Good Morning Friends on Old is Gold. I wish I was doing this feature on Namak Garam for Ek Hi Film Se on Friendship Day. This superbly sensitive film by Hrishikesh Mukerjee has been adapted from two famous plays. The English one about the King and the Archbishop:Becket. The Marathi Drama on this same play,which was staged over 100 times to break records. Namak Haram is a story of two friends. One rich,and the other very mediocre background. One has riches and the other is rich in his sentiments,love and friendship. These two are so close but they have a status which separates them. The poor Rich boy finds a family of a mother and a sister,which he misses at home, in the simple household of his friend. During a strike in the mill,the labour union leader insults Vicky,the rich Industrialists son,who is the rich friend. And this cannot be tolerated by his faithful friend. So the pals hatch a plot. Shomu,who is the loyal friend of Vicky,the rich friend,will go to stay with the labourers and insult the labour leader by taking his place. He does it successfully too. But in the bargain,he gets emotionally involved with the labourers,the union and the leader too. Shomu starts influencing Vicky his rich friend about the conditions of the workers.Their poor status inspite of working so much. Vickys father comes to know this and exposes Shomu in front of the labourers.That he is Vickys genuine friend and not their real friend. Shomu gets assaulted and injured. Vicky is very angry and defies the workers. Shomu,come back with me,he goads his injured friend. Shomu pleads,Vicky how I wish you could come to me instead. This is the turning point in the story. Vickys father takes the decision to eliminate Shomu from his sons life. He gets Shomu killed. Vicky takes the murder on himself and takes the life sentence. When his father meets him in jail and asks him why he did it. His answer is very simple. I did it ,so you come to know what it is to miss a son. You not only killed my friend ,but you took a son away from a mother ,a brother away from a sister too. In the court where Vicky is tried for Shomus murder,he screams: Haan Maine Shomu ko Maar diya,kyonki woh Namak Haram Tha. But in his heart he knows he is uttering a great blatant lie. Vickys father collapses in the jail to hear the truth from his son. Vicky serves a full life sentence ,very sober and a totally changed man. He has lost a friend but he still has a family of a mother and a sister of his friend Shomu to love. Namak Haram, is really a depiction of how shomu gets emotionally involved with the working class while having come to take revenge on the labour leader from his best friends side. The slow evolution of a jolly good friendship to a serious harassed mental state is shown beautifully by Hrishshida in a sequence. How the Rich friend gets to know the state of the workers.How he misses his friend who is now involved with the workers lives .And finally how he avenges his own father in having lost his friend is the crux of this emotional evolution. The songs are by the way.The first one Diye Jalte Hai is the best one to show how very much Vicky adores his friend. The second one with Rekha dancing too is by the way on the shots. And the third is quite unneccesary.Mai Sahyar.It has no context to the story. The songs in this movie besides the first one only prove how Indian Pictures use songs to help the audience to relax with the toilets and Banana chips with cokes. Kudos to Hrishikesh Mukerjee on this film for the direction. The super starcast of the Titans,Amitabh as Vicky and Rajesh Khanna as Shomu.Rekha comes for some side scenes as Shomus friend and Asranis sister.Simi we forget and see her suddenly as Amitabhs rich status friend.AKHangal Saab gives a steller performance as the union leader and Om Shiv Puri is the Industrialist father ,who so beautifully explains how the British ruled our country.Divide and Break Friendship.Which he does expertly. I have seen this film many times and every time have loved it more not because of the performances,the direction,the music or the scenario of our Indian society of Rich and Poor. I have loved it for seeing Durga Khote dote over Vicky her sons friend,send extra laddoos for him with her son and the sister who waits for her brother and his friend.That homely touch in Hrishidas films touches a warm chord. The songs follow with the best song first.Music by Pancham and rendered by Kishor kumar. https://youtube/watch?v=Ti5SNrWxftE
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 09:48:58 +0000
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