Understanding Popular Culture’s Assignment

Name- Ritik Kapoor

Roll No. 2K18/HS/85

Q. Write review of the following movies(Mother India, Zakhm,

Dosti, Bazaar) and discuss the role of gender, class/caste, religion
and ideas of nationalism.

MOTHER INDIA (1964)

Mother India was released in 1957, just a decade after Inida got
Independence, and was directed by Mehboob Khan, who went on to
become a great director in the history of Indian film industry. The movie
starres the beautiful charismatic Nargis as Radha, who is protagonist
character in the movie, Sunil Dutt as Birju, Rajendra kumar as Ramu,
Raj Kumar as Shaamu and Kaniyailal as Sukhilala (a usurer money
lender).
The film tells the story of Radha (Nargis), a farmer, from her days as a
young bride to her old age. When Radha gets married and moves to her
husband’s house, she lives a happy life until she learns that her mother-
in-law has taken a loan from the usurious village moneylender to pay for
the wedding. Unable to repay the loan, and beset by tragic accidents and
a disastrous flood, the family eventually becomes impoverished. Radha
loses her husband and mother-in-law, and raises her children on her
own. She suffers great hardship but raises them to adulthood, and even
faces down the crude advances of the moneylender. Years pass; the
family survives, but continues to be exploited by the moneylender. One
of Radha’s sons, Birju, grows to hate the moneylender, and finally
snaps. Circumstances lead him to become a bandit. He kills the
moneylender, and for further revenge, abducts his daughter. Radha is
distraught: she cannot stand to see a girl’s honour violated. She threatens
to kill Birju, telling him that dishonouring any girl of the village, is
tantamount to dishonouring the entire village, which includes his own
mother. When Birju tries to ride away with the kidnapped girl, Radha
shoots him dead. Several years pass; Radha is an aged woman. There is a
hopeful note in the air: modern technologies are being introduced by the
government to increase agricultural productivity and lessen the peasant’s
burden. The villagers revere Radha for all she’s done, and invite her to
inaugurate the new irrigation canal. Water the colour of blood flows
through the canal, a reminder of Radha’s sacrifices.
First of all the movie is important in the sense as it has a woman as a
leading character and the whole film centred around her which was
unique for her period as their was not much freedom and access of
opportunities for them. The movie makes her the protagonist and a
cultural symbol by naming her Mother India, who is courageous,
resilient, hard working, and self sacrificing. The title Mother India
develops a sort of nationalist allegories and arouses a nationalistic
feeling by depicting the struggle and resilience of a mother.
After her husband abandon the family, Radha shoulders the burden of
rearing her family and restoring a village upheaved, in what is surely a
metaphor for the construction of modern India and healing the fresh
wounds of Partition. The movie also shows the prevailing malpractices
of the conemporary moneylenders who use to usurp people. It show the
difficulty and the struggle of the particularly small farmers who are
made to sign highly condemnable contracts which make them fall into
vicious debt traps.
The movie with its dramatic depiction also shows a courageous
character who is ready to fight for her honour when Sukhilala wants to
buy Radha as she was not able to return his money. It shows the resilient
and fighting character of women of India. Radha also breaks two
negative stereotypes: that women are not intelligent, capable decision-
makers, and that women don’t do arduous labour. In Mother India, it is
the woman who builds the nation with her sweat and toil.
Mother India is a beautiful film, shot in beautiful brown and orange
tones that both highlight the majesty of the rural Indian landscape and
bring to life the grit and heat of working the soil. This movie is an
absolute classic.

Bazaar (1982)
Bazaar was released in 1982, directed by Sagar sahadi, this movie has
the same relevance now, as it had years ago. The movie deals with bride
buying by Arabs/NRI’s, or to say, a situation where filthy rich old men
buy themselves a young little virgin girl, usually in her late teens.
The movie follows 2 threads, a sweet love between Sarju (farooq sheik)
and Shabnam (supriya pathek), the other story is about Najma (smitha
patil) trying to settle down in life with her lover Akhtar Hussain (Bharat
Kapoor). Salim (Naseeruddin Shah) comes as a well known poet who is
in love with najma ,even though she is Akthar's woman.

