SAJAN RE JHOOTH MAT BOLO The 1966 Shailendra classic Teesri Kasam rolls on the screen with Hiraman singing in the time-honoured bard tradition of Indian folklore. Such hymns, as a rule, conveyed substratum of the eternal truths of life combined with practical home-spun wisdom for the benefit of the commoners. The song has strong sufi overtones and can be mistaken for an authentic saakhi penned by Kabir. The simplistic texture of the lines “bhala kije bhala hoga : bura kije bura hoga: bahi likh likh ke kya hoga” encapsulates the entire Accounting system of the cosmos in the briefest mantra. Commerce students of double-entry system know that for each debit there is a corresponding credit and vice versa and in the final Trial Balance prepared at the end of the year, all debits have to match equal credits. Similiarly in the ledger of life, a good deed done is paid back in equal measure; though it may initially seem like a debit entry making you suppose that your money and time has been wasted. Inking of ledgers for several years by an army of chartered accountants cannot over-rule this fundamental truth of life that in the final analysis all the good and the bad done by individuals get balanced with nothing to carry forward.. Shailendra was a magician with words. Simplicity was his forte. What others said in twenty lines, he could do in two words. When he wrote in Awara : “kaath ka tukda beh jaata hai : Loha doob ke reh jata hai, Gyani soch vichaar” in just one sweeping line he propounded a major thought. One should be unassuming, and light as a leaf to flow with the current of life otherwise your pedantry and bookish knowledge will create conflicts at every stage and will be your undoing. The same simplicity of words is reflected in another antara : “ tumhare mahal chaubare yenhi reh jayenge saare, Akad kis baat ki pyaare “ . This barb is directed at the human vice of Arrogance which breeds from power and wealth. Very logically in the flow-sheet of the song the next antara highlights the perils of Ignorance. Like sleep-walkers we waste our entire life in pursuing usual human follies and foibles, only to lament in old age, saddened and isolated and what is worse is that the same cycle of events, the same story goes on and on, mired in the same rut. All R K films, whether Awaara, Shri 420 or Jis desh mein ganga behti hai have this unique format of unfolding the theme of the film with an introductory song in the drama tradition of sutradhaar. It sets the tone of the film and messages the subtext. Shailendra just followed the format of his mentor Raj Kapoor and produced a poem on celluloid which was miles ahead of its time. Had Shailendra made Teesri Kasam in Bengali and released it first in Calcutta, in all probability he would have been hailed as another Satyajit Ray in making.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 06:38:36 +0000
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