Satyakam

Satyakam (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1969)

Satyakam is so dense with ideas and thought-provoking questions and themes I don’t even know where to begin. This is one of those films I can’t legitimately say I enjoyed as such – it’s not really the kind of film you sit down and watch to be entertained – but it’s a film with such provocative content that I’ll probably continue thinking about it for days.

The film stars Dharmendra as Satyapriya Acharya, a man from a family of ‘truthseekers’ (his father is a sanyaasi, his grandfather, who raised him, runs a gurukul in the Himalayas).  Satyapriya sees truth and honesty as his religion, and the worst sin for him is to be dishonest in word or deed.

If he already sounds like a super fun guy (and yes, I’m being sarcastic) you’d be right. The thing about Satyapriya is that we meet him just as he is leaving college, so he’s contrasted with his peers, but particularly his best friend Naren Sharma (Sanjeev Kumar).

 All I could think of was that Dharam would break poor Sanjeev's heart by stealing Hema away from right under his nose a few years later. Yes. That's how I watch films. Like a gossip columnist with a time machine.

Can I just stop here and say: THIS FILM, IF NOTHING ELSE, INTRODUCED ME TO THE ACTUAL ACTING WONDER OF SANJEEV KUMAR. I’d seen him before in…crappy things, and Sholay, but never ‘got’ why people rave about him. OH MY GOD.  He was just…riveting, and when he disappeared from the film for a long stretch, I ACTUALLY felt bereft and panicked a little that he wasn’t coming back.

 Seriously, I just LOVE Sanjeev! 

So anyway: Satyapriya- even from the very beginning, when he is full of youthful optimism and vigour is likable, but a little bit annoying. As you can see in this lovely song:

when everyone is full of high spirits singing about “what life is” and everyone on the bus is singing things like  “life is girls!” or “life is a lassi, you gotta shake it up and drink it down!”  and GOOD OLD SATYAPRIYA amiably interrupts and sings “ACTUALLY, LIFE IS TRUTH AND HONESTY”.  He’s THAT guy.

You can already see that, affable and well-liked as he is, he might want to try loosening up a little?

BUT THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF THE FILM. Should he?

The film goes on to place Satyapriya in positions where his commitment to his ideal of absolute truth is increasingly challenged. Once out of college he parts ways with Naren and is employed in a job where he is asked to take bribes - a huge affront to his morals; but more crucially, where he meets and bonds with Ranjana, 

the daughter of a prostitute, who is being pressured by Satyapriya’s employer – a Prince, about to lose his princely powers under the new laws of Independence. Satyapriya is put in a position where he can rescue Ranjana from a life of servitude to the Prince (and reading between the lines, I don’t think its suggested she’s just going to be making tea) if he agrees to marry her - and the film raises a very good, and troubling question for the viewer:

How easy is it to actually live by a noble principle – to actually put the thought into action? We all aspire to be “good” people but do we have the courage of our convictions?

when Satyapriya's lifelong commitment to honesty in word and deed wavers, put off by his concern over his own honour.

This momentary lapse proves a pivotal point for Satyapriya, because his lack of action has terrible consequences that impact both him and Ranjana – the prince rapes her, and Satyapriya could have prevented it.  He marries Ranjana, and raises her child as his own – and he and Ranjana are unflinchingly honest about their circumstances, refusing to hide the truth of the situation for the sake of honour. From this point on, Satyapriya’s resolve to live by the truth is strengthened, regardless of what it costs him personally – jobs, family, reputation, friends, money, health.

And eventually, it will put him at odds with his best friend Naren, who returns into Satyapriya’s life as his boss, a reminder of what Satyapriya’s life could have been had he sacrificed his ideals.

Satyakam appears to have been a deeply personal film for Dharmendra. He chose this story – of a man committed to living by his ideals of perfect, unflinching truth and honesty even in a corrupt, imperfect world, despite the personal cost, as his first film as producer (under “Punchche Arts”), and gathered the same group of people that proved so successful for Anupama: as well as director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and actors Sharmila Tagore and David, the lyricist, dialogue writer and cameraman from Anupama were brought on board to try and ensure Satyakam would recreate some of the same magic that Anupama had.