Akhtar Hussain's business depends on his boss Shakhir ali khan. Shakir
who returns from abroad asks him to find a girl for him. He is a old guy
who has his own family ( a wife and 3 sons). Akhtar asks najma to help
him find a girl in hyderabad. Najma who lives in the boss's house given
to Akthar says yes as the boss threatens to take the house and business
from them, if they dont help him.
On the train back to Hyderabad to find a bride for Shakil, and with
Salim, because even if Najma officially is Akhtar’s girl, she still feels
attracted to Salim. There a very unambiguous scene where she dances
while he, perhaps half-drunk, is watching her. She looks at him in a
serious, erotically loaded way which almost is almost shocking. So she
asks him to come along, and the other men joke it off: she has her poet
lover at her side.
Najma, greedy by the thought of money and eager to settle down with
Akhtar, agrees to it unwillingly. In a time span of 7 days, they zero in on
a young teenager, Shabnam (Supriya Pathak) for Shakir Hussain.
Shabnam, a young bubbly playful teenager’s life gets turned around in a
matter of a second. Sajju (Farooq Shaikh), who is in a relationship with
Shabnam, turns in to a helpless brooding guy, who pleads to Shakir
Hussain, to not to marry Shabnam. He pleads helplessly to her parents to
not to get her married. The final meeting between Sajju and Shabnam, is
very heartbreaking. The scene at the Dargah, where she says, that she
has come to pick up the corpse of her dead desires, is equally powerful.
The movie’s strength lies in its unusual combination of relationships,
with Najma and Salim on the one hand, and Akhtar, Najma and Shakil
on the other. This double trio provides and interesting insight into the
roles of men and women in middle-class family relationships.
Having been wronged by her relatives, she rebels, and leaves home, but
she finds herself the victim of greater interests than those she fled.
She left a prison only to fall into another. She is obliged to fall to the lust
of men that she had tried to escape from. And what is both sad and
beautiful at the same time is that the man she loves (Akhtar) is also
trapped.
Salim at least remains pure, as it were. His revolt against the system, the
“bazaar” where women are bought and sold, has at least the quality of
truth and faithfulness.
Therefore, the movie displays the tradition of arranged marriage merely
as an economic one in which young girls are bought and sold in a
symbolic marketplace governed by religious and social laws. It signifies
that women are used as commodity and married without their consent, in
the disguise of religion and social mores, which is a type of modern day
slavery.
The movie gives a profound and a powerful examples of these immoral
practices prevailing in the society in the disguise of social mores. What
is sad is that it still prevails, although to a lesser extent.

DOSTI
Dosti movie was released in 1964 and was directed by Satyen Bose,
starring Sanjay Khan as Ashok, Sudhir Kumar as Mohan, Sushil Kumar
as Ramnath (Ramu) and Baby Farida as Manju.
The movie is full of tragedy as Mr. Gupta, father of Ramu, passes away
after an accident while on duty, leaving behind his ailing wife and
school-going son, Ramnath. Both await some compensation, and when
they are informed that the company does not accept liability for Gupta's
death, his wife falls down the stairs and passes out. Ramnath runs out to
fetch a doctor, but he is knocked down and run over by a speeding car,
losing the use of his left leg. When he returns from hospital, he finds that
his mom has passed away, and his landlord has evicted him. Penniless
and hungry, he roams the streets of Bombay and befriends a blind young
man, Mohan, and both use their talents - playing and harmonica and
singing respectively to earn some money. Mohan is on the look-out for
his sister, Meena, who works as a Nurse in one of the hospitals and
hopes to be reunited with her. Both friends befriend an ailing young girl,
Manjula, and hope to get some money from her so that Ramnath can
attend school..
The movie shows the lovely insight on friendship & triumph through
tribulation, even when the odds are stacked against you. It shows how
the bonds of friendship is so pure and sacred as Ramu is ready to give
anything for it. It depicts a beautiful friendship of a handicap boy with a
blind one and also show’s Mohan’s blindness, both a sign of aloofness
from this world, and of capacity to see another reality, that of the heart,
presumably, or of the soul.
The movie shows how the class differences play a role in schools as
Ramu is insulted by his classmates. This is the real life representation of
how poor are shamed and harassed by the rich privilege kids in schools.
This is facsimile depiction of educational system of the times. The film
also depicts the stigmatization of poor people when his own sister
Meena refused to accept him as he looks like a beggar. This is indeed
true as still people behave badly and inhumanly with a beggar or a poor
person.
Dosti gives a message of keeping your character intact even when others
fail and being true to yourself. Through Ramu’s constancy is something
you can learn from. The songs of the movie by Mohammad rafi makes it
even more special and truly a fabulous movie.

