Television in Films

There are umpteen instances where films have inspired other films in some way or the other. Many directors pay homage to their favorite films either by explicitly adding a reference to another film or by adapting something from a different film in their own creation. Films also inspire a lot of content on television. I was wondering if the reverse is true and if the television has influenced films as well. I thought to document the role of the small screen on the big screen.

Television has provided opportunities to many a filmmaker who initially started their career on TV shows and then remade those shows into full-fledged films. In the early 1990s, there was a show titled Yule Love Stories broadcast on Zee TV. It consisted of short stories about love and relationships. One of the episodes in the show titled Vapasi told the story of a man named Mohan (played by Ashutosh Gowariker) who returns to India after five years. He wants to find his caretaker Kaveri Amma and take her with him to the US. He takes a big white trailer and travels to Mahadevpur where Kaveri Amma stays with her niece Geeta. After meeting Geeta, Mohan falls in love with her and decides to stay in India to help develop his country. This plot, as can be easily guessed, is the same story of Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades. It is widely believed and acknowledged that Swades was inspired by the story of Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi, a US-based couple, who returned to India and developed a power generator to provide electricity to remote village schools. But it must be mentioned that it is only the power generation aspect that seems to be adapted in Swades. The other parts of the story involving Mohan, Kaveri Amma, and Geeta are taken directly from Vapasi. Yule Love Stories is now streaming on Zee5 but few details are available about the writer and director of the particular episode.

Yule Love Stories was succeeded by a similar series called Rishtey. Imitiaz Ali had directed an episode in the series called Highway that told the story of an affluent girl who is abducted right before her wedding and then becomes attached to her kidnapper. In 2014, Ali made Highway with the same theme as his episode in Rishtey. Ali had wanted Highway to be his debut film but somehow things did not work out for him. It was only quite later he was able to make the film even though he had the story ready from the early 2000s.

In the late eighties, Ketan Mehta made the television series Mr. Yogi starring Mohan Gokhale which was an adaptation of the novel Kimball Ravenswood written by Madhu Rye. The mini-series told the story of a US-settled boy Y.I. Patel who comes to India and meets twelve girls—each belonging to a different zodiac sign. In 2009, Ashutosh Gowariker made What's Your Raashee? that was also adapted from Rye's book but was closer to Mr. Yogi in treatment. More recently, in the 2010s, the Star Plus show Khichdi starring Supriya Pathak became quite popular and a film called Khichdi: The Movie was made based on the film's characters.

In 1987, Pankuj Parashar directed Jalwa that had influences from the world of television. The film is a story of substance abuse primarily set in Goa. The drug overlord in the film is named DD (after Doordarshan) and is played by Tejeshwar Singh. The fascinating thing to note is that Singh was the same newsreader who announced the Emergency on Doordarshan in 1975 and Jalwa names its villain after his real-life role. The film also stars Johny Lever as Muthu, the masseuse, who does a spoof on the show Hum Log that had Ashok Kumar as the narrator. Early in the film, there is also a mention of Basu Chatterjee's immensely popular show Rajani. A driver keeps a photograph of Chatterjee in his taxi all the time. Moments later, Basu Chatterjee shows up in his taxi and the theme song of Rajani plays when he sits inside. However, he is thrown out by the driver as he dislikes that Chatterjee only shows one side of the issue in Rajani. Jalwa also had Cyrus Broacha as a child actor who later went to do the famous Bakra show on MTV.

In the 2000s, Ekta Kapoor changed the face of Indian television with her K dramas. Her show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi made waves when it launched. The daily soap has also made it to the movies. Gangs of Wasseypur opens with the title song of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi where Tulsi Virani (Smriti Irani) welcomes the audience to her household. In Gangs of Wasseypur, the people of a neighborhood are watching the show when they are suddenly attacked by bullets from the outside. It is again a sign of Anurag Kashyap's wackiness that he incorporates a daily TV soap in a movie on gang wars. The director duo of Abbas Mustan incorporated the show in their film Humraaz where Karan (Akshaye Khanna) is watching Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi when he tries to blackmail Raj (Bobby Deol) for his wife's murder. Karan Johar mentioned the show in his film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham when Anjali (Kajol) talks about the show and the dead son (Mihir Virani) when she meets an acquaintance at the mall in London moments before the iconic reuniting scene of the Raichands. Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is also seen in the release poster of Veere Di Wedding. The film, however, does not mention the show in any form. Perhaps, it has something to do with Ekta Kapoor, who was also one of the producers of the film.

Any mention of television would be incomplete without referring to Kaun Banega Crorepati that gave a fillip to the sagging career of Amitabh Bachchan. The show was mentioned in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... where a young Rohan Raichand (Kavish Majmudar) speaks with his father Yashvardhan Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) in the show's style while playing a game of trivia. The show was also spoofed in Yeh Hai Jalwa where Salman Khan plays Raju, the illegitimate son of Rajesh Mittal (Rishi Kapoor), and brings a storm in his life. At some stage in the film, Raju makes his father's family play Kaun Banega Crorepati where he asks the contestants questions related to films. He even refers to Biwi No. 1 while quizzing in which Khan had played the lead role. Kaun Banega Crorepati was also shown in the recently-released Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan where Devika (Bhumi Pednekar) elopes from her house with Kartik (Ayushmann Khurrana) while her father watches the show in his room. In a funny scene in Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Rianna's (Kareena Kapoor) granny walks into the room when Rahul (Imran Khan) is changing clothes while Kaun Banega Crorepati plays on the TV. She further embarrasses Rahul by shaming him that he is changing his clothes in front of Amitabh Bachchan. 