To this day, Dharmendra apparently regards his role as Satyapriya Acharya a career highlight – and I’d actually agree with him there. It’s a powerful role, not a pleasant or easy watch, but a complex, nuanced character that is vastly different from Dharam’s action man or romantic hero personas. Hrishikesh Mukherjee regarded the film as one of the “most satisfying” he ever made (and that’s saying a lot – the man made some amazing films). Personally, I’m still mulling it over. There’s a lot to chew on.

But you know what I’m about to say, right? Satyakam failed to set the box office on fire.

It’s pretty easy to see why, I think. I love Hrishikesh Mukherjee films, and I love Dharmendra, and though there are some lovely, poignant scenes, particularly between Sanjeev Kumar and Dharam

 Like this one - this is just the beginning of one of my favourite scenes in the entire film.

I found this an uncomfortable watch. Thematically, it’s dense – there’s a lot to get your head around.

Forming a backdrop to the whole film is Independence – when we first meet Naren and Satyapriya, it’s on the eve of Independence and while Naren is uncertain what this means for the future, Satyapriya is optimistic and sees the chance to shape an entirely new country (reflecting the attitude of many at the time of Independence).

But when Satyakam was made in 1969, widespread disillusionment had set in: where was the New India that had been promised? Corruption, unemployment, crime, poverty were worse than ever. Satyakam, which opens with a quote from Gandhi,

seems to partly be a weary message to India as a whole: this corrupt nation is what we fought so hard for? This – Satyapriya’s story - is the price of living by Gandhi's principles?

Basically, what the film forces you to think hard about are things like this: can you live a happy, comfortable life if you place your ideals above everything else? Should your ideals come before your personal happiness? If living by your ideals makes no discernible difference in the world, and only brings you unhappiness, is it even worth it?

On a character level, I think it’s hard for an everyday person to identify with Satyapriya’s perfection: the message is there, I guess that it’s the ideal to aspire to, but he’s just so UNLIKEABLE – and it’s on purpose. Rigid perfection is hard to deal with, but it must be harder to LIVE LIKE THAT, then, right? You must really have to believe it to live it.

Naren, the character representing the ordinary man who makes a few everyday concessions and gets by happily in the world is the one that I think we can all identify with, but then, what kind of concessions does he make? And do they add up?

I’m still turning it all over in my head. But I think my view of the world gels with a line that Sharmila Tagore as the emotionally damaged, but proud Ranjana says:

"Sone ke zevar banane ke liye thodi toh khot milani padti hai".

(To produce something as beautiful as gold jewellery, you have to add an element of impurity).

Satyakam is well worth watching and I would thoroughly recommend it  - it's not an easy film, but it's a rewarding one. Hrishi-da does it again.

And with that, Deol Dhamaka comes to an end here at Shahrukh is Love. 31 days and 31 posts...I never initially intended to do a post a day but there was just too much Deol goodness to cover and it kind of spiralled wildly out of control (and I still didn't manage to cover everything I wanted to!) A HUGE thank you to Amaluu, Beth and Katherine who postponed the original Deol Dhamaka plans because they wanted me to be able to participate: you guys rock! 

And a CRAZY-HUGE shoutout to everyone who participated - there's been so much illuminating, fascinating Deol-centric posting in the blogosphere this month from all these talented bloggers:  Amaluu (who also took on the mammoth task of collecting all the links HERE - there are over 90!)  Katherine, Beth, Rum, Nakhrewali, Isabel, Nayika, Daddy's Girl, Lime(tte), Liz, and Gobbledyspook. IT'S BEEN SO MUCH FUN, YOU GUYS!

WTF TIMES INFINITY

Ram-Avtar (Sunil Hingorani, 1988)

The first half of Ram-Avtar is GENIUS. Nonsensical, irreverent, hilarious GENIUS. The plot, in that first hour or so, introduces us to Sangeeta (Sridevi) who owns a factory that is constantly being threatened by the local goons, headed by Gunduppa Swami (a bizarre, and yet, quite funny Shakti Kapoor). To protect the factory, she employs Avtar (Anil Kapoor), a man famed for his lethal fighting skills to act as a kind of security guard – but when he arrives from a neighbouring village, it turns out that though he is famous for his fighting, he’s also famous for his drinking. He literally gets thrown off the bus in an alcoholic stupor…but once he meets Sangeeta it’s not long before he falls for her and gives up the booze in the hopes of impressing her. 