ZAKHM
Zakhm was released in 1998 and directed by Mahesh Bhatt, starring
Ajay devgan , who is a protagonist character as Ajay, Sonali bendre as
Sonia (who is Ajay’s wife in the movie), Pooja Bhat as a Muslim
woman (as a mother) and young Kunal Khemu.

The film opens in the Babri masjid Demolition roits blood shed all the
way where music director Ajay (Ajay Devgan) coversation with his wife
Sonia ( Sonali Bendre) whether give birth to their child in India or
foreign as in India people are killing each other in the name of religion.
The outside condition was worst due to Hindu Muslim riots and soon
Ajay was informed that her mother was burnt alive by some Muslim
group while she was praying in church. In flashback, the director
showed the struggles which his mother had to undergo to raise her
children . Pooja Bhatt is potrayed as a simple, mature and God fearing
.She was in love with a Hindu film producer Raman Desai (Nagarjuna)
but was not allowed to marry her on account of her Muslim faith .
Raman’s Mother was completely disagree and forced him to marry with
other girl by blackmailing him. He already marries her but does not
document or acknowledge their marriage as it was done without any
traditional upholding . The fact that she had children with a Hindu man
forces her to hide her faith and live her life as a Hindu, even in front of
her son.
After his father's death, Ajay realises his mother is a Muslim. The scene
where Muslim mob burnt alive Pooja Bhatt in confusion that she is
Hindu and after knowing the truth they regret and the politicians take
advantage of the situation and used Anand younger brother of Ajay for
their benefits. She makes him promise to bury her according to her faith
when she dies, for it is only through a proper burial that she will be able
to find herself reunited with her lover in heaven. Sonia know about her
mother-in-law's past life and decides not to leave Ajay. She stands by
him and supports his decision to bury his mother. However, Ajay's task
is hindered by a fundamentalist leader Subodh bhai (Ashutosh Rana)
wanted to make this a political issue and encouraged the Hindu youth to
kill Muslims. Anand (Akshay Anand) happens to be a youth leader and
Ajay's younger brother. But when Anand comes to know about Subodh
bhai's political intentions behind, he stands by his brother's side to bury
his mother as per Muslim faith. Her body is buried as she wished, and
she reunites with Raman in heaven.
In the last scene when Ajay finally flow her mother mangalsutra in sea
which depicts the cultural representation that according to Hindi rituals
mangalsutra is burnt with the body of women though she was muslim so
her manglasutra he flow in sea ,he actually does the same thing which
his mother usually do metaphorically directors represent the dignity of
every culture and religion. The Zakhm pain metaphorically exist in the
heart of Ajay for her mother , the humiliation which she has been gone
through in her entire life making him always distress.
In this film two stories are executed in parallel each depicting the past
and present life of the actor. In the past life it has been shown how he
and his mother face social stigma due to various social, religious and
ethical beliefs his mother suffered from the agony given by society as in
one scene when she was telling her elder son that “ Mere Pehchan tum
Dono ki Zindagi me Zakhm Hai” where the lines justifying the title of
Film. As being a muslim woman she faced a trouble by society neither
she get any respect nor love because of only muslim identity and she
wants her children to be unknown from this as it may spoil their life as
well.
Zakhm Depicts the reality between Hindu and Muslims and their
consequences perfectly.