Parakh (1960)

 Parakh 1960

Sadhana, Durga Khote , Leela Chitnis, Moti lal, Vasant Chowdhury ,Nazir Hussain, Jayant, Kanhaiyalal, Rashid khan, Asit Sen.

Lyrics and  dialogue – Shailendra, Music – Salil Chowdhury

 

Radhanagar ki sabse achhi ladki

[The best girl of village Radhanagar]

 

Seema [Sadhana]is her father’s daughter -   brave, compassionate, gentle and kind hearted , he is  Post Master Nivaran [ Nazir Hussain]of Radhanagar.  She  nurses a bed ridden mother, runs the kitchen on a paltry budget , looks after her school going brother and   reassures  her father not to worry about family  debts. Haradhan , the postman calls her ‘ Maa Annapurna ‘- her baingan sabzi is delicious !

And there is the progressive school teacher Rajat [ Vasant Chowdhury] who loves her. Rajat has created an army of school children - little warriors who clear drains and  swamps  to prevent  mosquito breeding . He  works to make Radhanagar   self sufficient and  disease free.

In their midst are the ruthless Zamindar,[ Jayant ] the pecuniary doctor,[ Rashid Khan] the corrupt contractor[ Asit Sen] and the bigoted priest[ Kanhaiyalal] – representing governance, health care, infrastructure and religion. Sir JC Roy [ Motilal]arrives in the guise of a limping postman on a mission  to hand over an endowment of Rs five lacs for Radhnagar’s welfare  to the best man  of the village . His  father was ousted from the Radhanagar  by avaricious relatives but his parents  to give back to the village which was once their home. Sir JC Roy plays along  as postman Haradhan and discovers that goodness resides in the heart of the most ordinary common man – Postmaster Nivaran.

But this is not before Seema and her father face the ignominy of being thrown out of their house by the old , obese contactor Bhanj who wants to marry Seema.

She agrees to marry him to save her family . Darkness descends as she stands near a window , looking at the sky and the stars .  She goes to light the lamp for evening prayers – like the stars in the sky above , there is  a light  in her hands.  And within  too – lit with  integrity , warmth and love it   burns  bright .

 Endnotes

*Bimal Roy and Shailendra’s  ode to graceful,  gentle and brave women. As the  titles roll , all the women actors are listed first  followed by the men. Also, it’s not a coincidence that the village is Radhanagar and not Ramnagar !

*Salil Chowdhury ‘s haunting choral effects make the song surreal while Lata Mangeshkar is  whisperingly soft.

*This was Sadhana’s second film and  Bimal Roy made sure that she was sans  forehead  fringe ,  sans jewellery, sans makeup and dressed in worn out,  inexpensive, cotton sarees sourced by the costume man of Bimal Roy films Kishan b Dhamnia .

* A prescient look at vote bank politics -  sixty years later it rings true !