EHFS............. Who has escaped the vice like grip of lust and its devious ways ? How do two individuals deal with their stated hard nosed positions and then reconcile with their changing feelings for each other ? What happens when love blossoms in the womb of hatred ? A story that seems to address these issues accompanied by ‘thaskebaaz lavni’ ‘aprateem gaani’ and ‘gaavaatla tamasha’ formed the basis for V. Shantaram (VS) to present this extra-ordinary film, PINJRA (meaning THE CAGE)which actually is a hard hitting metaphor. Pinjra reflects the frail human mind falling prey and getting entangled in this labyrinth of temptation.This is the story of a noble village school teacher getting trapped by the very force that he was crusading against. Alongside is the strong character of a female dancer who ensures that her ego succeeds in razing this teacher to dust, a person who supposedly sat on top of the virtue pedestal. The subsequent existential crisis that the protagonists encounter makes for a riveting engagement with the audience. The following verse (of a famous song from the film) encapsulates the essence of PINJRA…..माझ्या काळजाची तार आज छेडली कशी नशीबाने थट्टा आज मांडली ! (Today my heart strings have been fiddled with……..oh how destiny has made a mockery of me !) Misplaced ego, wrath & revenge, infatuation and lust, attachment and affection, pride and reputation, realization and reconciliation, love and respect – all strong emotions are on display in this tragic drama. The principal characters are seen grappling with such conflicts within emotional cages that they have trapped themselves in. Inspired by the Hollywood film ‘The Blue Angel’, Pinjra boasted of a sensitive and perceptive director and some spectacular performances by the actors. Also, Pinjra was the first Marathi full length movie in color. VS was a master story-teller. His refined works of art are testimony to the fact. Pinjra is indeed a jewel in his body of work. A person who was a brilliant visualizer and conceptualizer VS understood and used the camera very well. He was undoubtedly, in his own way, an authority in the craft of film making. VS was an expert in projecting varying degrees of human relationships and invariably his stories would deal with dramatic presentation of the conflict of emotions. He had the unique ability to smoothly blend fantasy and reality to tell a story. Pinjra is a monumental achievement which is as much lyric writer Jagdish Khebudkar’s and music composer Ram Kadam’s as much as it is director V. Shantaram’s. Marathi is a language I love though I must confess I am not great at it. It is at such moments of watching a great film that one rues the lack of good knowledge of the language. I was simply stunned at the magnificence of the poetry, when I was sensitized with meanings of songs in the film. When one hears verses like ‘पापण्यांचि तोरणं बांधुन डोळ्यांवरती ही नजर उधळिते काळजातली पिर्ती ‘ (‘Through the festoons of my eyes, I shower all the love that resides in my heart’ – I must thank Mohan Chougaonkar for assisting me with understanding the finer nuance of this couplet), it appears like Jagdish Khebudkar seems to have dipped his pen in the inkpot of ‘Shrungar Ras’ before writing those terrific lines for each of the ‘passion filled’ songs in the film. And Ram Kadam seems to have transported himself to Gunvantwadi(the village where the story unfolds) before composing each folk gem in this great and once in a lifetime musical. Every time lavni and tamasha on film are discussed, Pinjra will find a mention. Even today each song keeps the listener spellbound. Truly, Pinjra’s music score by Ram Kadam will remain a landmark in Indian film music. Another star of the film if I may call her that, is the singer Usha Mangeshkar. 6 out of 7 female songs were by sung by UM and 1 song by her illustrious sister Lata Mangeshkar. One can never tire listening to the songs which have been rendered with so much of energy, passion and feeling. The other two male songs are also fantastic. One is a soulful lament by Sudhir Phadke and the other is by Vishnu Waghmare who belts out the rustic travelling troupe’s introduction during the film titles. All 9 songs in the film are nothing short of classics. Sandhya plays the ‘nartaki’ and Dr Shreeram Lagoo the ‘maastar’. A stage actor, it was Dr Lagoo’s initiation into films and what a debut that was. Superb, is what I would say. Sandhya, though full of antics and her peculiar mannerisms, delivered a fine performance. Veteran actor Nilu Phule, although with a smaller role, establishes his presence in his inimitable style. The brilliance of Pinjra lies in the screenplay as also in the characterization of its lead roles, that of the maastar and the nartaki. Anand Mane is credited with the story and what a well written story PINJRA is. Unlike most films, both protagonists here reflect a lot of grey. In my personal view, the ‘educated and wise’ teacher passing a value judgement on the tamasha artiste’s profession and her influence on the village folk was perhaps worse than the tamasha artiste taking the evil vow to destroy the teacher’s reputation and his very identity. While most tend to sympathise with only the maastar and align their sensibilities accordingly,to me the message that came out loud was - “Much as morality and its upkeep is celebrated and eulogised, the moral compass must also include the value and dignity of every profession, be that of a teacher or that of a tamasha artiste”. Pinjra was released at a time when the Marathi film industry was going through a crisis. Pinjra’s roaring success injected the much needed enthusiasm and new life in the industry. What follows is an attempt to put up an easy narrative, but I do not really know how effective it is. While I may have missed the erudite import of the dialogues, I sincerely hope my shortcoming with the language has not come in the way of my understanding of the film and its songs. Please note that the songs featured do not necessarily have a co-relation to the narrative, and may not necessarily follow the sequential order of songs in the film. While many in the group would have heard the songs innumerable times, I would urge you to listen to each song again and marvel at the way Ram Kadam raised the bar in Marathi film music composition. Hope you like this attempt at EHFS with a regional language film……
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 18:54:02 +0000
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