Raat gayi, baat gayi (The night has passed and so has the
matter), Meena Kumari was rumored to have said this to one gentleman who had
gone to meet her enthusiastically the other day following a night spent with
her, according to an anecdote included in autobiography of Vinod Mehta.
How was the life of this star in Hindi Cinema whose
personal life was quite different from that of most others? I am not exactly
knowledgeable person about the field but this extraordinary character caught my
attention when I read some lines about her in Mehta’s autobiography.
Months later when website of Outlook magazine published one chapter detailing
her unusual movie Pakeezah from her biography written by Mehta, the urge to
watch the movie was irresistible. Then I downloaded and watched it.
It was devastating; I mean, a brilliantly artistic portrayal
of the life of young women who are used in various identities to satiate the
lust of rich and powerful men. (One powerful portrayal of such character can be
found in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. One recent Hindi movie
Dirty Picture also pretty well depicted the melancholic lives of such women.) With
awareness of the troubled relationship between Meena Kumari and her husband, Kamal
Amrohi, the writer/producer/director of the movie, the travails in the reel
appear all the more realistic.
The exoticness of nearly every scene of the movie can be
partly explained by the fact that Pakeezah was the ultimate gift from Amrohi to
his wife which cost him 15 years of time and a staggering Rs. 1.5 crores at
that time. That, however, falls short of explaining everything. Many people
choose to credit the (un)timely death of Meena Kumari for the commercial
success of the movie but here also there is definitely much more.
To me, the movie is of special importance because it gives a
realistic impression of the bygone days in India when the Muslim aristocracy
used to have big financial clout and had its cultural ramifications including
holding ‘Mujra’ dances. The sublime
way in which Amrohi advances the story brings both the panorama of the culture
and his artistic shrewdness as the director together. The sad reality that the
creator of great and unparalleled classic music like in songs ‘Inhi Logon ne’ and ‘Chalte Chalte’, in the movie,
Ghulam Muhammad, was destitute and
grief-stricken before passing away ( also before the movie was completed) speaks
about another dimension of the Hindi Cinema.
Apparently Pakeezah is not alone in depicting the lives of
such women known in Urdu as ‘Tawaif’s. But it is successful to bring the
perspective of the tawaifs themselves in the cultural milieu of feudal society,
an aspect that is ordinarily forgotten. How long does the physical beauty last?
And what happens later to those who depend upon it for their livelihood? While the
nuances between the then tawaifs and today’s ordinary prostitutes are
significant, yet the matters boil down to same point: everybody is ready to
give them attention and many remunerate them after service but none gives them
dignity and respect. Once vicious cycle starts, the prospects of ever getting
out of it become grimmer by the day. When they realize magnitude and gravity of
the problem, it is usually too late to gain any dignity or respect.
It is this portrayal of torment of these women that makes
Pakeezah special. This exact torment takes so heavy a toll in the mental health
of the lead character, Sahebjaan (played by Meena Kumari) that the paradox of
entire life makes her nearly insane when a Nikah is about to take place with
Salim (Raaj Kumar) after he dares challenge his feudal grandfather to elope
with her. The choice of her new name as ‘Pakeeza’ or the ‘pure’ for her by
Salim (while she did know how ‘pure’ she was) is only one among the dozens of
striking uses of symbolism to illustrate the paradoxes in life.
The tumult in the personal life of the tawaifs apart, both
their longing for ordinary life and the intractable despair resulting from inability
to achieve that normalcy forms the backbone of the story. Till the very end of the
movie the past crimes come to haunt Sahebhaan again and again until even Salim plunges
into vengeful retaliation inviting her for a Mujra for his marriage with another girl. What happens then should
probably remain a suspense for those who are yet to watch the movie.
टुक्रे टुक्रे दिन बिता, धज्जी धज्जी रात मिली,
जिस्का जितना आँचल था, उत्नी ही सौगात मिली
जब चाहा दिलको सम्झें, हँस्नेकी आवाज सुनी,
जैसे कोइ कहता हो, ले फिर तुझको मात मिली
मातें कैसी घातें क्या, चल्ते रहना आठ पहर,
दिलसा साथी जब पाया, बेचैनी भी साथ मिली
Read the excerpts from Mehta's biography of Meena Kumari, in a chapter about making of Pakeezah here.
This is the second movie review in this blog. The first one was the combo review of 'Three Idiots' and 'Avatar' a version of which was also published by Speaking Freely, Asia Times Online. Read the original review in this blog here.
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