Death : An absolute truth that changes everything
Every second of every day we are approaching towards the death. We can ignore anything and everything in the life but we can not ignore this fact that one day death will finish this cycle of our activities and we will have to go from this planet.
Before that event happens death shows us its face many times in our life time through death of people living around us. It does not allow us to become oblivious towards its strong existence in our life. We may try to avoid this realisation but it is knocking our door every moment.
We are in the race of death
There is no certainty in life
But there is no uncertainty in death
One day death has to keep hold on each one of us
And desultory feet of our life will be stopped
A death around us changes our life. A closed person’s severe illness changes the course of our way of thinking and behaving. The fear to lose him/her changes everything around us.
Nobody knows how people feel once they have died. Some part of people die every time someone dear to them is taken away by the stern existence of death. A beloved person was just here and life seemed so beautiful with his/her presence and all of a sudden a blow comes and that person is not here. One extends his/her hands to touch the person but s/he is not there anymore. His/her absence brings one in a pathetic situation for days and nights. Time seems so hard to pass. How life can be spent without beloved ones?
But death prepares everybody by this way only.
These are glimpses of a final show. These are trailers of the final film. Final film is witnessed by only one audience and he is not here anymore to write review or a fine piece of criticism or to give an expert comment on the last show.
What others witness is not even 1% of truth.
Death has been an important part of the drama, printed in a book form or shown through a theatrical presentation or cinema. Death will remain an important part of drama because it is most important part of the life. It is the last chapter of the life. It is the “The End“.
Death does not spare anyone. Most of us know the story of the woman whose young son has just died. She goes to Lord Budha and requests him to make her son alive again as she thinks Budha has powers to do so.
Lord Budha says to her that he will bring back life to her dead son but for this to make happen she needs handful of grains from a home where nobody has ever died.
Woman goes from door to door but she does not find a single house where nobody has ever died.
She can not find such a home on the face of earth.
At last she gets the message.
It used to be a popular psychological game where an imaginary situation was told to people and they were supposed to think what they would do if they knew that they would die in next 2 hours.
This is certain that one would die in 2 hours what would he like to do before that?
This game always started as a joke but deep down it shook everyone whoever played it.
Many used to say that they would say all those things and feelings to all those with whom they never could say and always kept feelings inside the heart only.
Many used to say that they would try to finish all the pending jobs. Many used to opine that they would try to meet all the people they loved.
Some of them replied, and it was seldom that such answer came, that they would not do anything and they would sit in silence. What they could not do in all these past years if that is done by them now, then also lives of all those people, left behind, would not be changed.
When we have to die then we would like to die with a peaceful mind.
Several people have been found with tears in their eyes with this hypothetical question.
Just in two hours time one would die leaving behind mourning beloveds. Elders, children, younger ones, dear ones, not so friendly, everybody will be left behind.
Realisation that death would come one day may keep one in a sane mind also. How true Nazeer Akbarabadi was when he had written such an extraordinary line
Sab Thaat parhha rah jayega jab laad chalega banjara.
Nothing is going along with a dying person. He has to leave everything here on earth only.
Drama keeps its focus on the people left behind because their feelings and losses provide the raw material to take drama ahead.
One death on the screen of cinema can create a powerful atmosphere.
Sachin’s killing in Sholay is made so impressive by the performance of AK Hangal. He steals the show completely from every actor present in that extremely sad scene.
As soon as he says, “Itna sannata kyon hai bhai” audiences are transported into a sad world.
“Jante ho sabse bada dukh kya hota hai, baap ke kandhon par bete ka janaja“.
Sholay is never finished with the killing or prison of Gabbar Singh.
Audeinces have to live with the sadness of Veeru, who has lost his dearest friends Jai. That last scene where Thakur comes to see him off at the railway station and says,” Veeru mein tumhara dukh baant to nahin sakta par samajh jarur sakta hun” and this dialogues sums it all.
