Firaaq - Nandita Das's, Well Directed, Debut Movie

Firaaq - The Separation

Firaaq is actor Nandita Das's debut movie (she has done it like a pro, though) and will be remembered as a well-made movie, on the aftermath of Gujarat riots.

This movie was with me for the past one month at least.  I was just postponing to watch the serious movie.  Whenever I think about Govind Nihalani's 'Tamas' and Kamal's Tamil movie, 'Mahanadhi', I get upset and had decided never to watch very serious movies again.  But like I reluctantly watched 'Parzania' I watched this also.  And cursed myself when I saw the opening scene of the movie...but because of the impact of the scene, I wanted to watch the whole movie.

The story/stories,  is about the lives of people, who were affected badly,  immediately after the Gujarat riots in 2002.   Nandita does not show any direct violence in the film, but the emotional side of some people who try to come to terms with what had happened and go on with their lives.

After the first disturbing scene in which our Tamil veteran actor Naasser had acted, the movie continues...Naseeruddin Shah, is an old classical singer, who still believes that everything is at peace out there and nothing has changed.  Raghuvir Yadav is a person serving him for years but he hasn't  got the guts to tell Naseer about the brutal killings. My favourite ghazal singer, Jagjit Singh has given voice for Naseer's humming song, which is very melodious and is the only song in the movie.  He rarely goes out of the house and wonders why no one is attending the 'bhaitaks' nowadays.  We know about Naseer, but Raghuvir yadav, who is a superb actor,  is not lucky enough to get good roles.

Then comes the story of a Muslim family who returns to their home only to find it burnt by rioters. The woman, Muneer (Shahana Goswami) and her Hindu friend and neighbour,  used to earn money, by going to the local weddings and applying mehandi in the bride's and other women guests' hands and legs.  Now, Muneer goes to a wedding with her friend and the friend places her own bindi on Muneer's forehead to avoid any mis-happenings.

Sameer (Sanjay Suri) and Anu (Tisca Chopra) act as   a mixed marriage couple who has to deal with their fears and decision to leave Gujarat for Delhi after their shop was attacked by the rioters.  The scene where Sameer, who is an educated person, changes his Muslim surname to his wife's Hindu surname out of sheer fear/weakness, depicts the reality of the situation at that time, in Gujarat.

A child gets lost in the big town, roaming around helplessly after all his family members are killed. The story of this child also gets connected with Deepti Naval who is guilty of being a coward and watching her own family (Paresh Rawal is the husband), which gloats and uses the situation to their advantage. She brings the Muslim child home and tells him not to tell his original name 'Mohsin', but Mohan,  if the family asks for it.  The conversation scenes between Deepti and the child are the most emotional ones in the movie which prove the immense talent Nandita Das has got.

Nandita has very correctly understood how women have a more humane streak towards people,  regardless of whatever faith/creed they are from. 

Then the story of a group of Muslim men,  all flustered and planning for revenge, which fizzles out in the end with the death of one, in a weird way.  The murderous nature, which is hidden behind ordinary people is visible in this scene.

Just one or two scenes show how the people of both faiths were living together happily, before the riots and how slowly some changes and doubts erupted in the friendship between them.

This is not a normal bollywood film with twists and turns and a positive or negative ending. Though I felt at times like watching a documentary movie because of the incompleteness of some incidents, this movie makes us think about our own nature, when faced with this type of situation.

This boy as Mohsin, has acted very well, in the movie.  The sadness in his eyes hurts us.  I just wonder what will happen to children like him, who are orphaned because of the unnecessary riots in the name of religion in our country or elsewhere in the world.   Will they ever be able to lead a normal life like us, or will they become the future terrorists to harm the whole world and themselves, like it is happening now, in Pakistan?

Edited to add(10.11.09):  The characters speak (Paresh Rawal's family) a lot of Gujarathi.  It was difficult for me to follow!