Television has also inspired certain story elements in films. In Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Naseeruddin Shah plays Amar Singh Rathore, a dead man who speaks to his wife Savitri (Ratna Pathak Shah) through his portrait on the wall. It is inspired by Ekta Kapoor's Hum Paanch where the late Priya Tendulkar played the character of the first wife of Anand Mathur (Ashok Saraf) who speaks to her husband through her portrait on the living room wall. In Sridevi-starrer English Vinglish, a bunch of people from diverse backgrounds gets together to learn English in New York City which is reminiscent of Zabaan Sambhalke. In Trapped, there is a show called World of the Wild on a channel called Wild TV. The host of the show, a man inspired by Steve Irwin, is explaining ways to survive a difficult situation. He can be heard saying, "Never give up. Adventure is not about what happens out there. It is about what happens in here. The brave survive. The weak, they die." These lines effectively capture the film's theme and ultimately become the motto that helps Shaurya (Rajkumar Rao) survive his ordeal of being trapped alone in his apartment.

In Delhi-6, Bittoo (Sonam Kapoor) wants to run away from her home because she wants to participate in Indian Idol. In Chhapaak, Malti (Deepika Padukone) is watching the finale of Indian Idol before she is attacked. Later, she takes up a job at a book store as it was near to a music school as she wanted to learn singing. Life, however, had other plans. She could not become the Indian Idol due to the acid attack but she did become an Indian idol inspiring other women that life can be rebuilt and restarted after a temporary stop. In Hasee Toh Phase, Kanpur Idol Abhinandan (Anil Charanjeett) reveals that he had auditioned for Indian Idol where he sang Ek Garam Chai Ki Pyali Ho but the judges, especially Anu Malik, were not too impressed by his performance.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! depicted the role of sensationalism in media by spoofing the crime show Sansani that became popular for its anchor's over-the-top theatrics. Dibakar Banerjee's film shows a similar sansani where a show called Criminal on IBN7 provides the details of the activities of Superchor Lucky. Other films, such as Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive and Quick Gun Murugan, have also spoofed the show Sansani. Sony TV's long-running show CID has also made it to the movies. In Hasee Toh Phasee, Meeta (Parineeti Chopra) is accused by Nikhil's father (Sharat Saxena) of stealing some items from their household. Abhinandan (Anil Charanjeett) then recalls some crime theories of ACP Pradyuman from CID and tries to defend Meeta. Later, he even becomes Daya, doing the signature darwaaza tod do act when he is asked to search the premises for the lost chain. Bobby (Vidya Balan) of Bobby Jasoos also looked up to CID to sharpen her detective skills.

Filmmakers have looked up to television shows to add a dash of nostalgia in their films. Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox evokes the feeling of the bygone era where Saajan Fernandes (Irfaan) watches old episodes of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi trying to reminisce the days he spent with his wife. Sriram Raghavan's Andhadhun opens with a dedication to Chhaya Geet and Chitrahaar, the Doordarshan shows that brought Hindi film music into our lives. The film also has a montage of piano sequences from various Hindi films in its ending credits. Rituparno Ghosh pays a small tribute to Basu Chatterjee's Rajani in his film Raincoat. Mannu (Ajay Devgn) tells Niru (Aishwarya Rai) that he plans to name his production house as 'Rajni Productions', after the Priya Tendulkar-starrer Rajani. He adds that his numerologist told him to change the name as a five-letter word is unlucky. He says he is planning to write it as 'Rajnee'. But the fact is the original TV show was called Rajani and already had six letters. Years later, this would come true in some other form when Ajay Devgan would change his name to Ajay Devgn. Vishal Bhardwaj used a rehashed version of his song Tup Tup Topi Topi from Alice In Wonderland that used to come on Doordarshan in the nineties to make Tippa from Rangoon. Both the songs are written by Gulzar and have music by Bhardwaj. 

In Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Arjun (Hrithik Roshan), Imran (Farhan Akhtar), and Kabir (Abhay Deol) reminisce about the older days when things were much simpler and playfully recreate the theme song of Doordarshan after a night of drunken revelry. In Neerja, the TV is shown playing the advertisements in which air hostess Neerja acted as a model. Later, when the plane is hijacked, the TV is playing the colorful lines of the rainbow that meant rukavat ke liye khed hai, signifying the interruption in Neerja's life. The rukavat ke liye is also a throwback to the days of Doordarshan. 

Television shows have also provided some wonderful meta-commentary in films. Rajshree Ojha adapted Jane Austen's Emma as Aisha. In the film, Shefali (Amrita Puri) is being set up in a matrimonial match with Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar) by Aisha (Sonam Kapoor). In a fabulous meta moment, Shefali imagines that she is seeing Randhir on TV, which in fact, is playing a clip of Sahukar's MTV show Rendezvous with Semi Girebaal where he hilariously spoofed Simi Garewal's mannerisms from her chat show. Zoya Akhtar's first film Luck By Chance provided a closer look at those working behind the scenes in the Hindi film industry. The film was teeming with meta-commentary where the lines between the real and the fictional got blurred. In one such moment in the film, Sona (Konkona Sensharma) is shown shooting with Ronit Roy for an episode of a daily television show. In his real life, Roy had a lackluster career in films and moved to the small screen where found fame as Mr. Bajaj in Ekta Kapoor's Kasautii Zindagi Kay in the early 2000s. Like Roy, the character of Sona follows the same path in her life where she finds happiness working on the small screen after not being able to become a top filmstar. Her scene with Roy in Luck By Chance is again such a lovely meta-moment and demonstrates the meticulous detailing and writing of the film. Amar Kaushik's Bala told the story of a salesman Bala (Ayushmann Khurrana) through the films of Shah Rukh Khan. At different stages of his life, Bala's life resembles the characters of Shah Rukh Khan. There is another meta-moment in Bala related to Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan when Bala refers to his wife Pari's' mother as Sita Maiyya. The thing to note is that the person he calls Sita is none other than Deepika Chikhalia who played the role of Sita in the epic TV series. 

Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan is also shown in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year where Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) and his grandfather are watching the scene of the battle of Ram and Ravan from the show. Like Ram, Harpreet starts all alone as a salesman, but along the way, he makes partners who help him grow his firm, take on the Ravan-esque Puri (Manish Chaudhury), and defeats him convincingly. In Door Ke Darshan, a family tries to recreate the world of the late eighties for their family matriarch. There is a mention of Sagar's Ramayan in that film as well. If Ramayan is mentioned, then Mahabharat cannot be far behind. In Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, Ashwat Joshi (John Abraham) gets an idea to form a secret team of five members to prepare for the nuclear test while watching B.R. Chopra's Mahabharata on television. Ashwat's mother-in-law explains to her grandson that each of Pandavas had a designated role which made them take on the Kauravas despite being fewer in number. Ashwat is also inspired by the same and names his team after the five Pandavas and takes on the role of Krishna himself. 

Koffee With Karan has also made an appearance in some films. In the fantasy song sequence Sava Dollar from Aiyyaa, Meenaxi (Rani Mukerji) prays to a deity wishing to be made a heroine, and in return, she will offer a dollar and a quarter. She wants to live the life of an actress and dreams to work with the top stars, sign autographs, win multiple Filmfare awards, and even get an Oscar. After all this, the song ends with her appearing on an episode of Koffee With Karan with the King of Bollywood (Shah Rukh Khan). In a way, the film humorously showed that the final stage of 'making it' in the industry is getting an invite to be on the show. In Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Kush (Imran Khan) finds a prospective bride Dimple (Katrina Kaif) for his brother Luv (Ali Zafar). In their first (virtual) meeting, Dimple asks Luv a few rapid-fire questions in the style of Koffee With Karan; the final one of which was if he preferred underwear or no underwear. In Deewane Hue Paagal, which was inspired by There's Something About Mary, there is Sanju (Suneil Shetty) who comments Coffee With Karan when he gets to know that Natasha (Rimmi Sen), the girl he likes, is having a date with her old friend Karan (Shahid Kapoor).

Western television has also marked its presence in Hindi films. In Mardaani, Tahir Raj Bhasin played the role of Karan Rastogi, a human trafficking kingpin. His character in the film was inspired by Walter White from the TV series Breaking Bad. In Dhoom 2, Uday Chopra played the flirtatious Ali who does a David Hasselhoff by running on the Brazilian beaches in Baywatch costume with Bipasha Basu next to him. In Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, the cast of the hit BBC TV sitcom The Kumars at No. 42 makes a cameo appearance. In Satya, Pyari Mhatre (Shefali Shah) says that she watches The Bold and the Beautiful. 

In Saand Ki Aankh, the members of the family are watching the iconic television show Tara. It is noteworthy because a show about the power of contemporary urban women is in a movie about the power of rural women. In The Sky Is Pink, Aditi (Priyanka Chopra) and Niren (Farhan Akhtar) break the tragic news of Aisha (Zaira Wasim) being diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis when she is watching the comedy show Dekh Bhai Dekh on television. In the recent Lootcase, Vijay Raaz plays gangster Bala Rathore who is obsessed with the National Geographic channel and draws parallels between the lives of animals and criminals. 

Most of the time, characters are seen watching television shows as part of their daily life. In Dasvidaniya, Amar's mother (Sarita Joshi) is obsessed with watching television and is seen watching another of Ekta Kapoor's shows Kasturi. Vedika Tripathi (Bhumi Pednekar) in Pati Patni Aur Woh is watching Comedy Nights With Kapil where Akshay Kumar also makes an appearance. The house help Sunita (Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) in Thappad is addicted to watching Dance India Dance on TV. At one stage, even Amrita (Taapsee Pannu) watches the show where a father-daughter pair shows up, and looking at them, she realizes that she let go of her dreams to dance after her wedding. Happy New Year has Anuradha Menon doing her Lola Kutty act that had become quite popular on Channel [V] in the early 2000s. Badrinath Ki Dulhania mentions producer Karan Johar's TV appearance in India's Got Talent when a Himesh Reshammiya-lookalike confuses matchmaking auditions to be the audition of the talent show. Dilwale refers to the animated series Chhota Bheem when the friends of Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) make up a fictional story about his relationship with Meera (Kajol) to avoid revealing the truth to Raj's brother Veer (Varun Dhawan). They see Chhota Bheem playing on Pogo channel and tell Veer that Meera's real name is Pogo.

The above are only a few examples and skew more towards the films of recent years. I am sure there are many more that are not included here. Film research, as we all know, is too vast to be ever called exhaustive.

References:

1) IMDb.com

2) Remembering Tejeshwar Singh—Link 

Other Reading:

1) Books in Films—Link

2) Movies in Movies—Link

3) Gifts in Films—Link

4) Diaries in Hindi Cinema—Link

5) The Oedipus Complex in Hindi Films—Link

Dialogue of the Day:

"Mere aasuyon ka swaad, mere mann ka namak hi samajhta hai."

