Revisiting film Mahabharat on Krishna - Janmashtami.

Revisiting film Mahabharat on Krishna-Janmashtami.

Indians have a separate religious sentiment associated with Lord Krishna, the renowned avatar of God Vishnu. The film Mahabharat made in 1965 is revisited on the eve of Krishna Janmashtami to be celebrated all over India tomorrow on 1st September, 2010.

The film Mahabharat was directed by director Babulal Mistry in 1965. Actor Abhi Bhattacharya played the celebrated role of Lord Krishna in the film. He had the challenging task of chanting the slokas from Bhagwat Geeta, which moulded Arjun in the battle of Kurukshetra and led to victory of the Pandavas. Very significantly Pradeep Kumar played the epic role of Arjun in the film.

Actor Dara Singh played the role of Bhima in the film, while Jeevan played the role of Shakuni. Actress Padmini played the notable role of Draupadi in the film. Composer Chitragupt composed the music of the film, and the songs sung by Rafi in the film were very memorable.

In the late 80s and early 90s, eminent filmmaker BR Chopra made Mahabharata in Doordarshan, and as TV serial had remained extremely successful. Nitish Bharatdwaj played the role of Lord Krishna in the serial. All the episode related to the birth of Lord Krishna flabbergasted the audience. His mama’s role was played by Goga Kapoor. The viewers saw the battle between Lord Krishna and Mama Kanghs was very well depicted by BR Chopra.

Nitish Bharadwaj studied Bhagwat Geeta, very well and his performance in the battlefield of Kurukshetra where he persuaded Arjun to fight the battle had remained matchless. The character of Arjun was played by Feroz Khan. The pandavas were heavily dependent on Lord Krishna in their war against the kauravas. Lord Krishna only asked Bhima to hit Duryodhana on his uru, meaning the thigh, which led to his victory. Lord Krishna asked Arjun to throw his arrow at Karna when his chariot got stuck in mud and he tried to release it. The same Lord Krishna, provided cloth to Draupadi, at a time when Duryodhana asked Dushshashan to take away her clothes.

Lord Krishna is worshipped as God by numerous hindus all across the world, and the effort of filmmakers in reaching the epic related to Lord Krishna had always been considered noble and appreciated. Both the film Mahabharata and the serial Mahabharata should be restored.

Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend of dacoit-oriented films.

Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend of dacoit-oriented films.

Raj Kapoor’s film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend in bollywood films to make movies on the subject related to dacoits. Radhu Karmakar the famous cameraman of Raj Kapoor directed the film while Raj Kapoor produced it in the early 60s.

Just like any other film of Raj Kapoor, his character Raju was full of innocence. He helped the leader of the dacoits of Central India (father of Padmini), who was shot by the Police. Raj Kapoor gave him food and water, and Pran with his men brought both Raj Kapoor and their leader back to their area. Most part of the film was shot at Bheraghat in Jabalpur near Narmada falls.

Raj Kapoor was initially convinced by Padmini that the dacoits rob the money from the dishonest moneylenders and distribute it to the poor people. Raj Kapoor agreed to help the dacoits on that count. But when he went with the dacoits to a marriage party and saw that most of the members of the party were killed by the dacoits, he went and reported the entire matter before Raj Mehra, the police officer and told him that he would convince the dacoits to surrender before the police. But he also asked Raj Mehra to award least amount of punishment to the dacoits. All the dacoits were convinced by Raj Kapoor at the end of the film.

The biggest asset of the film lied in the powerful music of Shankar Jaikishan. In this film SJ used mainly folk tunes with powerful orchestration. Most of the leading singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, etc, were used. The music was superhit with successful songs like “kya hua”, “o maine pyar kiya”, “hoton pe sachai rehti hai”, “hum bhi hai, tum bhi ho”, “aa aab laut chale”, to name a few.

Padmini, the brilliant dancer previously had a glorious career opposite Shivaji Ganeshan in South Indian films. She almost gave her lifetime performance in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai. Her dance performances were brilliant, innovative and unparallel. Pran also did extremely well in his character of the dacoit in the film. Nana Palsekar, Lalita Power and other character artists were also sublime in their respective roles.

Raj Kapoor won the film fare award for best actor for his performance in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai, while the film won a number of awards under other categories. The film also had lot of social message. The dishonest section of middlemen in the country who tortured the lower middle class compelled innocent people to turn into dacoits. In that context the film depicted the picture of Indian society in the late 50s and early 60s. From that time onwards a number of films were made on the life of dacoits. Significant among them include Sunil Dutt’s film Mujhe Jeene Do, Dilip Kumar’s Ganga Jumna, to name a few.

Raj Kapoor had always been a trend setter. Even in respect of films related to dacoits he created a trend which many directors had followed after that time. The film should be restored for those purposes.