Others can never share that sadness which one feels when someone very close dies. We have spiritual preaching to provide us solace in such tough situations but only wearer knows where shoe pinches. Though we have to support each other during these sad and suffering times. This is the civilized duty of each one of us.
And then there are phases in cinema where other characters have to bear the watching of dying of their closed person.
Anand presents this situation so well. A doctor who does not believe in any other medicine than allopathic ones, runs to go to homeopathy doctor and these are the times when if someone suggests that such and such Baba may give Bhabhut to cure the dying person then families can rush to there also leaving behind all the scientific development because science is not yet able to conquer the death.
I meet a highly successful Professor. He is suffering from lukemia. He has to pass through bone marrow transplant to survive but his children are minors. His only brother has refused to donate bone marrow. His close friends are now trying outside of the family.
Perhaps it was wrong what Sunil Dutt had shown in Dard KA Rishta where Smita Patil’s minor son donates bone marrow to Baby Khushbu who is daughter of Sunil Dutt who is ex husband of Smita Patil. Perhaps legally it was not possible but film captured the emotions in right manners and made drama effective.
Amitabh Bachchan has been champion in giving death scenes and for some years it had become popular that film would be super hit if he died in the film.
He himself faced dying situations in real life during the shooting of coolie and hence director Manmohan Desai changed the ending and kept him alive in the end.
I distinctly remember Dev Anand’s Hum Dono.
He goes to join army against the wishes of his mother and she says that she feels that she would not see him again but he ignores her requests and goes away.
He comes back home after the war is finished and he thinks his mother has gone to market and he sleeps on the cot and when he gets up he finds Sadhna there. She has to tell him the bitter truth about the death of his mother.
A remarkably touching scene is there where he is told about the death of his mother. His pain is so big as he has not seen his mother dying and he has been living with the feelings that she is waiting for him at his home. This is a sudden blow to his life. She was here when he had left the home and now she is not there. His home is empty because of the absence of her physical presence. He has become orphan.
Then in Mashal, Dilip Kumar and sick Waheeda Rahman are going on the road when Waheeda Rahman falls on the road. Helpless Dilip Kumar tries to stop people so that he can carry his wife to hospital and nobody helps him and he is torn between two feelings. He has to try to save his wife and on other hand she is calling him because she knows she is going to die any moment. Its matter of few seconds only. What Dilip Kumar would do? He should try to stop somebody so that she could be taken to hospital or he should spend last few moments with her?
Dilip Saab has given an amazing performance in the scene.
Then death becomes so impressive when in Shakti, Rakhi is killed and Amitabh Bachchan is carried there from the jail.
Crying Dilip Kumar is sitting besides the photo of Rakhi and he sees Amitabh and eyes communicate the pain with each other as both of them have been loving Rakhi a lot and she has been the strongest support to both of them and now she is not there. Amitabh goes and sit before DK and keeps his hands on the arms of DK, who is crying hiding his head in his arms. This is the first time an adult AB has touched the hands of his father. Smita Patil is also present there and all the three actors have performed so well without saying anything. Scene is an example of very good performance from DK, AB and Smita Patil.
Dying of Devdas (Dilip Kumar) has become legendary now.
Dying of Dev Anand in Guide becomes an experience to see.
Death of Rajesh Khanna in Safar is also a good cinematic depiction of the death of a charming character.
Audience abhors the idea of Jaya Bhaduri dying in Milli so an intelligent director has avoided this angle and she flies with her husband Amitabh Bachchan for a medical treatment in a foreign country. We don’t know if she is cured but a hope remains there.
There are death like situations also in cinema, like the ending of Sadma.
It’s a painful experience for Kamal Hasan to bear the separation from Sri Devi.
Then there is a special kind of death shown in Aakrosh.
Om Puri kills his own younger sister because he knows that he is not going to be released from prison and his exploiters will rape his sister like they had raped his wife Smita Patil. His father Nana Palsikar has died and he has come to perform the funeral rituals.
Death of closed person, sends so many people on the path of renunciation and everybody has to pass through these experiences in the life and life can not stop functioning because of the fear of death. People will go on dying and new people will be taking birth each second on earth but still death will remain very important factor in the life of human being.