—Haridas, Swades

David versus Goliath in the Cinema of Jaideep Sahni

Writer Jaideep Sahni has written eight films in the past twenty years. Two of his early films—Jungle and Company—feel more like Ram Gopal Varma films but his other remaining films have a sense of his unique style. In any form of storytelling, it is conflict that drives the narrative. The great philosopher Aristotle postulated that the hero must have a conflict to sustain an interest in the story. All conflict can be typically summarized into a few categories—man versus man, man versus self, man versus society, man versus nature, and man versus technology. Many of these conflicts are quite apparent in Sahni's oeuvre but there is also often an element of David versus Goliath in them where a weaker opponent takes on a stronger adversary. 

In Dibakar Banerjee's Khosla Ka Ghosla, written by Sahni, the conflict arises when an avaricious businessman Khurana (Boman Irani) usurps the hard-earned plot of a middle-class man Kamal Kishore Khosla (Anupam Kher). After all the conventional pleas fail, Khosla's younger son Cherry (Parvin Dabas) devises an unconventional route to get back their land. He takes the help of Bapu (Navin Nischol), the manager of a theater group, to act as a wealthy businessman and trick Khurana by selling him some fake real estate. Khurana is fooled and pays a significant sum to Bapu, and the Khoslas use the same money to repurchase their land from Khurana. It is like David versus Goliath battle where the simple Khoslas are able to defeat the all-powerful Khurana and pull off the hoax without him getting any whiff as to who is behind it. At an early stage in the film, Kamal Kishore Khosla and his elder son Bunty (Ranvir Shorey) visit Khurana to request him to leave their land. Khurana's office has the look of a villain's lair. In the wall right behind Khurana's seat, there is a painting hung where a tiger is attacking an antelope. It is not quite subtle but it is a representation of Khurana's predatory nature. As it turns out, the antelope is able to fool the lion and get his revenge. The predator becomes the prey.

In Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munnabhai, Boman Irani played Lucky Singh, who like his character Khurana from Khosla Ka Ghosla, is another unscrupulous businessman wanting to unethically take over the property of others. He lays his eyes on 'Second Innings House', a bungalow where a bunch of senior citizens lived together. Lucky Singh throws them out of their house when they all went on a vacation. Taking a cue from Mahatma Gandhi, Munna (Sanjay Dutt) launches a non-violent protest against Lucky Singh to help the residents get back their home. Lage Raho Munnabhai found widespread acclaim for its rediscovery of Gandhi. But there was a Gandhian element in Khosla Ka Ghosla as well. There is Bapu who is not anyone's father but is called so by everyone. In the sense, he is like Gandhi who was also affectionately called Bapu by the people of India. Like Gandhi helped India get independence from the mighty British using non-violence, Bapu helps the Khosla family get back their own plot, releasing it from the clutches of Khurana. Bapu is the new-age Gandhian, who also loves to smoke and drink. In contrast, there is Khosla, the old-age Gandhian, who is ashamed to even bring home a bottle of whiskey. In Brave New Bollywood: In Conversation with Contemporary Hindi Filmmakers, Dibakar Banerjee described Khosla as "Gandhian-era man." He says, "You take the outward package of social turmoil of a Nehurvian, Gandhian-era man fighting a new, modern, liberated India kind of a villain called Khurana where greed is not only open but is actually good as Gordon Gekko says in Wall Street." In fact, Khosla Ka Ghosla also opens with Khosla listening to Vaishnav Jan To which was Gandhi's favorite bhajan, adding to some other Gandhian-elements in the film.

A year before Khosla Ka Ghosla, Sahni had written Shaad Ali's Bunty Aur Babli. The film credits the story to Aditya Chopra and the screenplay to Sahni. Bunty Aur Babli depicted the aspirations of the middle-class small-town India that was struggling to break free. The film opens with a voiceover that brings to the fore the theme of another conflict, this time between two different Indias. The first is India that is bright and shiny; where dreams come true; where people find fame, power, and success. The other is India that is mired in dirt and dust; where dreams can be seen within the boundaries of one's reality; where people have to struggle for even the basic necessities. Rakesh (Abhishek Bachchan) of Fursatganj and Vimmi (Rani Mukerji) of Pankhi Nagar are two such individuals who belong to the second India and dream of moving to the first one. After facing trickery and rejection when they set out to fulfill their dreams, Rakesh and Vimmi end up disappointed but then decide to choose the same path in their life to get success. They join hands to become Bunty and Babli, and con people to make money. They become famous for their multiple acts. They also manage to sell the Taj Mahal to a gullible foreigner. Two ordinary individuals are able to hoodwink the entire system and no one even gets to know their real identity.

In Chak De! India, Sahni teamed up with director Shimit Amin to deliver a fantastic film on hockey in a country crazily obsessed with cricket. A captain of the Indian hockey team Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) misses the penalty shot in the final minutes of the India-Pakistan match leading to accusations of match-fixing. Called a traitor by his neighbors, Kabir is forced to move out of his house. Years pass by and Kabir returns as the coach of the women's hockey team leading their campaign for the world cup. Kabir instills a sense of unity and a shared vision in a team heavily factionalized into state-based cohorts. No one had given the team a minuscule chance of winning even one match but they proved everyone wrong. The team goes on to clinch the championships defeating the strongest of teams in the competition. Chak De! India is not just the story of the triumph of the underdog but it is also about the victory of a man fighting against the system to redeem his lost stature.

