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It has been said often that though both, Raj Kapoor and B R Ishara, dealt with female exposure to a great extent in their films but the difference between them was of the methodology, they applied in their film to cover the exposure of female body and eroticism. While Raj Kapoor exposed his heroines slowly scene by scene, B R Ishara believed in doing things in one go, audience blink and clothes of the female on screen are gone. No diplomatic ways while tackling nudity and exposure and once he filmed his scenes it was up to censor board to handle his films. But nudity in his film was not for the sake of keeping nudity but that was requirement of his scripts. In several films he tackled topics which were taboo in those days.

If he tackled topics related to prostitutes then he did not glamourise them like Bengali literature or films based on bengali literature did. He showed them as prostitute and showed their struggle to survive.

He can be credited to give first chance in his films to several FTII graduates. He gave chances to many new comers and most famous of them are, Danny, Parveen Bobby, Rakesh Pandey, Rehana Sultana, Vijay Arora, Jaya Bhaduri, Amitabh Bachchan, Reena Roy, Shatrughan Sinha, Raj Kiran and Raza Murad and many others. He can be credited to think about bringing dashing cricketer of 70s, Salim Durrani in to the films. He made Charitra to introduce Salim Durrani and Parveen Bobby.

He always tackled burning issues in his films and he can be said as most bold director of hindi cinema whose films did not shy away from any topic. He made more than 30 films but three films are sufficient to have a glimpse of the man who really had guts. He wrote himself for his films and his thought provoking stories spread fire on the screen. His characters narrated dialogues which still can penetrate mind and understanding of the audience.

Music has been an important element in his off beat films dealing with thought provoking subjects and Sapan Jagmohan provided music for most of his films and Mukesh sang some of his beautiful songs in his films. Two of the songs, Mein to Har Mod par, and ek Hasrat thee kee anchal ko pyar mile can give clue about the music in his films. He signed Bappi Lahiri, then a new composer, also in few of his films.
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Chetna (1970) — Rehabilitation of a prostitute

Chetna (Awakening) can be said as most famous (or infamous) film of B R Ishara and he never could match up again with this kind of popularity. This film was bold enough and the poster of the film which showed the bare legs of standing Rehana Sultana and an innocent looking Anil Dhawan is shown staring at those legs was sufficient to send the message about the film. But that poster became the fate of the film and the film became a limitation for its director and heroine both.

If you have been just wandering about Chameli (Sudhir Mishra), Bazar(Sagar Sarhadi) or Mandi(Shyam Benegal) for their hard hitting dealing of the prostitutes characters then watch Chetana and this path breaking film from the year of 1970 will carry you on the journey of psychological conflicts of a young prostitute, Rehana Sultana, who has sprouted love in the heart of a young middle class man Anil Dhawan. He is deeply in love with this beautiful prostitute and he wishes to marry her but surprisingly she does not say yes immediately as everybody can expect that by this way she can get extrication from her life in brothel. But her character is in turmoil, she fears in leaving the life she knows and to jump in to the unknown. Anybody faces this fear and transformation is not an easy one and every change demands some great amount of input, sacrifice, flexible attitude and compromise.

She marries him but she is unable to cope the changes in her new life of a middle class house wife. Its not only theoretical. She has habit of smoking and drinking and she cant leave them. Her husband does not humiliate her and brings her ciggeretes and alcohol. But his humble nature and unconditional love bring more mental conflicts to Rehana and she quarrels, fights and humiliates him. Worse comes when she realises that she is pregnant but Anil Dhawan is not the father of her child and her past has started showing its colour in her life. What she would do now? Can she forget her past and start afresh. Or she would go back to her past phase of life of a prostitute? Or can she accept her past life as past and can face the difficulties of present life by revealing everything to her husband? She lived the pyschological journey of her character Seema in the film and Anil Dhawan performs the role of a strong willed man.

Chetna is a mature film in every frame. Camera works in tandem with the demands of director and limitations of the actress. In the famous legs scene Rehana just lifted her skirt bit above her knees and camera captures them in such a way as if she is not wearing anything. In the bedroom scene also her long wigs saved her from embarrassment and Director and cameraman could bring the impression of her being nude.

Poster of Chetana

It looks unbelievable that Rehana accepted this role in 1970 when nobody was going to accept such subject and especially the treatment of the film with which director has made his film. In the same year this FTII graduate had done another bold film Dastak, starring Sanjeev Kumar, made by famous author and director Rajinder Singh Bedi. Dastak was also a bold film but Chetna brought her an adult image. Its said that most of her films got A certificate from censor board and she had dropped last “A” from her surname “Sultana” and started writing her name as Rehana Sultan and said that she has donated this “A” to her films, which always got “A” certificate.

Rehana could not break her image of a bold heroine and though she did some more thought provoking films dealing with feminine sexuality but she could got much success on box office which is a parameter to survive in Hindi film world and later she married to B R Ishara and retired from the films.