At the same time though, Avtar’s childhood friend, Ram (Sunny Deol) arrives back in India,  meets Sangeeta, and – SURPRISE – falls madly in love with her too. Only, lucky Ram, Sangeeta actually returns his affections.

The problem is that if you’ve ever seen a Hindi film about the power of male friendship, EVER - and it’s a shame I didn’t have time (or the stomach) to cover Dosti: Friends Forever - you’ll know that the bond between Ram and Avtar is super-strong.

Ram, being the child of privilege, is accustomed to giving all that he has to Avtar, the child who comes from a poorer background. So when, at the end of the first half, Ram and Avtar discover they both love the same woman, you can guess where the film is headed.

Sigh. And it all started out so promisingly.

The first half of Ram-Avtar had me laughing so hard in cracktastic awe, my face and sides were ACTUALLY hurting. There’s just so much weird nonsense going on, between Shakti Kapoor as Gunduppa Swami, the leader of the local goons, looking like this:

and speaking in a voice I cannot even begin to describe;

 Anil Kapoor’s various HILARIOUS antics as lovelorn alcoholic Avtar (and omg THE SANDWICH SCENE! I just about died); 

the novelty of seeing notoriously shy Sunny Deol play a cocky lady-killer, and steam up the screen with Sangeeta (Sridevi);

MARCONI the “Italian” date-rapist who hangs out at the fair, putting the 70s Indian equivalent of Rohypnol into sherbet; 

a team of motorcycle riding baddies called The Bald Gang; 

Sunny Deol playing the violin obsessively; 

EVEN ON HORSEBACK!

finally getting to see THIS extremely homoerotic screenshot in context, 

BEEEEEEEFCAKE!!!

and Sunny Deol peeing into a radiator. SERIOUSLY.

 

BUT THEN IT ALL GOES HORRIBLY WRONG. 

Just as you are thinking “Man, this film is AWESOME!” it does a complete 180 on you and becomes cracktastic in that other way. The WTF, oh my god, are they actually serious? way.

SPOILER ALERT TO THE MAX:

So what happens is that when Ram realizes Avtar loves Sangeeta, he reverts back to his childhood behaviour of just giving his friend whatever he wants, and decides to sacrifice his own happiness for his friend’s happiness , manipulating the circumstances so that the marriage that was to go ahead between Ram and Sangeeta now occurs with Avtar as the groom. REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT THERE IS IN FACT ANOTHER PERSON WITH FEELINGS INVOLVED IN ALL OF THIS.

HER NAME BEING SANGEETA. 

And from this point on the film spirals down and down and down into emotasticness: while I am a big fan of romantic longing looks and thwarted love sometimes (like in this film); I’m not so much a fan of this particular kind of melodrama where everyone is unhappy and continue to torture themselves and each other with no satisfying ending in sight. It got to the point that, I swear, I WAS HOPING THAT EVERYONE DIED HORRIBLY IN THE END. Because they all deserved it.

Basically – from the awesome first half, where Avtar is a drunk, but an endearing, lovable drunk, and Ram is cheeky and cocky, but not an asshole, and Sangeeta is an independent woman running her own business by herself and taking no shit from anybody, in the second half all the characters turn into HORRIBLE, UNLIKEABLE IDIOTS. Ram starts pretending to be a douche-bag, faking that he’s sleeping around to make Sangeeta hate him;

 

Avtar believes the word of a goonda over his own wife, no questions asked, AND WORSE, compares her chastity to A STAINED TIE. 

WHAT AN ASSHOLE. And Sangeeta?

Well, thank god the film actually has Sangeeta speak up for herself, when she discovers how her marriage to Avtar came to be. She asks what right either of them have to put their friendship above her feelings – they treat her as a third party to the whole thing, just some afterthought, like “oh, Avtar can marry her then” with no regard for the impact of making this decision FOR her or what she actually wants: what she wanted was Ram, because she loved him and he loved her. 

 Um? NOT DONE IT? Told Avtar you were already in a relationship with her and that he'd have to man up and deal with that? Been honest from the start with Sangeeta and told her Avtar had a crush and that it was a bit...awkward? ANYTHING BUT ARRANGE TO HAVE HER MARRIED OFF TO YOUR BEST FRIEND, BASICALLY ENSURING THAT EVERYONE ENDS UP UNHAPPY, ASSHOLE?

