Sujata (1960)

 Jalte hain jiske liye.............

Sujata 1960

*ring  :Sunil Dutt , Nutan 

Director   Bimal Roy , Music Sd Burman , Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri, singer Talat Mehmood 

Chandramallika , chandan and champa .....

Sujata and Adhir sit quietly  on the steps at Gandhi Ghat – there is a  breeze , the sound of waves while  Adhir hums softly . He hasn’t found the words as yet and promises to sing  after penning the lines.

It’s rather late [ 9.45 pm , says the clock on the wall] when Sujata is back home – the curtains are aflutter like her mind . She races down the stairs to greet Charu and Upen [ her foster parents] who have returned from Rama’s theatrical show. She pauses before entering their  room and  overhears Charu’s  talk  about fixing her  marriage through Adhir’s driver. ‘The man is much older than Sujata  but that’s fine in low caste  people’ , she says  coaxing  Upen to refrain from nitpicking  .  She wants Rama wedding with  Adhir  to be fixed at the earliest – that’s her heart’s innermost desire. 

Sujata is crushed – she switches off the light outside the room. The light has gone from her life . She walks up the stairs with leaden feet and picks up the phone which has been ringing awhile. It’s Adhir who wants to share the song he has written and starts to sing on the telephone  about the lamps in her eyes which illuminate his being . He sways to the melody and the photographs of Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekanand on the wall .

The fragrance of chandramallika, chandan and  champa and the promises made near the river bank fade away  -  instead  there  is a  door ajar which offers a peep into her room near stair landing . An  iron bed with chipped paint and a dowdy cupboard – like the saree she wears and like her existence which frayed by serving others .  Distraught , she sits down to listen to the song , the tears streaming  her face.  

Adhir’s love is true and pure but it’s not meant for her . 

Endnote

SD Burman spoke about this song –

I made a suggestion to Bimal da even though it seemed odd. After the Gandhi ghat scene, Sujata returns home . After some time Adhir rings Sujata and sings a love song on the phone. This song created quite a stir. It was not a song for song’s sake. The audience loved it and many people congratulated me. Talat sang the song with all his heart .

Adapted from Sachin Dev’s Bengali song ‘ Tumi jey giyachho bakul bichhano pathy ‘

From SD Burman , The World of his Music by Khagesh Dev Burman