 

In Anil Mehta's Aaja Nachle (written by Sahni), a New York-based choreographer Dia (Madhuri Dixit) returns to her hometown Shamli in India to fulfill the wish of her late dance teacher. He wanted Dia to save the city's Ajanta theater from being demolished as the government planned to make a shopping mall in its place. Dia requests the town's member of parliament Uday Singh (Akshaye Khanna) to not demolish it. Uday refuses as he believes shopping malls are necessary to give the people of the town a means of livelihood. People cannot eat art and dance, he says. Dia argues that art is also a critical part of the life of the people. "Toh sirf pet bharna zaroori hai, aur kuch nahi chahiye hota logon ko," she replies. This is the principal conflict in the film which has become more common in the real world in the last few years as more countries embrace the path of rapid economic development. Uday challenges Dia that if she can prove to him that the people of Shamli still want the theater, he will not demolish it. She proposes that she will do a show of Laila Majnu at Ajanta within two months and if it is appreciated by people, he should be able to see that people of the town prefer arts and culture over shopping malls.

Dia faces an uphill battle in her quest to save the theater. She had to find participants for her play but the people of the town are wary of her because of her past. Years ago, she had abandoned a groom at the altar and escaped to America—something that was still frowned upon by the city folks. She had to face the might of the local politicians and other middlemen who have their self-interest in building a mall. But she convinces people to join her fight, stages a successful show, and manages to save Ajanta. She is able to prove that art brings out a plethora of emotions that people can and want to connect with their life. Like Kabir, Dia emerges victorious against a heavily-loaded establishment. Apart from the central conflict, Aaja Nachle also comments on the conflict between Western- and Indian-culture, between the past and the future, between being tied to your roots and flying away to distant lands, and between naach-gaana and nritya-sangeet.

A David versus Goliath battle is again seen in Shimit Amin's Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (written by Sahni) where a novice salesman Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) takes on an industry veteran Sunil Puri (Manish Chaudhury) in the field of the computer business. A young Harpreet joins At Your Service (AYS) after his graduation but is shocked by the unethical business practices being followed at the firm. The company that claims to serve the customers is only interested in fleecing them. After an incident where he complained against a powerful client who asked for a commission, Harpreet is humiliated by his bosses and banished by his coworkers for daring to disrespect prospective customers. A disappointed Harpreet decides to take charge and starts his firm Rocket Sales with some other disgruntled employees stealthily while using the premises and the resources of AYS. He is gradually able to grab the market share because of his company's superior customer service, while AYS struggled to catch up with the better offerings of a new competitor. There is a moment in the film when Harpreet and his grandfather are watching the scene of the battle of Ram and Ravan in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana. Essentially, a similar battle was fought between Rocket Sales and AYS. Like Ram, Harpreet starts all alone, but along the way, he makes partners who help him grow his firm, take on the Ravan-esque Puri, and defeats him convincingly. A small firm Rocket Sales emerges as the winner over a behemoth AYS.

In Maneesh Sharma's Shuddh Desi Romance, Sahni writes a story that questions the very concept of marriage in society. A local tourist guide Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput) and an English teacher Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) have cold feet before their wedding and run away. The conflict in the characters arises when they are not able to see themselves in a committed relationship all their life. While other films of Sahni have a visible victory moment of the underdog, Shuddh Desi Romance ends up with the Raghu and Gayatri's acceptance that they are not suited for marriage at all. They triumph over society's rigid stance that traditional marriage is the ultimate goal of a romantic relationship. Raghu and Gayatri end up with the decision to live together with an open-door policy, not bound by the restrictions of a formal marriage, something still rare in the society. In a hilarious scene in the film, Panditji, who is picked-up by Raghu and Gayatri, sits behind in the car and does not say a word. He is of no use to the film's characters. Traditional marriage literally takes a backseat.

Change

Apart from the conflict, there are other common themes that are present in the cinema of Jaideep Sahni. His characters have a distinct voice of change. In Khosla Ka Ghosla, Cherry hates his official name Chirauonji Lal given to him by his parents and wants to change it as it is too antediluvian for his personality. Likewise, there is Raghu from Shuddh Desi Romance whose full name is Raghuram Sitaram but he is also a bit embarrassed by it and prefers to be known as Raghu. In Bunty Aur Babli, Rakesh's father works as a ticket checker in the railways and wants his son to do the same job that he has done for thirty-five years. Rakesh is aghast at the idea of having such a boring job all his life. There is Vimmi in a similar position who dreams of becoming a model but her parents only want to get her married at the earliest opportunity. Rakesh and Vimmi want to have their own identity rather than follow what others tell them to do.

In Chak De! India, Kabir Khan also tries new methods to train the hockey players, discarding the old ways, earning the moniker of Tughlaq in the process. The senior players initiate a mini-rebellion against him for his ways but Kabir persists and brings freshness and vigor to the team that had even accepted defeat before playing. Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year also depicted that those who do not embrace change end up on the losing side eventually. Sunil Puri started his firm as a young entrepreneur and won accolades all over. With time, he and his firm became arrogant of their success and started believing that they will always remain at the top, leading to a decline in their service levels. A new firm crops up and changes the entire dynamics of the industry. 