Photo courtesy 

Boy Photo courtesy

50 Glorious Years of Doordarshan - III

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Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi

Golden days of Doordarshan

Yeh Jo hai Zindagi!  I can still remember the days this serial was telecast...every Friday at 8.30 pm.  We were living in a colony and the roads of the colony were deserted on these days. Hosur (Tamilnadu) where we lived, was an industrial area and people from all parts of our country were living in our colony...I had very good Maharashtrian, Bengali, Gujarathi friends over there.  These people felt as if they were in their own hometown while watching this Hindi serial.   Chennai Kendra had not yet reached there and so Tamilians also became addicts of this serial.  The theatres were empty on these days!  If we were out of our home and came back running, we could hear the title song of the serial, blaring from each and every house in the colony! And then the laughter sounds will start...every member of the family, young or old, were laughing heartily!  My neighbour was a doctor, but his clinic was empty, mostly, during this time and he too was happily watching this serial!  

This serial was the first of its kind - comedy serial - by Doordarshan, which was aired in 1984. Shafi Inamdar(Ranjit) and Swaroop Sampath, former Miss India, 1979(Renu and she was really beautiful!) played as a couple and Rakesh Bedi (Raja) was Renu's brother.  Most of the episodes were single episodes and some stories stretched to two episodes, I think.   Satish Shah (the famous comedian in the later years) became very famous in this serial, who played different roles (speaking different languages of different regions of our country) in every episode.   Vijay Kashyap and Shulbha Arya played as their Bengali neighbours.  Some of the dialogues became very famous like:

"Yeh kya ho raha hai"  Tikku Talsanya uses this line, dragging each and every word. 

"Aa ha ha, what a relief"  "30 Years Ka Experience hai"  Satish Shaw made these lines famous!

Wikipedia says,  "Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that video stores in London would await periodically for the copy of the serial’s tape. Even the box-office openings in cinemas were affected due to the airing of the show. After a couple of successful seasons, the show took a hiatus (due to the departure of Shafi [2], one of the primary characters, from the show) and returned for a second innings with some additional cast."

All viewers of this serial felt very sad when the news of Shafi Inamdar's demise came in the papers.    The serial was written by comedy writer Sharad Joshi and directed by S. S. Oberoi and Raman Kumar.  The title song sung by our Kishore Kumar...was our favourite song!

Now, let me show you one episode of the serial from our treasure trove 'you tube'!  If you like it, you can watch more over there.  Now we are exposed to hundreds of comedy serials and may not enjoy like we enjoyed in those days, but we watched it with the whole family, which is very important and which we don't seem to do, now.

Edited to add (6.11.09): I came across this anecdote about Swaroop Sampath!  She is actor Paresh Rawal's wife and has got two grown up sons now and acts in plays with her husband! She also teaches acting to disabled children. Swaroop has obtained a Ph.D. in Education[4] from University of Worcester in England. She is also a teacher’s trainer now traveling across India to conduct workshops for teachers who engage themselves in imparting this knowledge for the benefit of children.[5] She was selected by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to head an educational program for children. [6]

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My BIG Day

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This is my BIG day!  I got my first recognition from blogadda for my post on Venkateshwara Darshan.

http://blog.blogadda.com/2009/10/31/indian-bloggers-best-blog-posts

Thank you blogadda!  

My special sincere thanks goes to all the readers of my blog, who had been reading and commenting and encouraging me, all these days.  If you had not done so, I would have gone into oblivion!  

Thank you all!  God bless you, friends! 

Oh, I forgot to thank my son, who introduced me into blogging! Thanks bete!

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Tirupati Venkateshwara Darshan - A Very Rare Happy Darshan

I had been to Tirupati Venkateshwara temple in  Andhra Pradesh, many times in the past years and used to come back frustrated after standing in the queue of unruly crowd for hours together, then having the darshan of Venkateshwara just for a fraction of a second or at the most, one second!  Still, we were going there again and again, because this god is our family deity  (Trichy Gunaseelam temple also) and we are supposed to visit these temples every year, which we don't follow (!) regularly, but do it at least once in 2-3 years (my son is rolling his eyes!). I prefer Gunaseelam temple, which does not attract much crowd and  a more peaceful place than Tirupati.

This time, my sister-in-law had booked for 'Tiruppavaadai Seva' (she had booked for this seva 5 years back, for Rs.5000/-) for which, apart from the couple, who book the ticket, 5 others can accompany them.  Thanks to her, we had a lifetime experience!

