Hindi cinemas before the millenium that broke the mould

In the year 1957, came a masterpiece called Do Aankhen Barah Haath, a classic that stood the test of time for its brilliant theme and avant-garde take on the cliched norms of a civilized habitat. The prisoners at the time, were mostly portrayed as the suffering lot who were killing their youthful vigor for their history of crimes. However, this 1957 feature changes that. It comes out with a central theme of using non-violence as a reform for treating the hardened criminals. The story is woven around a jail warden who converts six prisoners into exemplary virtuous men for the society.

If not handled right, this kind of cinema would have raised a lot of eyebrows, but the eloquent craftsmanship of V. Shantaram, does full justice to the narrative. Not only did this win the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, but it was also received with a special award. It won the The Best Film of the Year in 1958, which was also known as the Catholic Award. Charlie Chaplin was the head of its jury. It had a successful run in the theatres too, and many cities were apparently reported to have had a golden jubilee. It also ran for a whopping 65 weeks in Mumbai. This film was not only widely acclaimed but also commercially successful.

The cult classic of 1972, Pakeezah was a hard-hitting commentary on the life of tawai’if, or the courtesans of the Mughal era. This cinema today is known for its crisp and piercing dialogues which unabashedly pointed out to the people of the times, the tragedies and the pathos around those women, who were never granted an equal footing in the world that we live in.

The central theme poses the problem of acceptance of the tawai’if, who were extremely skilled courtesans of the Indo Islamic times and excelled in poetry, music, dance and were popular only for keeping companionship with men but were never considered to be worthy of marriage. The yesteryear courtesan culture is exuberantly depicted in a period piece set in Lucknow and it vehemently questions the bourgeoisie ease of co-existence in the lies and hypocrisies. Furthermore, the beauty of Meena Kumari’s acting coupled with the brilliance of Kamal Amrohi’s direction gave the story its immaculate realism. No wonder it took more than a decade to make.

In 1975, Julie, stormed the nation with its strikingly honest portrayal of the new age vulnerable girl dealing with the issues of teenage pregnancy without marriage. This is a classic concoction of a drama hinging out on the forays of the age-old barriers between religion and marriage, taking off from the conflict of the mother who is yet to be married.

The Prem Rog of 1982 provides a striking view of the drudgeries that the widows of rural India had to face. For Raj Kapoor, the theme of forbidden love was nothing new to delve into, but with Prem Rog we were actually introduced to very serious social issues and prejudices like the duality of honour and the fragility of egos.

At a time when honor killing as a subject in popular media was not in vogue, Kapoor was warning against the willingness of the lovers’ parents to sacrifice their daughters and sons at the cost of the pride of the ‘dignity’ of a family.

Deodhar (Rishi Kapoor), a poor man, comes back from the city to his village and falls in love with his childhood girlfriend, Manorama (Padmini Kolhapuri), but she is from an affluent and high-class society and she is married off to someone of an equal social footing. The marriage is followed by the death of Manorama’s husband, and now the widowed Manorama is mistreated and even raped at her in-laws. Deodhar comes back to rescue but is beaten and thrashed by her own family, on the pretext that widow remarriage is impossible. On the surface, Prem Rog is largely a story with subtexts running throughout like undercurrents, and with the direction of Raj Kapoor, it shoots up to being one with a classic reformist drama.

Franz Osten’s Achyut Kanya (1936) is a remarkable example of how the idea of reforms can be such an engrossing commentary on the kind of stories that needed the attention of the time. Especially at a time when societal politics dictated the choice of themes. The debate of existence in a classless society, is brought out through the love story of a Brahmin boy with an untouchable girl.

Bimal Roy’s 1963 Bandini, was one which came out of its mould of the stereotypical depiction of protagonists. Roy, spread wide the multitudes of shades in Kalyani, the protagonist. Entrapped between the passion for her lover and the jealousies stemming from an unconsummated affair, Kalyani commits a murder and gets imprisoned. After her term, she comes back to the same man and submits herself. Such layered and vehemently well written plots were quite far and between the commercial extravaganzas.