Ek Nazar (1972) : Hindu (male) Muslim (female) love story

This is the film when Amitabh Bachchan was not The Amitabh Bachchan and here again B R Ishara deals with the rehabilitation of a prostitute. Its story can be inspired by Pyasa with some modifications. Amitabh plays Manmohan Tyagi, a poet, who is son of a famous lawyer. His father, Raghunath Tyagi (Tarun Bose Anupama fame) wants him to become lawyer but he finds interests in his poetry. Same angle was taken Hrikesh Mukherjee in his 1977 film Alaap. Like Pyasa,Shabnam (Jaya Bhaduri) a Singer cum nauch girl, sings poems of Manmohan and he himself hears them while passing through her house. He likes her voice and singing and comes inside and comes in and finds a beautiful singer, Shabnam, singing. He does not reveal his real identity and says some bad things about the poet who has written the songs. Shabnam does not like his criticism of the poet she adores. Slowly they fall in love and he wants to marry her but their love is caught between the limitations of both the sides. On one side ManMohan’s father, cant bear that his son marries a courtesan and on the other side, Shabnam’s brothel owner Amina Bai (Nadira) is also angered because Shabnam is no more interested in pleasing her rich customers. ManMohan leaves his fathers house after a heated argument with his father and Shabnam too confronts Amina Bai after knowing that she has sold her to a rich person.

But during her fight with Amina Bai is killed and Shabnam is caught by the police. She is the prime suspect and ManMohan’s lawyer friend Ashok (Raza Murad) appears in the court to defend her. ManMohan’s father is adament and he seeks death punishment to Shabnam because he thinks by this way his son will come back.
B R Ishara has used sketches in the court room scene to describe the points and that makes an interesting and unusual viewing of court room debate.

Film presents a different Amitabh Bachchan before us. His performance clearly brings the clue that in 1972 he was able to generate curiosity that this actor would do something in coming years. Though his films before Zanzeer were not commercially successful but he was never devoid of talent. Jaya Bhaduri has always been very good and in this role where her character passes through several emotions she impresses. But surprise actor is Raza Murad. This was his first big role and he enjoys delivering powerful dialogues, written for a lawyer character, in his good voice. He was lean and thin but he was able to generate passion in his performance through his voice. His performance can be his best performance till date and another role which matches up with this performance is his role of a rebellion poet in Namak Haram.

Prem Shastra (1974) : A love story having Incest touches

Those who think Honey Irani was the ever first writer who wrote story like Lamhe then they have to see this film Prem Shashtra.
A famous writer, Sagar, who is in his early 40s, has gone to a hill station, to write his new novel and there he meets with a young girl, Barkha. Slowly they develop love for each other and Sagar comes back with promises. He is in the way to have divorce from his wife, Neelima. Marrying with her was his mistake and he they never loved each other and he even was not knowing anything about her life. Situations take turn when Neelima finds that Sagar is in love with young Barkha and she discloses that Barkha is her daughter from her early marriage. Sagar is doubtful about claims of Neelima but he is caught under mental conflicts that if Barkha is daughter of Neelima then he is in love with his step daughter. He is very much disturbed by this incest angle.
But situations have to take more turn and when Neelima finds that Sagar wants to get rid of her and she cant lose his money then he drops yet another bomb and says that She had an affair with his elder brother and Barkha is the product of that love affair and her real name is Suman.

Now Sagar is in more trouble. Till now he was thinking that unknowingly he had fallen in love with his step daughter but now situations are indicating that his love interest is actually his own niece.

Whats the truth and how Sagar comes out of this mental trauma is shown beautifully in the film.

Dev Anand plays the role of author Sagar, Zeenat Aman plays the role of Barkha, the young lover of Sagar and Bindu plays the role of Neelima, the estranged wife of Sagar.

Prem Shastra is not sugar coated film like Lamhe and it brings out the psychological churning of the mind of Dev Anand which is completely lost in the character of Anil Kapoor in Lamhe. One has to pass through that mental trauma when faces the facts that actually he is involved in the incest. Prem Shastra is a mature film than Lamhe. Those who think Lamhe’s story has no incest touch they also should watch Prem Shastra to understand the nitty gritties of such stories.

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B.R.Ishara made several other films dealing with the wide range of subjects. He made a crime thriller Rahu Ketu also in 1978 with Shashi Kapoor and Rekha in lead roles. He worked not only with new comers but made films with Rajesh Khanna, Shabana Azami, Smita Patil, Raj Babbar etc also in late 70s and early 80s. In 70s he certainly made his presence quite visible on the horizon of Hindi films. If you are searching bold cinema then see some of his films of 70s which were way ahead of his times in hindi cinema. Its not possible to cover his films in one post but some of his films, for the bold themes he chose, will always be part of history of hindi cinema .

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