BUT THE QUESTION IS NEVER ANSWERED. Nor is any real explanation given for why Sangeeta would want to stay with an asshole like Avtar when any person in their right mind would PUSH HIM DOWN THE STAIRS. No-one ever learns.

The only saving grace is that the ending of RamAvtar returns to ridiculous cracktastic glory – stupid enough to make me say out loud “THIS IS RIDICULOUS” and start laughing hysterically at what was supposed to be deeply tragic. 

But this is a largely bad film, which is something I didn’t think I would say after the gloriousness of the first half. It’s the weird-ass material that wrecked it for me; Anil, Sunny and Sridevi deserve, and are capable of so much better. I dislike it for the same reason I dislike Chandni - it starts out awesome, and then goes all WTF I DON'T UNDERSTAND THESE PEOPLE AT ALL in your face.

Here. I hate ending on such a downer. Have this song, my favourite part of the film, because watching Sunny and Sridevi together is one of my favourite things in the world: 

Black Mail

Black Mail (Vijay Anand, 1973)

I tried to write this one without spoilers and failed. So: (very tiny) spoiler alert.

Black Mail is both ludicrously deranged, and extremely engaging: it’s a wonderful paradox of a film. If you’re anything like me, you’ll spend much of the film laughing uncontrollably at the genuinely ridiculous plot twists, some AMAZINGLY questionable acting and shoddy stuntwork, and the ‘futuristic’ props associated with the ‘solar energy’ storyline…all presented with ABSOLUTELY zero irony; the flipside of this is that, again, if you’re anything like me, you’ll also spend much of your viewing time ACTUALLY TALKING TO THE SCREEN, uselessly yelling out clichés like “NO! He’s TRICKING you!” or “DON’T GO THERE DON’T DO IT!” and peeking through your hands as the characters get embroiled in each other’s manipulations. Black Mail, as well as being quite silly, is actually extremely thrilling. And DEEPLY romantic. And above all, AMAZINGLY entertaining. 

The convoluted plot is improbably based around a scientist – Dr Khurana developing a secret phaaaarmooola for capturing the formidable power of SOLAR ENERGY and keeping it in BATTERIES. 

 It's the look on Dharmendra's face that gets me. MASTERFUL ACTING. 

(Honestly, is it wrong that the fact the whole movie was based on people essentially wanting to steal BATTERIES from each other just cracks me up?) 

Such an amazing discovery cannot be kept a secret for long, especially when Khurana’s face is on every international magazine cover and newspaper front page ever. 

 They can harness the power of the sun, but they can't take a PHOTO?

 I like this one because you can see that they have just PASTED the article in a real newspaper. AWESOME!

Which is kind of unfair, since it seems like he couldn’t have discovered the formula without the help of his industrialist backer, Kailash (Dharmendra).

Danger – apparently to India’s international reputation as ENERGY CHAMPION OF THE UNIVERSE – comes in the form of Jeevan (Shatrughan Sinha) who will, apparently go to ANY LENGTHS to steal the solar energy battery formula from Kailash…his ALLEGED BEST FRIEND. Dun dun dun. 

Those red things: batteries. Everyone in this film is OBSESSED WITH BATTERIES.

Kailash, in the meantime, is busy mooning over Asha (Raakhee) the girl of his dreams, and is SO ADORABLY SHY that he can barely even look at her, let alone speak to her. 

Self-assured Jeevan doesn’t have this problem, chatting up Asha effortlessly…a little TOO effortlessly, in fact. 

TURNS OUT THAT JEEVAN AND KAILASH CAN’T BE ALL THAT GREAT BUDDIES SINCE KAILASH DOESN’T EVEN REALISE HE’S IN LOVE WITH JEEVAN’S FIANCE. 

Like – seriously? What kind of a best friend IS Jeevan? 

The kind who will DITCH HIS OWN GIRLFRIEND and SET HER UP WITH KAILASH for a shot at the sweet sweet solar power battery formula. That kind. The kind who will stop at NOTHING, be it importing a team of international scientists disguised BADLY as pro-golfers to help in his evil machinations, 

 Jeevan has clearly NO IDEA of what "golf" is.