Death will go on enticing the plots in cinema. Great cinema, all over the world, has been made by covering death in one way or other.
Tags: AK Hangal, Amitabh Bachchan, Anand, Baby Khushbu, Coolie, Dard Ka Rishta, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Guide, Hum Dono, Jaya Bhaduri, kamal hasan, Manmohan Desai, mashaal, Mili, Nana Palsikar, Nazeer Akbarabadi, Om Puri, Rajesh Khanna, Rakhi, Sachin, Sadhana, Sadma, Safar, shakti, sholay, Smita Patil, Sri Devi, sunil dutt, Waheeda Rahman
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
If you really want to experience death in its purest and honest form on celluloid then watch films of “Ingmar Bergman”
Cries and Whispers,
Persona,
Face to Face,
The Seventh Seal,
Wild Strawberries,
The Silence,
Through a Glaskey Door,
Winter Light,
Fanny and Alexander
and
Saraband
all the above mentioned films of Ingmar Bergman talks about death as it is without any deviation.
Nice Movie list Krishna
Mozart’s death in “Amadeus” made tears in my eyes.
(And that haunting requiem music in the background)
“If you really want to experience death in its purest and honest form…”
Lol…I say: Try dying, succeed and then come back tell us about the experience.
Jokes apart. That’s a fine list.
Coffin dream sequence from Wild Strawberries and the chess sequence for The Seventh Seal are classics.
Back to jokes. Why does “Itna sannata kyon hai bhai” line now evoke laughter.
RK,
Death of Irfan Khan’s in Namesake was nicely done.
“death will remain very important factor in the life of human being.”
Funny and ironic.
Death : An absolute truth that changes everything…and I thought it puts full-stop to everything!
Waise,
“Maut se kisko rastagiri hai
Aaj woh kal hamaari baari hai”
@Rk
Talking about death,.
It is uncanny,
I’m reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “Raven” right now,.
And I was thinking, Poe’s death, his Life
And why not making film about this great Gothic writer,
nice article RK
thanks for mentioning the Shakti scene…
i had seen the movie few days back only .
the one scene that u described above left a big impact..
the body language , the expressions were perfect in that scene. The way amitabh sits besides DK also conveys a lot in the scene.
In Mili too… i am glad that Hrishikesh Mukherjee gave the audience hope and not a dying Mili.
It would have broken many hearts for sure.
In Star Wars movies;
without death, story couldnt progress
They have death in each one.
apart from films..
Khalid Hoseini’s description of Mariam’s death in the book “A thousand splendid suns” brought me to tears.I was crying like a child. Superlative piece of art
In the film ‘Anand’ there is a dialouge
When a boy dies in the ghetto and a new child is born then
BigB: “Ek mar gaya and doosra Marne ke liye paida huya”
One of my favorite dialouge.Hat’s off to Gulzar
Speaking of Anand, how can one forget these “immortal” lines on “death”
maut tu ek kavita hai.
mujhse ek kavita kaa vaadaa hai milegi mujhko. ..
Doobati nabzon me.n jab dard ko neend aane lage
zard saa chehara liye chaand ufak tak pahunche
din abhi paani me.n ho raat kinaare ke kareeb
na abhi andhera ho na ujaala ho, na raat na din
jism jab khatm ho aur, rooh ko saans aae .
mujhse ek kavita ka vaadaa hai milegi mujhko ..
Gulzar, Amitabh and these Immortal lines.. Waah!
