balcony and a crow came and sat on it)
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Produced by Guru Dutt, Directed by Abrar Alvi.
Lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni, Music by Hemanth Kumar.
Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt and Hemanth Kumar at playback.
Popular ones are these.
Bhawara bada nadaan hai
Piya aiso jiya mein samaye gayo re, ki main tanman ki sudhbudh gava baithi
Meri baat rahi mere man mein
Na jao saiyan chudake baiyan
Songs of the dancing girls.
Meri jaan o Meri jaan achcha nahi itna sitam
Saqiya aaj mujhe neend nahi aayegi
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Noted these lines that give a glimpse of the past, recent yet remote…
‘Barson pehle jab main dehaat se Calcutte aaya tha...’
‘Ek paise ka postcard daal dete toh (tumko lene station aa jate)’
‘Tumhare Fatehpur mein jo doodh rupaye ka bees ser milta hai, yahan 11 ser milega (in Calcutta)’
‘Ya toh gardan ainth jati hai ya marodi jati hai’ (the struggles of living in a big city)
‘Tankhwa moti hai. Maheene ke rupaye saat aur dupahar ka khana alag’
‘Us daftar ke maalik suvinay babu hai toh brahmo samaji, par aadmi heera hai’
‘Par Brahmo samaji toh maleech hote hai, phir hum unke yahan khana kaise khaye’
‘Chinta na Karo, unke yahan ek maharaj naukar hai’
‘Ghadi babu. Haveli ki saari ghadiyon mein chabi dete hai’
‘Kya adchan hai tum dono ke byah mein. Tum dono brahmo samaji ho?’
‘Ye bemauka hasi kaisi?’ asks angry husband of Chhoti bahu as she laughs aloud in frustration when her husband leaves home at night after many months of spending his nights with her.
‘Jabse zamindari gayi hai, koi kaam nahi hai. Auzaron mein zang lag gaya hai’
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Shashi Kapoor was the first choice for the role of Bhootnath, losing it when he showed up two-and-a-half hours late for a meeting with Guru Dutt and Abrar Alvi. The next choice was Bengali actor Biswajeet, whose Hindi film debut it would have been. Biswajeet backed out because he didn't want to be tied into an exclusive contract with Guru Dutt. Finally, Guru Dutt cast himself as Bhootnath, the Ghulam.
The song "Sahil Ki Taraf Kashti Le Chal" sung by Hemant Kumar was edited out of the film. Hemant Kumar reused the tune for the song "Ya Dil ki Suno" from Anupama (1966). One of my favourite songs!
The song was edited out because it had a shot which showed Chhoti Bahu resting her head on Bhoothnath's lap in the carriage. Audiences reacted sharply to this, so Guru Dutt removed the song and the "offending shot", changing the carriage scene to a dialogue exchange between Chhoti Bahu and Bhoothnath. He also shot an additional scene with the paralysed husband repenting for his sinful and debauched lifestyle.
The conservative society at that time demanded a moral ending to all matters.
From one of the reviews...
‘The common factors between the actress's life and Chhoti Bahu are too dramatic to be merely coincidental – The estranged marital relationship, the taking of alcohol, turning towards younger male company, the craving to be understood and loved – all elements evident in Meena Kumari's own life’