 But Italian "scientist" Antonio gets into the swing of things (heh heh)...

 ...though Antonio also, CLEARLY, has greater priorities than the game.

 

faking his own death, grow some questionable, emo stubble,

 Antonio knows he didn't shave because he just kissed him. I'm not making that up, either.

burn down an entire forest, pull out some really hilariously over the top melodramatic overacting

….and resort to pure, simple BLACKMAIL to get what he wants. 

DOES THIS FILM SOUND FREAKING AWESOME OR WHAT?

With Shatru reaching new heights of peacocking (he has more colourful, eyecatching costumes than even Raakhee does in this film, and she has some pretty gorgeous 70s saris), strutting around almost LITERALLY chewing on the scenery or pushing other people out of the frame, 

 Is it kind of obvious I just want an excuse to post as many pics of my filmi boyfraaaaand as possible?

and with the mad, melodramatic plot inspiring some kind of crazy turns: for instance, the song when Asha, torn between love for both dastardly Jeevan and sweet, wonderful Kailash ACTUALLY TALKS TO HERSELF:

to convince herself down the right path possibly wasn’t actually intended to make me WEAK WITH LAUGHTER but – hey – it was wildly enjoyable all the same; the entertainment quotient is well and truly covered. From science, to action, to romance to melodrama, to finally, out and out thriller, Black Mail pretty much covers all the bases, including comedy (I just can’t tell how much was intentional).

Basically, you can’t go wrong when you cast Dharmendra as the morally righteous, upstanding, yet ADORABLY RETARDED WHEN IT COMES TO ACTUALLY WOOING hero. Apart from all the cracktastic nonsense going on, this film really is one of THE most utterly, genuinely, heartbreakingly romantic films in the universe. The majority of the film is actually focused on Kailash and Asha and the trajectory of their relationship – from shy first meeting and falling in love; to newly weds; to turbulence and suspicion as it all falls apart under the pressure of Jeevan’s manipulation and misunderstandings; to reconciliation as it all get sorted out and everyone lives happily ever after (uh…spoiler alert? But seriously, this isn’t Devdas, what did you expect?).

I can’t talk about romance and not mention the song Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas (sung by Kishore Kumar). The context: Kailash goes to meet Asha at her house, but is so shy that he can’t think of anything to say to her. Instead, he gives her a bundle of letters – he says that every time he thinks about her, he writes letters to her with what he wishes he could say.

Another moment in the film that really stood out was the song O Naina Mere – which is picturised on Asha getting ready for Kailash to come home. They are married at this point in the film, but their relationship has been an unhappy one, never once living up to the romantic hope and promise offered in Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas – Kailash has been sleeping in another room and the two have been fighting regularly. But this song was so touching and intimate in seeming to give a window into the souls of the characters. It comes just after a moment of sweetness between them, when Asha is hopeful, but uncertain about the status of their relationship. We see her putting on her sari, applying her makeup, combing her hair, sprinkling the bed with rosepetals (as it had been on their wedding night), and we see a nervous looking Kailash make his way home to her…the tension: is he thinking the same as Asha following their brief reconciliation? 

I guess it’s kind of interesting to see Vijay Anand apply his reknowned thriller direction skills to something like this – the building tension around a romance, a different kind of thrill. It works so well! For a film that elsewhere is frequently SO VERY cracktastic, this sequence is utterly, utterly absorbing, authentic and just heartwrenching.

Believe it or not: I HAVEN’T EVEN COVERED THE HALF OF IT! There’s so much going on in this film that you really need to see it with your own eyes – including one of the most erotic scenes to come out of Hindi cinema ever. I’m gonna avoid writing about it so as not to look like a pervert, but can I just say: Kailash and Asha, hiding in a burning forest – the trees aren’t all that get pretty HOT.

Dharmendra is at his PEAK in this film, looking SO dreamy, you can watch for him alone – though why you’d want to, when swaggering Shatru is there to steal every scene, I do not know. Raakhee is luminous 

(she’s actually TINY! So much shorter than Dharam, and he’s not a tall man) and looks like a living doll, and it seems criminal that only a few years later she would be relegated to playing ‘maa’ roles. That is possibly more cracktastic than anything that happens in Black Mail.