Jus saw Pavan mentioning Gulzar saab and i recalled the two most heart touching and emotional climaxes:
1.climax scene of Mere Apne, so beautifully captured. The two rival groups of hooligans are fighting and we see an old Meena kumari coming from aside with the child and suddenly we hear sound of bullet being fired. it goes straight to Meena Kumari,she freezs and her whole life flashes before her eyes!!
amazing direction an perfect climax i wud say and it feels you with a heavy heart!
genius of Gulzar (writer/director)
2.The climax of Aashirwaad (ashok kumar), jus before the climax we get to listen a philsophical song by cart driver (jeevan se lambe hain) it jus sets the tone for wht’s coming up. Ashok kumar is going to attend marriage of her daughter disguised as a beggar meets his GURU on the way, both attends the marriage cermony , AK blesses the newly wed couple and then he leaves secretly. As soon as he passes a few furlongs, he suddenly falls below a tree and in a flash someone recognizes him as Jogi thakur. the news spreads in the village immediately and everyone rushes to see the once famous JOGI THAKUR. His daughter comes with Sanjeev kumar and AK hands over a diary written by him to the couple.Shows the clas of Hrishikesh Mukherjee!!!
cut to:
a young lad is playing the drum(or wht the instrument was) and slowly AK breathes his last.
To be frank at times i really miss those old golden dayz of Bimald da, Guru dutt, hrishikesh da,Gulzar, Basuda and all those great film-maker.
With the advancment of the techincal aspect of cinema i definetly feel we hv lost the soul somewhere!!
As always, nice article. Most of us would like to skip the fact of death many a times in life. This article prompted to reckon pros & cons of one’s life. thanks for an awesome write up.
Allan Ball’s creation, Six Feet Under-theseries, changed my view to look at death. Also his previous writing project American Beauty tries to search for beauty in DEATH.
Marvellous.
ending of sadma is devastating
.
sab that pada rah jaayega jab laad chalega banjaara
ye line bharat ka hissa ho gayi hai
kaise ek line main poore darshan ko samet diya hai!
kissi ke paas poori nazam ho to post karo yaar
@ Jateen Gandhi – I was was going to mention SFU but thought since its a TV series and not a film it wouldn’t be right here. But you have. Tx.
This serial is superb. Just yesterday I saw what happens to Nate finally and today I see this. Death is actually the life of this serial…
Some of my favorite Death scenes
1) Anand- Most haunting climax of all times.
2) Nayakan- Kamal falling victim to a bullet, fired ironically by his most trusted liuetnant. The irony is even more poignant when you consider that the court has acquited Kamal of all charges.
3) Thevar Magan- Shivaji’s death scene, shot very naturally. He is tired and broken, after his authority is questioned in a village court. He comes home and asks his grand children to play on him. As they are playing, he asks them to sing the song “Pootri Padadi penne”. And slowly he passes away into sleep, brilliantly shot scene.
4) Brooks death scene in Shawshank Redemption. Outside prison, he realizes he can’t adjust to the normal world. He says “I am tired of being afraid all the time. I’ve decided not to stay”. And then climbing on to table, he carves a message “BROOKS WAS HERE”, and hangs himself. One of the most haunting scenes i have seen.
5) Pacino’s death scene in Carlito’s Way.
6) Kamal’s death in Sagara Sangamam. As he listens to Sailaja dancing on stage, he asks his friend Sarat Babu to wheel him away from the auditorium. And he slumps to one side.
this is really good articles it is the reality of life we can not denied this truth god only makes us strong on those days when our someone gone away this world.
@Krishna,
Thats a good list.
We can recall one not so famous film Testament (early 80s) also which covers the life after a city is suddenly exposed to radiation and people are dying every day. A woman has to see her family members dying. She burries her children one by one.
It was a hypothetical situation but a powerful film showing fear of death and how character knows that sooner or later everybody around her is going to die and its not natural death. They have to suffer before dying.
@Shekhar,
Everything in Amadeus is so good. A very good biopic.
@Vinayak,
There are already so many ghosts around and why to call more to tell us their experiences after death:)
“Itna sannata kyun hai bhai” has become a joke because some stupid mind had used it in a video song as a joke and after that people are using it as a joke only. Cant recall properly but was not it video song where Nirmal Pande plays Gabbar Singh type character?