This seva was conducted in the mantap, which is in front of the main deity.   A huge mound of puliyodarai rice (tamarind rice) was spread in the shape of a rectangle (around 6-7 'long  x 4' broad x 2' high, approx.) with rounded corners, on a wooden plank, at the center of the mantap. The edges were carved like steps and the flat top had 7 mounds, depicting seven hills - four small mounds on four corners, two, next to the front two mounds and one huge mound at the center.  

The ticket holders were asked to sit on both sides of the rice hill and sankalpa was taken, i.e. the couple were asked for their and their family members' names, nakshatra, gothra (family lineage)  and the priest repeated with a plate of flowers which were touched by the couple. These flowers were used in the pooja later on.  We sat behind them.  Then, the mantras were recited for about 20-25 mts.   After aarthi, the couple were allowed for darshan first.  Then, we went inside. Normally, we are allowed to stand and have darshan near the dwaara paalakaas. Only during some sevas, the devotees are allowed inside.  

The inner area (Garbha Gruha) was dark and just the diyas were lit and the deity stood there, a medium sized idol,  without much ornaments - a dark stone statue with just shankha, chakra and the other two palms/hands,  in gold. The usual kireeta (crown) was not there on the head!   The feet were not covered with gold. The torso had just a yajnopaveetha (sacred thread), a folded angavastra and a blue dhoti in the waist.  The naamam also did not have any diamonds, just plain naamam (two white straight stripes on the sides and a red one in the middle)on the forehead.  The glittering jewellery and the kireeta, made the idol look huge and tall, on normal days, I think.  We had the normal darshan also, the previous evening - the usual flash of a darshan!

As the whole world knows, Lord Venkateshwara is the richest god in the world and the idol is always covered with huge emeralds and diamonds.  This time we had the darshan of the original idol, for the first time.   Normally, when we come  out, we just feel relieved and breathe easy.  This time all of us never expected this type of darshan.  We were sort of dazed and we will never ever forget this incident in our lives.  

I got this video of the pooja of Lord Sri Venkateshwara, which was shot in the year 1966.  

During the abhishekha, you can see the original vigraha (idol).  We saw this, which we had not seen on our previous visits.  Vishnu Sahasra Naama is heard in the beginning and later on, the famous Carnatic singer Balamurali Krishna and Ghantasaala are singing in the background.  

This also is an old video clip, which is very very interesting:

We can see the deity clearly.  Each and every part of the idol can be seen clearly.  I noticed, one more thing...they sang a stanza of Tamil 'Thiruppaavai' !  Thiruppaavai was written by Aandaal, for Kannan (Lord Krishna), like Meera wrote songs on Kaanha .  This is news to me! Famous Telugu playback singer Ghantasaala is singing in the background.   Laddoos are carried in cane baskets!   The devotees were able to see aarti and then the priest places 'jhataari' on the devotees' heads, which is not done now...too much crowd!

I thought of booking tickets for this seva, but was told that it is not available for another 7 years!  This seva is done only on Thursdays and is in high demand, naturally!  Anyway, I am happy I had this chance of a good darshan this time.

Temple Gopuram Photo courtesy: Amit Vasisht.

50 Glorious Years of Doordarshan - II

Hum Log:

I liked the title, the  Outlook magazine gave for an article on 'Hum log':

'That epic moment when we spotted ourselves on TV'

When the serial started on  7th July, 1984, we, Indians,  never had a cue of  how it was going to affect our day to day lives, thereafter!  The most inspired thing about Hum Log was its name. These two words captured the essence of the show and what it meant for millions of viewers.  Hum Log was an account of both who we were and wished to be as well as of the times in which ‘we people’ lived. 

Though the serial was in Hindi and was more famous in the Hindi speaking belt, I noticed that even Tamil speaking people, who did not understand a word in Hindi, started watching it.  I was in Hosur(Tamilnadu) at that time and all my Tamil friends were watching it and if they did not follow some dialogues, they used to come home and ask me to translate!  My husband's very old aunts, who were in a small village in Trichy (Tamilnadu), became addicted to this Hindi serial!  Basesar Ram and Bhagwanti, Lallu, Badki, Chutki, Nanhe, Majhli, Dada, Dadi...became household names!  Whenever Basesar Ram started singing old Hindi film songs, all of us used to join in with him!  Majhli was an aspiring gazhal singer and she sang really well!

