Mukti Bhawan—Of Free Will

 

Shubhashish Bhutiani's Mukti Bhawan is the story of a seventy-seven-year-old man, Daya (Lalit Behl), who thinks that his time of death has come. He wants to spend his last days in the holy place of Benaras. Daya's stubbornness forces his obedient son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) to take him there. They check into a place called Mukti Bhawan, a hotel for people who are waiting for their death. The hotel allows people to stay there for a maximum of fifteen days. During their stay, Daya and Rajiv let go of past resentments, form new bonds, and ultimately find salvation in different ways.

In Hinduism, the term mukti, or moksha, refers to freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth. The soul is believed to pass through a cycle of successive lives, and its every rebirth depends on how the previous life was lived. People must take responsibility for their actions (karma) in their different lives. Mukti means permanent liberation from this cycle and is, thus, called the ultimate goal. Mukti Bhawan is also essentially about freedom, and the freedom that is portrayed here is not just about moksha, but also the freedom and the desire to live life on your own terms. At some stage in the film, Daya asks Rajiv why he stopped writing the poems that he used to when he was a kid. Rajiv replies that Daya's stick in school made him stop writing. Whenever something happened, Rajiv, being the teacher's son, was the one who was punished. As a father, Daya was probably too harsh with his son, forcing his own choices on Rajiv rather than letting him do what he wanted. In another lifecycle of parenthood, Rajiv, the father, has become like his own father, forcing his own choices on his daughter, Sunita. Rajiv's daughter does not like her fiancé, but she is marrying him because she wants her to do so. Rajiv is initially aghast to know Sunita can drive a scooter and is not in favor of her having a job. Rajiv carries some resentment in his heart against his father and is inadvertently meting out the same treatment to his daughter that he got as a kid. He has become a version of his father. In fact, both of them are called ziddi—stubborn. While Daya talks about freedom from this world, the film is as much about Rajiv, where he learns to let go. The time he spends at Mukti Bhawan is also about his own salvation.

The sense of liberation is reiterated at other stages throughout the film. When Sunita and her mother are going back to their home, Daya advises Sunita to do whatever her heart wants. Vahi karna jo tere man ko accha lagta ho. At some other point in the film, Vimla and Daya take one of their walks together, and she tells him that death comes at its own will. Vimla tried to do that when she went hungry for many days, but it did not work. She has been waiting for almost eighteen years, but death comes at its own volition. It is as if making the point that if death follows its free will, then what is stopping the mortal humans from doing the things that they want to do. Vahi karna jo tere man ko accha lagta ho. After Vimla dies, Daya writes an obituary for her in which he tells us that Vimla is flying, and has become a free spirit. After Daya's own death, Sunita reads a few lines that he had written in his diary, where he writes a poem titled Mann Ki Karo Hamesha—Do what your heart says—again underscoring the theme of free will and liberation in the film. He wrote, "Karo vahi jo man ko bhaaye, varna jeevan bhar pachtaaye." At an earlier stage, when Daya gets sick, everyone thinks his time has come. During one of the nights he was not well, he and Rajiv had a tearful conversation where he admitted he was not a good father to Rajiv. Just after this conversation, Daya gets better on his own the next morning as if this guilt that he had felt was something that was making him sick from the inside, and he is now free from it. Even the TV show that the residents of Mukti Bhawan watch regularly is named Udan Khatola—A Flying Vehicle.

Mukti Bhawan also tells us that one has to be ready for death. And, by being ready, it does not mean singing devotional songs and eating the food as that of the hermits, but rather learning to let go. In an earlier scene, Vimla tells Daya and Rajiv that she has no problems staying alone as she has learned to let go and is now waiting for death. When Daya fell sick, everyone thought he would die, but he did not because he was not ready. Later, Daya learns to let go and asks Rajiv to return as he feels he is getting closer to his son again. He will have to learn to live without the people and without the worldly desires that he demanded, or else he will never be ready. He has to become an elephant, who, when its time of death is near, leaves everyone and goes to the jungle. Daya eventually becomes the elephant.

Use of height

There are many other beautiful touches in Mukti Bhawan. Since death plays an important role in the film, it is quite interesting that Rajiv works in a life insurance company, where he sells policies that benefit people after someone's death, in a way helping people prepare for their death. When a cockroach is found dead, Mishraji picks it up, and says it achieved salvation. Earlier this year, Vikramaditya Motwane's Trapped also had a cockroach that was eaten by Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao). Incidentally, that film also dealt with themes of freedom and entrapment in the modern day urban life.

Safe Life Insurance

There is also a little bit of Masaan and Piku in the film. As parents age, they almost become like a child, requiring attention and care. They become cantankerous, but it is so difficult to abandon them. In one of his dreams, Rajiv kills his father. But, of course, it is only his sub-conscience. As Alain de Botton's The School of Life has taught us, these feelings are natural. Rajiv does not act on them; rather, he takes the best possible care of his father, with great personal hardship.

I remember the scene from Delhi-6 when Roshan's grandmother starts preparing for her death. Vriksh bole paat se sun patte meri baat, iss jag ki yeh reet hai, ek aavat, se jaat. The tree told the leaf, "This is the cycle of life; a leaf dies, another is born." Roshan initially finds the idea of preparing for death a bit morbid, but then he thinks that humans cannot control how they are born, but at least they can plan how they are going to go away from Earth. Mukti Bhawan also shows this preparation for death, but it is also one of the few films celebrating death. When Daya dies, he is sent off with a big celebration as he had wanted. Death is certain for every human on this planet, so why not celebrate a life lived well. After all, what greater freedom there is other than a soul achieving its permanent mukti.

Trivia:

Navnindra Behl, who plays Vimla and plays a small part in Queen, is the wife of Lalit Behl and the mother of Kanu Behl, who directed Titli.

Dialogue of the Day:
"Sapna toh antarman ki aankh hai."

—Mishraji, Mukti Bhawan