Dastak (1970)
Dastak (1970)
Director: Rajinder Singh Bedi
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Rehana Sultan
“Hum hai mataye koocha bazaar ki tarah
Uthti hai har nigaah kharidaar ki tarah”
What happens that woman who with every knock on her door has a man propositioning her? Think about the mindset of the man who is her husband but is treated as her pimp? What about those moments of intimacy, which get crumbled under the voyeuristic pleasures of peeping Toms?
That’s Dastak. A film that dealt with the hypocrisy of the human mind and the concocted views on womanhood and a woman’s sexuality.
Hamid and Salma — a newly married couple move into a rental flat. Both of them are happy and relieved for having gotten away from the housing problem that cripples Mumbai. But little did they know that the earlier occupant of the flat was Shamshad Begum, the famous mujrewali of the town with their flat being close to the local red light area.
Thus begins the ordeal of the husband and wife. Everyday becomes a battle of survival in the world of lust, greed and voyeurism. With every knock on the door comes a customer of Shamshad, who starts perceiving Salma as a prostitute and Hamid as her pimp. Voyeurs take delight in watching Salma taking a bath and the husband-wife’s private moments become a source of entertainment for people. Living in the constant danger of their morality being ravaged, Hamid and Salma device their own little ways to handle the unwanted circumstances and attention.
It begins with a simple whitewashing of the house so as to wipe its dark past. Salma who loves singing is stopped from doing so as it would convey a different connotation in the world around them. The windows are shut to avoid the flies on the wall. She is also stopped from opening the door to anyone but Hamid and the couple also devices a code word for this purpose. In the evenings the duo sets out to find some intimacy and respite in the theatres, beaches and roads of the town.
The quest for freedom is so much that they start living like nomads despite having a full-fledged household. The irony of their relationship is that everyday their association is under question and marriage under scrutiny.
Despite the attempts of remaining unfazed by the attitude of the world around them, Hamid and Salma continue to get dragged into the dirty world so much so that it starts affecting their relationship. The horrors of their life affect Hamid so much that he, too, becomes a slave to his instincts. And Salma is left with no choice but to accept her fate. Entrapped in her own place and barred from being her, Salma’s soul cries for emancipation.
“Na tadapne ki ijaazat hai, na fariyaad karne ki,
ghut ke mar jaaun yeh marzi hai mere saiyaad ki”
When miscreants break the glasses of their house Salma cries in pain saying it doesn’t bother her that the glasses are broken, what bothers her is her inability to survive in open air.
Surviving against the lure of easy money and immoral intentions Hamid tries his best to get out the hell that he and Salma have been subjected to. However, the rampant corruption and deceit make Hamid succumb to the ills of society. Unable to see his plight, Salma too takes the denounced path only to realise her folly. Nevertheless, Hamid and Salma vow to fight their fate and get determined to live a life of dignity and self-esteem, come what may.
Director Rajinder Singh Bedi has analysed the entire issue in a subtle and pragmatic manner. His presentation of the idea and its execution was way ahead of its time. Dastak hits the right note when the idea of a couple in an identity crisis and their point of view being considered is concerned.
Sanjeev Kumar is perhaps one of the most prolific artistes in Indian cinema. His ability to assimilate the character in him is immense. As Hamid, the hapless husband trying hard to fight back, Sanjeev has fitted like T.
Rehana is an actress of her kind who even with her limited work scope has given mature and restrained performance. At the time when actresses played safe, Rehana went ahead to stun the nation with her bold and serious roles in B R Ishara’s Chetna and Dastak.
The film’s ambience and depth was set right with the poignant music of Madan Mohan. Whether it’s the helpless cry of Maae Ri, or the divine rhythm of Baiyaan na dharo, subtly romantic Tumse kahoon or the ironic Bazaar, the music fitted every mood. The film fetched Sajeev, Rehana and Madan Mohan the coveted National Awards and finds mention in the top literature of Hindi cinema.
Despite all this whenever I say Dastak, pat comes the reply. “Sushmita Sen’s debut film!” Ironical. Indeed.
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Actually i too thought you were referring to teh dreadful sush movie.But I’ve not seen the earlier Dastak, sounds very interesting and you’ve given a very good review. I’ll have to take a peek down the video archives to find this one.
thanks
Awesome. Sanjeev Kumar has always been the real superstar of Indian cinema. I also remember watching a movie decade back, a hindi version of dr jackyl and Mr Hyde and Sanjeen Kumar was awesome. Another awesome performance was in “ram tere kitne naam”, one of the last movies Sanjeev saab did before his untimely death.
“dr jackyl and Mr Hyde” was Chehre pe Chehra
Interesting..never watched..will make sure to catch it this weekend.
Dastak as yous aid reminds of that Sush movie, but to it brings back memories of all the natak that happened between Sush-Vikram-His ex wife and his mother..phewww
illusion … is this the same rajindir singh bedi whose name figures in the urdu fiction quartret of Ismat chughtai - Saddat hassan manto - kishen chander and rajinder singh bedi ???