The best part was, at the end of every episode, actor Ashok Kumar would discuss the ongoing story and situations with the audience in a unique style, using Hindi couplets and limericks. In later episodes, after the show had reached the heights of popularity, he'd introduce the actors who played various characters in the serial and end his monologue with the various Indian language versions of the words "Hum Log." I can still hear his sort of tired voice talking to us.

With 'Hum Log', the addiction of watching 9 pm serial started.  I used to make the children finish their homework and have dinner by 8.30 pm!  Till that time, I was particular not to switch on the TV, thought the children will get addicted!  But after 9, all of us got addicted, till about 10 pm!  Our thanks goes to Vasanth Sathe,  the I&B Minister at that time, who got the idea to start serials in our television and Manohar Shyam Joshi, the writer and P. Kumar Vasudev (an unfamiliar director till then!).

The serials of those days did not have advertisement break at all, if I remember correctly. After the huge success of 'Hum Log' the producers vied with each other to produce serials, which needed money...the start of catchy advertisements began!

Buniyaad:

 

I saw the re-run of  Buniyaad a few years back and so remember the story better than Hum Log story, which was also  written by Manohar Shyam Joshi and directed by the renowned director ('Sholay' fame) Ramesh Sippy.   This serial was first aired in 1986.

The story is based on the Partition time, or rather the after effects of the Partition.  The main character,  Master Haveliram  was a patriotic and a very principled man and chose teaching as his way of constructing an ideal society of dreams. 

The story begins with a very youthful and exuberant Haveli Ram (Alok Nath) falling in love with his student Lajwanti (Anita Kanwar).  Alok Nath is in no way handsome, neither is Anita Kanwar any epitome of beauty, but I can still feel the chemistry between them.  Lajwanti will just lift her eyes up with all the love she felt for him and look at Haveli Ram ...I have got goose bumps now, I can feel their love by just remembering the scenes, after so many years!  He used to speak pure Hindi and was a very shy and straight forward character!  Throughout the serial he was addressing her with respect...Lajoji!

They marry and have three children. Each one was played by an iconic actor of the television at that time.  The story shows the children grow up and marry and have children and live in true old pre-independence style. 

In the serial, Haveli Ram goes missing. While all others think that he is dead, his wife Lajoji refuses to believe so. The whole country was hysterical. And when he returned, it was the talk of the town - we realized the power of television for the first time. 

Of course, there is Veerawali (Kiron Joneja), Haveli Ram’s sister and her own story.  And try as you might, you cannot forget Lochan (Soni Razdan) who plays the bitchy wife of the timid older son,  played by Dalip Tahil.  I liked Mazhar Khan (second son) who played a rogue character. Kanwaljeet (third son) was tall and so handsome!  Asha Sachdev, who played in a negative role, as Haveli Ram's sister-in-law, acted very well, with her huge eyes rolling all the time!  Vijayendra Ghatge (Veerawali's friend) became famous for his voice (everyone admired him more,  because he was a blue blooded prince in real life!).

These lines became popular in those days, don't remember more details, though:

"Lajoji (Anita Kanwar) ne khaya badaam,

usme se nikla Haveliram (Alok Nath),

Haveliram ne kholi almaari,

usme se nikli Veerawaali (Kiran Juneja),

Veerawaali ne khaya paan,

usme se nikla Vrushbhaan (Vijayendra Ghatge)."

I tried my best to get the original title song of Buniyaad, but could not.   Anup Jalota sang this one in a concert:

Palchhin Palchhin Tere Mere Jivan Ki Yahi Buniyaad





Later on, DD Metro came and film based serials like Superhit Muqabla, Show Theme etc. became famous. But people who have seen these serials will never enjoy television, like they did, in those days. Whenever people got together, the main topic of discussion was these serials. People came home early to watch them, sitting with the family. I remember planning to go to movies on non-serial days!

Will write more about other DD serials, which affected me most, in the next part! 



The first part of this post is here!