Toilets

In Bunty Aur Babli, the first meeting between Vimmi and Rakesh happens on a train platform. Vimmi wants to go to the toilet but she is afraid of going there alone due to the dark. Therefore, she approaches Rakesh, who is sitting nearby, to accompany her to the toilet located at the end of the platform. This scene is resonated in Shuddh Desi Romance when Gayatri wants to go to the bathroom and asks Raghu to come with her because she cannot go alone. She says, "Akeli nahi jaaungi main. India hai yeh." Toilets are a running motif in Shuddh Desi Romance. Throughout the film, the characters keep going to the toilet at crucial points. There are many scenes that are shot where the characters break the fourth wall while sitting on a toilet seat. 

Call of Unity

In terms of structure, too, a central figure starts alone and then slowly adds more members to the team in Sahni's films. In Chak De! India, Kabir faces initial resistance from the players but he unites them by bringing their loyalty to the Indian team instead of the state team. Gradually, all the players fall in line. In Aaja Nachle, Dia starts her battle to save Ajanta all by herself and gradually adds more members to participate in her play Laila Majnu. A similar strategy is adopted by Harpreet in Rocket Singh to fight Puri and his methods. He starts his company alone but adds more 'partners' assigning them roles according to the strengths to grow his company. Additionally, many of Sahni's characters talk a lot about honesty.

Reading the time

In Chak De! India, a Muslim man's loyalty to his country is questioned. He is labeled a gaddar; something that has played out in reality in the past few years. In Shuddh Desi Romance, the wedding organizer Goyal Saab (Rishi Kapoor) wonders if marriages will completely stop happening in the future. Notwithstanding the pandemic, most people are increasingly choosing to delay their marriages, or not even marry at all. Concepts, such as ghosting as shown in the film, have become common. And, my favorite is the moment in Bunty Aur Babli, where Rakesh decides that he no longer wants to live in Bombay. He realizes that he does not have the ability or the inclination to become the next Ambani. His only aim in life was to be famous. As his name is published in newspapers all over, he is satisfied with his fame. This is again an astute reading of the present-day social media where fame has become the ultimate goal in life. Jaideep Sahni's work has shown that he understands the human psyche. The issues in his films are still relevant and, in some cases, gave an indication of the sign of things to come. His work has withstood the test of time and that is one of the best compliments for a writer. I am looking forward to what he does next.

Trivia:

1) Harpreet Singh Bedi's eyes in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year.

2) I love this shot from Bunty Aur Babli which is seen when Vimmi runs away from her house; a broken window to represent her escape from the idleness of Pankhi Nagar, or a shattered glass to signal that her dreams will soon be shattered, too.

Other Reading:

1) The Political Element in Vishal Bhardwaj's Cinema—Link

2) The Moon in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Films—Link

2) On Aaja Nachle—Link

3) On Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year—Link

4) On Shuddh Desi Romance—Link

Dialogue of the Day:

"Yeh world hai na world, is mein do tarah ke log hote hai, ek jo saari zindagi ek hi kaam karte rehte hai, aur doosre joh ek hi zindagi mein saare kaam kar dete hai."

—Dashrath Singh, Bunty Aur Babli

Bulbbul—Flying With Twisted Feet

The first thing that catches one's eye about Bulbbul is its unconventional spelling with two contiguous Bs. This has something to do with numerology given that the co-producer Karnesh Ssharma's last name is also spelled in a similar fashion. Even the successful web series Paatal Lok, created by the same production banner, had a curious spelling. Before Bulbbul, writer-director Anvita Dutt has also written the screenplay of Anshai Lal's Phillauri for the same production house. Phillauri was the story of a poet Shashi (Anushka Sharma) in the early 1900s who turns into a ghost and comes back to life. The film had feminist and progressive elements in its narrative. Shashi feels no hesitation in having premarital sex in a conservative time and in an equally conservative place, while the contemporary youth in the film were hesitant to even talk about sex. Like in Phillauri, there is a supernatural angle in Bulbbul as well but it is closer to Prosit Roy's Pari (again produced by the same banner with dialogue written by Dutt). Pari was a layered story of the horrors women go through in their everyday lives. Every month, the witch Rukhsana (Anushka Sharma) used to take out poison by biting a dog (or a human), a metaphor for menstruation. In Bulbbul, there is also a witch, or as she is called, a chudail who eats up the men who harm women in the village. Pari's tagline was Not A Fairy Tale. The same can be said about Bulbbul. It is designed like a fairy tale but it is about the horrors women had to go through in the nineteenth century. Bulbbul is another addition to the list of films, such as Phobia, Pari, and Game Over that have used the genre of horror to depict themes related to feminism.

Bulbbul begins in the Bengal of 1881. A child bride Bulbbul (Ruchi Mahajan) is married off to an aristocrat Indranil (Rahul Bose) who is at least three times her age. Bulbbul develops a friendship with Indranil's younger brother Satya (Varun Paras Buddhadev) who is closer to her age than her husband. Indranil also has a mentally challenged twin brother Mahendra (Rahul Bose) who is married to Binodini (Pauli Dam). Twenty years pass by and things change in the household. Indranil moves out to the city and a grown-up Bulbbul (Tripti Dimri) becomes the caretaker of the palatial mansion. Binodini is widowed after Mahendra is killed by the mysterious witch. Satya (Avinash Tiwary), who had been sent to London, returns and investigates the events in the village which seems to be reeling under the spell of the man-eating witch.

