Bollywood

As Anurag Basu’s Life in a Metro, gets set to release - a film set in a modern metropolis, where Life is eating us up. We all shall be fables presently. Keep cool: it will be all one a hundred years hence.
personal relationships in a middle-class scenario undergo various kinds of stress and strain-it It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, . . . to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps, and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to us new sources of wealth, and has corned* the labor of our working-men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, he has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial . . . into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity. . . . Now, therefore, I . . . do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may be then, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations. *preserved
starts a fond reminiscence for the time when urban India started changing. Very few films captured PROPERTY, n. Any material thing, having no particular value, that may be held by A against the cupidity of B. Whatever gratifies the passion for possession in one and disappoints it in all others.
the cracks in the structure of conservatism and Anil Ganguly’s underrated gem Humkadam was one of To observations which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th’ observer’s sake.
them. Obviously inspired by the Satyajit Ray classic Mahanagar (1963), which was set in Calcutta, Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, Meroe, Nilotic isle.
Humkadam shifted the action to Mumbai or Bombay as it was called then, but the story is about In a negotiation, he who cares less, wins.
financial problems and a woman’s reluctant independence causing damage in a middle-class marriage. Just as the separation and independence of the coordinate branches of the Federal Government serve to prevent the accumulation of excessive power in any one branch, a healthy balance of power between the States and the Federal Government will reduce the risk of tyranny and abuse from either front….The power of the Federal Government would be augmented immeasurably if it were able to impress into its service — and at no cost to itself — the police officers of the 50 states.
Indu (Rakhee) and Shekhar Gupta (Parikshit Sahni) live happily with their young son and manage to Librarians are like crack dealers when it comes to hooking small children.
make ends meet, till his parents and his unmarried sister decide to move in with them in their small ‘Twas when the seas were roaring With hollow blasts of wind, A damsel lay deploring All on a rock reclined.
flat. Shekhar does not earn enough to maintain the extended family, so Indu is forced to go out to It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
work, which causes much unhappiness in the family, particularly irking her father-in-law Raghunath All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.
(AK Hangal). Indu gets a job as a saleswoman, and after initial difficulties, manages to learn the Oft expectation fails, and most oft where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest; and despair most sits.
work and earn a decent sum of money. Everyone is reconciled to the situation, and even happy about You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side.
it, except Raghunath, who resents that Indu is now unable to devote all her time to the family. The None so blind as those that will not see.
father-in-law sees Indu with a man in a fancy restaurant and succeeds in instigating his son’s Save the whales. Collect the whole set.
suspicion. Quarrels between husband and wife lead to Shekhar demanding that Indu quit working, but Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.
then he loses his job and the unpleasant status quo has to be maintained. Shekhar gets increasingly Mightier far Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway Of magic potent over sun and star, Is Love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favorite seat be feeble woman’s breast.
frustrated, and it looks as if the breakdown in the marriage will reach a point of no return. A lot It’s not the college degree that makes a writer. The great thing is to have a story to tell.
of films captured slices of Mumbai life from the noir inspired crime thrillers from Dev Anand’s Then, at the last and only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
Navketan, to middle-of-the road cinema of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee, Sai Paranjpye, to United we stand, divided we fall.
more contemporary gangster films, but Mananagar and by extension Humkadam took a sympathetic look at Men are made by nature unequal. It is vain, therefore to treat them as if thy were equal.
the changing dynamics of the middle-class family and when traditional breadwinner-homemaker roles There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.
started changing. Indu could well be Shikha (Shilpa Shettty) of Life in a Metro, twenty years Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
later, who is tugging at the leash because after experiencing a well-paying career, she is bored Rumor is one thing that gets thicker as you spread it.
with the role of fulltime housewife and mother forced on her by her husband. Humkadam, like the If you love someone, let them go. If they return to you, it was meant to be. If they don’t, their love was never yours to begin with.
original, took the wife out of the home and saw her as employee, friend, independent entity, Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy.
catching a conservative society going through the throes of transformation. In a film like Life The last straw.
in a Metro, the transformation is almost complete. Interesting Trivia: Humkadam was produced by There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.
the Rajshris and now Rajshri.com is distributing Life in a Metro on the net. The music of Humkadam There are men whose presence infuses trust and reverence.
was by Bappi Lahiri, one of his sober scores. Raakhee is reported to have said that this was one of The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
the four films that revolved completely around her. She played a somewhat similar role of the The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.
sacrificing family breadwinner in Tapasya also produced by the Rajshris and directed by Anil A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beck’ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men’s names On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.
Ganguly. Helen played the role of an Anglo-Indian girl in Humkadam, one of her few Experience is the best teacher, but the tuition is very costly.
performance-oriented roles. One time Hindi film hero and Bengali star Biswajeet played the role of So, rather than appear foolish afterward, I renounce seeming clever now.
Raakhee’s boss. Anil Ganguly’s daughter Rupa Ganguly is a TV star today and is most prominently The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.
known for her portrayal of the character of Draupadi in the epic TV-series Mahabharat.

Original post by Pankaj