Seems like an urdu story to me …. must be the same guy… I’ve been looking for bedi and kishen chander’s story books desperately… I’ve manto and chughtai with me … and they are amazing !!
Brilliant review … gotta go and watch dastak …
Bedi also wrote the immensely watchable Ek chaadar maili si (Rishi kapoor, Hema mailini as bhabhi -devar who are forced to marry each other after hema’s husband passess away) …. Saw it quite some time back
Please review that too
I think the versatility of an actor is known by the different kind of role he or she does…and when you talk about 60-70-80’s of Indian Cinema the one thing actors were most afraid of were to do something different from the herd/stereotype….I mean how many actors did you find in 60-70-80’s who changed there look…leave this aside I have never seen Shashi kapoor,Dharmendra,Amitabh,Rajesh Khanna,Jeetendra,Vinod Khanna etc. with different hairstyles…none of them ever kept a real beard (so afraid were they of any change)…not to ignore the fact that they worked in 25-30 movies in one go…
But there were few among the herd which refused to follow the rules of the era…and among them were Sanjeev Kumar and Ashok Kumar…
These two legends never tried to hide there age/’acting talents’…but infact they aged with grace and grew as actors by playing roles which were infact at par with their caliber and age, sometimes even older to their ages…I mean Sanjeev Kumar was much younger when he played THAKUR…when he played AB’s father in TRISHUL…when he played a husband in AANDHI….he could easily have been the hero of lot of other movies…where he acted as a Character artist……..and trust me those film would have been nothing without his solid performance…..
Same I feel for Ashok Kumar..those roles in Guddi,Aashirwaad,Khoobsoorat etc…….would have been nothing without him.
Actually I need to write a full article to discuss the work of two legends who were much much ahead of their time.
Hats of to them.
i think, Shashi Kapoor was one of them as well.
i meant to say, Shashi Kapoor may not have changed his get up that often, but he has tasted working in English movies and Hindi movies. Also he can pull of an arty movies as much as a masala films.
shitij … ashok kumar is a wonderful actor …. pls pls pls .. a post on him….
P.S Do mention his villanious trysts as well ala Jewel thief
i’m putting this on my queue right away! a pity simple stories with amazing treatments don’t come along more often these days…
Sangeeta, That’s why had mentioned the year of release along with the hedline…The Sush movie was actually dreadful.
Jwalant, I did watch chehre e chehra as a kid and was horrified.
Sudha, Do watch the film. Amazing storyline and execution.
Kartik, Yes Ek Chaadar was a beautiful film. Interestingly, he was associated with Hrishi da for a long time.
Shitij, Dada Moni is par exellence. My personal fav is Ashirwaad.
HG, Shashi Kapoor has never got his due. Watch him in Basera and Kalyug, an outstanding actor.
Striker, A lot of such films go unnoticed. Do watch Chetna as well.
- Illuzon, watch Shashi Kapoor in New Delhi Times for which he won the National…
Yeah, The Bible of “The Fourth Estate”.
Kartik: yes RS Bedi is same author popular for short stories and novels in Urdu along with Manto and Krishn Chandar. Bedi had written “Devdas” for Bimal Roy, adopted from novel Sharat Chandra’’s novel.
Illuzon,
Shashi Kapoor’s contribution to Hindi cinema is not properly assesed and he is not less than Raj Kapoor,his elder brother, in terms of over all contribution. It was Shashi who gave Shyam Benegal, chance to make Kalyug and Junoon and he gave chance to Govind Nihalani to make Vijeta. He gave chance to Girish Karnard to become Director of a Hindi Film by producing ” Utsava” for him. His contribution to Prithvi theater in Bombay is valuable. His association with Ismail Merchant is praise worthy and his performances in hindi films have been underrated. He is a nice and watchable actor.
Its also not true that Dharmendra, AB and Vinod Khanna did not change their get up according to the roles. When they played a character role then they changed the get up according to the role. And same is the case with Sanjeev Kumar, he changed his get up when either he was playing an old man role(ala Aandhi) or playing character roles. He also did not change his get up if he was playing usual hero of commercial film.e.g. anamika, manchali, devi, sita aur gita etc. Fortunately he did not get huge success as usual commercial hero and gave us amazing performances as character actor.
just finished watching dastak.. thanks illuzon for bringing this flick to my attention
thoroughly enjoyed it.. i’ve only seen a handful of sanjeev kumar’s films, so i’m really glad i was able to watch this one. what a performance from both him and rehana sultan! i was pleasantly surprised to see how much of a “today’s woman” the typist at sanjeev kumar’s office was! she didn’t look like a woman of the 70s at all… just another way rajinder singh bedi showed that this movie was well ahead of its time. i’ve added chehre pe chehra to my list (jekyll and hyde being one of my most favorite books ever) and hope to watch chetna soon after.
striker, good that you loved the film..it one of my all-time faves…the typist in dastak who you’re referrin to is anju mahendroo if am not wrong. true, the film was way ahead of its time
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