Like its namesake belonging to the avian kingdom, Bulbbul aimed to sing and fly but was trapped into the cages of patriarchy. Early in the film, like a bird, Bulbbul is sitting on a branch of a tree with her feet dangling in the air. "Pakad liya," says her Pishi Maa (Veera Kapur Ee) and catches her by her feet and takes her back to her wedding. Her feet are her wings and become the predominant motif in the film representing her desires. Pishi Maa dresses up Bulbbul and puts toe rings on her feet. On being questioned by Bulbbul about their need, Pishi Maa replies that there is a nerve in the feet, which if not pressed, makes the girls fly away. "Chidiya ke jaise," wonders Bulbbul. "Nahi, vash me karne liye hote hain bichhuen," replies the hesitant Pishi with her lowered eyes. They are meant to control women. Marriage to a man almost thrice her age becomes a means to restrict Bulbbul from flying. Bulbbul grows up and finds a friend in her younger brother-in-law Satya. This friendship gradually blossoms into love. But Bulbbul needs to be made aware of her boundaries. Thus, when Binodini observes Bulbbul's infatuation for Satya, she cautions her to buy new toe rings because the ones she is wearing have loosened up. She is warning Bulbbul that she is going out of control because vash me karne liye hote hain bichhue.

Aided and prodded by Binodini's salacious words, Indranil becomes suspicious of the relationship between Bulbbul and Satya and decides to send his brother away. In the scene where Indranil brings this up with Satya, he again chides Bulbbul for not keeping her feet covered—her desires hidden. Satya then leaves for London leaving Bulbbul with a broken heart. She longingly gazes out from the window, which seems to look like the bars of an iron cage. She feels trapped in this prison. Indranil, however, is still not satisfied and aims to further clip her wings. His suspicion of Bulbbul manifests in his horrific attack of her wings—her feet. The film uses Raja Ravi Varma's Jatayu Vadham to depict this harrowing act. In the painting, Raavan, who has abducted Sita, cuts one of the wings of Jatayu. Mirroring the act in the painting, Indranil cuts the wings of Bulbbul by hitting her feet. He is attacking the means of her mobility and freedom leaving her bedridden with her legs bandaged and fractured. His twin brother Mahendra, who was always troubling Bulbbul, also takes advantage of her condition and sexually assaults her in a state when she cannot move at all. She is left almost dead with her feet impaired and washed in her blood.

Then comes Sudip (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), a compassionate doctor, who helps in the healing of her feet. Like his name, he is the enlightened one. He is not a savior per se but tries to help Bulbbul get her wings back. He keeps checking on her recovery and becomes a friend and a confidante. This aspect is also reminiscent of Pari where it was again Parambrata Chattopadhyay as Arnab who helps Rukhsana in the healing of her feet. In that film, Arnab sees the bloodied feet of Rukhsana who turns up at his house in Kolkata walking all the way from her village, and offers to apply Boroline on them. Rukhsana is intimidated by any touch and puts her feet away from him. Seeing her hesitation, Arnab gives the tube to her and tells her to put it on her own. Later, this scene is repeated when Rukhsana cannot find a nail cutter, and she uses the knife to cut her nails, bruising her feet in the process. Arnab, again, observes her feet and gives her Boroline to apply it on her feet. This time, she puts her feet away initially, then brings them forward, and signals to him that he can apply the ointment on her. These little touches demonstrate the dynamics of consent and depict that Arnab is well aware of the boundaries of women. Likewise, Sudip is quite self-aware and knows his limits. At one point, he says to Bulbbul, "Pahunch ke bahut bahar ho. Isiliye lakeerein kheechta rehta hun." You are out of my league. I keep drawing boundaries to keep myself away from you.

Thereafter, Satya returns to Bulbbul's life. A shot of Bulbbul's covered feet is the one that welcomes him. After a few days, Satya is taken aback by the proximity between Bulbbul and Sudip. "Parda bhi nahi kiya aapne," he remarks disapprovingly. You have not even worn a veil. He tries to take over the household work from Bulbbul showing that he wears the pants in the house. He wants to put her back in the cage. Bulbbul, meanwhile, seems to have moved on. From the bride with the alta-lined feet, she has become the chudail with ulte pair (twisted feet). Unaware of the reality, Satya chases the chudail leading to her death. The men tried to cage her but Bulbbul found freedom. When Indranil returns in the end, he looks towards the sky, sensing that Bulbbul is flying somewhere above him.

Bulbbul is powered by its two leading women. There is the charming Tripti Dimri who portrays the innocence and the swagger of Bulbbul beautifully. There is a lovely scene when she and Sudip share a smoke and she talks to him through her smile. Her eyes convey the sadness of heartache. There is also the marvelous Pauli Dam as Binodini who initially comes across as shrewd and meddling but gradually one feels sympathy for her as she, too, had gone through a lot of suffering in her life. One of the finest scenes in the film is when she dresses up Bulbbul after she is assaulted and narrates her story revealing the carrots she was given when she was asked to marry Mahendra. "Badi haveliyon me bade raaz hote hain," she concludes and asks Bulbbul to remain silent.

Bulbbul is meticulously designed by Meenal Agarwal and gloriously shot by Siddharth Dhawan. There is a lot to see in the film. At one point, Bulbbul's house-help steams her hair with a brass statue of a bulbul. The film also adopts a strong color palette. Red is the dominant color. When the chudail comes, the moon turns pink—the color of feminism—and the nights turn red—the color of blood and revenge. Perhaps it was intended, but these red scenes felt intensely claustrophobic and overbearing at times. The transition of Bulbbul's personality is also reflected in the color of her sarees. A timid Bulbbul is always seen in lighter hues while a confident Bulbbul is dressed in darker colors. In her new phase, she also wears gray, or as Binodini calls it saleti, adding to her mystery. Like other motifs, there is the also use of fire at different places in the film. Bulbbul burns the pages of her unfinished story in the fire; in the end, Satya burns the entire forest finishing that story. The same crackling of fire emanates the misery in the two scenes.

