On mud mud ke

I have always been a fan of Bollywood. And if there is one medium (atleast to the North of the country) that does not fail to make a social statement, then this has to be it. Don't believe me? Allow me to introduce you to one of my favourite numbers from the 50s:



If I hold one song in a pedestal for its picture perfect choreography, bang on picture composition and absolutely perfect lighting, it has to be this one song. In fact, the entire film has had a spotless record – with none other than Raj Kapoor at the helm.

The 50s for the country was in the truest sense of the word crossroads. At one end, this was the awakening of the new India, with the teething problems of new governance, emergence of the terms 'poverty', 'class' and 'rich' in India, being ascribed to Indians themselves and no one but themselves to blame. So unlike a decade ago, you were not slotted as patriotic or unpatriotic, there were many more shades of grey at this time. And what more, the rosy picture foreseen by idealists turned out to be... well not so rosy. It had a distinctly murky brown to it too. On the other hand, there was a strong sense of nostalgia of what was gone by... one remembered fiefdom of the Zamindars with more than a single long deep sigh. That was wealth and the splurging of the wealth as most people knew it (Persian cats shipped in to be 'grooms' to Indian house cats). Glamour personified.

Bollywood films reflected these two aspects. On one hand were films like Do Bigha Zameen and this one (Shree 420) and on the other hand, there were films like Sahib Biwi Ghulam (another all time favourite) that portrayed the times gone by. Interestingly, both ended with a sense of optimism of the power of the poor man to move the systems (a clear Red influence).

So then, back to the song/ films from this time. Go back and play the song once more. Note the waltz tune/ English settings – used here, as well as in Pyaasa's dream sequence. Waltzing was very British. Men smoked and drank. Their wives/ mistresses accompanied them and encouraged them in such pursuits. Temptresses (and her equally charming sidekicks – for the want of a better word) waltzed into heroes' lives and left them shaken. The real heroine of the film would never been seen in this kind of a setting – as with this song, Nargis shirks away at the start – saree clad, shawl over herself and the bunch of flowers tucked in her hair (despite this being the climax and everyone is hassled at this point).

The temptress in this sequence is a rather interesting persona – Nadira – a Jew from Israel. Which signified another fetish of ours – we liked our temptresses to have atleast an iota of foreign blood (the other being the eternal temptress - Helen). If they didn't, then we would see them reform into heroine material towards the end of the film (take the example of Madhubala in Howrah Bridge). The other trend to note among the dancers was the use of padded bottoms – Nadira clearly wearing one (she was barely 20 in this song) in order to look more rounded and well endowed. The bottom has been shaken amply on screen and has received its ample screen time. We liked our heroines plump (and almost maternal – as if they would switch to a white chiffon saree almost instantly). The other dancers around Nadira are all trim and bear a perfect 10 figure as we know it today. This is in contrast to films from 60s/ 70s (coloured films) where in order to make the heroine/ lead dancer look trimmer, the sidekicks employed were huge and well – flab-ulous. Back then, fat = beautiful. From the 60s/ 70s, things started to change.

Also, note the many shades of lighting used in the song. At the start, the hero is dazed, confused – and his face can barely be seen – the proverbial cloud clearly hanging over his face. Towards fifty percent of the song, the hero has devised a clever ploy to play along with the villains – and there is light again, and all is celebratory around him. The hero's face glows like a hundred watt bulb. At the end, the hero not only joins in the singing and dancing, but encourages others to join him in too – to mislead people/ villains/ rich people into believing that he is on their side.

Truly a most interesting climax song. Truly an interesting movie. Strongly recommended.