Influences from the works of the illustrious Raja Ravi Varma work can also be seen in Bulbbul. A woman with a sitar singing the thumri Ude Re resembles the painting Kadambari. At another stage, Bulbbul sitting with a fan made of peacock feathers is reminiscent of the painting Damyanti (which is also seen in the walls of the house). As previously mentioned, the painting Jatayu Vadham is shown when Indranil assaults Bulbbul. The implication was that Indranil was the Raavan. There is another aspect related to Raavan that can be read in the film. Like Raavan had ten faces, the twin brothers are like the two faces of Raavan. Both Indranil and Mahendra violently attack Bulbbul—Sita. They have similar names—Indranil and Mahendra They are the Raavan with multiple faces. Satya is Ram who is often associated with the truth. Satya's name also means the truth.

Raja Ravi Varma

The two faces of Raavan

Bulbbul features an old Baul song Kalankini Radha, originally written by Radharaman Dutta. The song is about Raas Leela where Radha is warned by her friends that the naughty Kanha is waiting for her. A few lines of the song are spoken by Binodini when she sees Bulbbul's attraction towards Satya. Earlier, Satya had also spoken the same lines from Kalankini Radha to Bulbbul while writing their story. Bulbbul is a bit of both Sita and Radha.

There is also a lot of foreshadowing in Bulbbul that gives out hints of things to come later. During her wedding ceremony, Bulbbul sees Satya from behind the betel leaves as if she is marrying him. Though she gets married to Indranil, the scene portended the future where Bulbbul starts liking Satya. Later, a young Satya narrates the story of a chudail, living in the trees, who was waiting to gobble up the princess. This is also the story of Bulbbul. When they grow up, Satya and Bulbbul work on a story together. Satya is piqued that Bulbbul brings a spooky element in their story, which again signals the events of the future. After Satya returns from abroad, he asks Bulbbul as to which woman is capable of a brutal murder. A voice in the background is heard calling, "Badi Bahu," as if replying to Satya's question.

Bulbbul's feelings for her brother-in-law have roots in Satyajit Ray's gorgeous Charulata where a lonely housewife Charu (Madhabi Mukherjee) falls in love with her brother-in-law Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee). Like Bulbbul, Charu displays a visible fondness for Amal. However, the objects of the two women's affection in the two films seem to be oblivious to those feelings. Amal does not realize that Charu is in love with him until much later while the signs had been there all along. Likewise, when Satya is asked to move to London, he is unaffected while Bulbbul is nonplussed by the thought of his departure. Like Amal and Charu share an interest in writing and poetry, Satya and Bulbbul write a story together. Captivity and confinement is also a theme in both films. In the opening scene of Charulata, Charu follows the proceedings outside her house, like a bird hopping from one window to another. Many sequences in Charulata have been shot from behind the bars and pillars underscoring that Charu is trapped in a cage. The film was also based on Rabindra Nath Tagore's Nastanirh—The Broken Nest. The visual language of Bulbbul also reflects this entrapment. Bulbbul is the story of a trapped bird. At some stage, Bulbbul is also shown peeking out from the window resembling that she is trapped in a prison.

I was also thinking of Ray's Pather Panchali while watching the kaash flowers in Bulbbul. In Pather Panchali, Apu and Durga run across a field to watch a train passing through the village. It is memorable also because the field is full of kaash flowers that add to the scene's beauty. I was reminded of the same when a withering Bulbbul wakes up with a scream surrounded by kaash flowers in her rooms, signifying that the chudail has taken over her body. In the last few moments of the film, Indranil returns to the mansion and the house is brimming with the exuberance of kaash flowers indicating Bulbbul's presence. These flowers are associated with Durga Puja underscoring the linkages that the witch is also the goddess.

Bulbbul and Satya wanted to write a story together. When the time comes, Satya departs as his part is done and asks Bulbbul to finish the rest. An inconsolable Bulbbul is scared of a future without Satya, unsure if their story—real and reel—will ever be completed. Like her namesake bulbul from Haider, whose dreams were poisoned by a baaz, Bulbbul is left wingless by the men in her life. She realizes that unlike the fairy tales, there is no prince charming who will rescue her and give her story a beautiful ending. She has to write her own story because the protagonists of stories are only puppets of the pen; the real power is held by the one writing its prose.

Trivia:

1) Bulbbul was addressed as Badi Bahu in the house. There was a Choti Bahu in Abrar Alvi's Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. 

2) Bulbbul's title credits are lovely and depict the motifs associated with Bulbbul beautifully.

3) There is a Sherlock Holmes reference in Bulbbul.

4) Anvita Dutt thanks the Amroods in the credits.

5) There is the mention of the Acting Workshop as well.

6) Veera Kapur Ee who plays Pishi Maa is also the costume designer for the film.

7) Bulbbul's introduction theme by Amit Trivedi.

8) Feet shots in Ritesh Batra's Photograph.

Other Reading:

1) On Pari: Not A Fairytale—Link
2) On NH10—Link
3) On Phobia—Link
4) On Game Over—Link

Dialogue of the Day:

"Badi haveliyon me bade raaz hote hain."
—Binodini, Bulbbul