Thats true about Irrfan Khan’s death scene in The Namesake. Rather only in that scene where he calls to Tabu from other city, he shows his acting capabilities as there he acts like any man, an ordinary man talking to his wife while he is feeling sick, else it was difficult to see him as a professor at MIT or whatever University was that. His calling scene was very good and sequence where Tabu gets to know is picturised very well. again she has not witnessed the death so her agonies are quite big and pinch too much. She had talked to him few hours ago and now she gets to know he is no more.
—-
Death < -> Life, funny and ironic contradictory and complementary
@Adhik,
Wo Subah kabhi to ayegi when people will really read the matter and will not make conclusion from the title or will try to see things as they are without imposing self made or thought opinions:)
wo subah kabhi to ayegi.
anyway thanks for comment and thanks for poem also.
@Shekhar(5)
If not in feature film his life can be covered on TV.
Is not there any documentary also?
@Ashwin,
True about Shakti and Milli. Have not read Hoseini’s “A thousand splendid suns”.
Will try sometime.
@Pavan,
and that remains romanticism of Babu Moshai/y in Anand. It was easy to write a poem on death when he did not think much about it but when faced it in real life he forgot this poem. Thats true irony. This poem remained a theoretical exercise for the character. as it happens in real life also:)
@Ajay,
Most appealing thing was showing Chappals of Meena Kumari. There was a dialogue before and in this last scene her chapals are lying exactly in that position.
This is true with advancement and heavy use of technology, sensitive part of cinema is losing fast. Seldom we find a film which touches the heart and most of the directors are happily busy in using different camera angles and using technology to shake audience.
@Zia,
Thanks for comment.
@Jatin,
American Beauty – could not associate it with death particularly as with mental depression.
@Vishrant (14),
Sab Thaat pada— was used in a film called Sankalp, made in 70s. Mukesh has sung the song. Khayaam had given the music. You could try to search and listen the song. Sulakshana Pandit was the heroine there.
Can not recall if film had used same lyrics as written by Nazeer Akbarabadi but filmi song’s lyrics are here. Perhaps they took Mukhda only from the original poem
——————————————————————–
Hindi fonts
सब ठाठपड़ा रह जावेगा जब लाद चलेगा बंजारा
धन तेरे काम न आयेगा जब लाद चलेगा बंजारा
जो पाया है वो बांट के खा कंगाल न कर कंगाल न हो
जो सबका हाल किया तूने à¤à¤• रोज़ वो तेरा हाल न हो
इस हाथ दे दे उस हाथ ले ले हो जावे सà¥à¤–ी ये जग सारा
सब ठाठपड़ा रह …
कà¥à¤¯à¤¾ कोठा-कोठी कà¥à¤¯à¤¾ बंगला ये दà¥à¤¨à¤¿à¤¯à¤¾ रैन-बसेरा है
कà¥à¤¯à¥‚ठà¤à¤—ड़ा तेरे-मेरे का कà¥à¤› तेरा है न मेरा है
सà¥à¤¨ कà¥à¤› à¤à¥€ साथ न जावेगा जब कूच का बाजे नकà¥à¤•à¤¾à¤°à¤¾
सब ठाठपड़ा रह …
इक बनà¥à¤¦à¤¾ मालिक बन बैठा हर बनà¥à¤¦à¥‡ की क़िसà¥à¤®à¤¤ फूटी
था इतना मोह ख़ज़ाने का दो हाथों से दà¥à¤¨à¤¿à¤¯à¤¾ लूटी
थे दोनों हाथ मगर खाली जो उठा सिकनà¥à¤¦à¤° बेचारा
सब ठाठपड़ा रह …
——————————————————–
Roman–
sab Thaath padaa rah jaavegaa jab laad chalegaa banjaaraa
dhan tere kaam na aayegaa jab laad chalegaa banjaaraa
jo paayaa hai vo baant ke khaa ka.ngaal na kar kangaal na ho
jo sabakaa haal kiyaa tuune ek roz vo teraa haal na ho
is haath de de us haath le le ho jaave sukhii ye jag saaraa
sab ThaaTh padaa rah …
kyaa kothaa-kothii kyaa bangalaa ye duniyaa rain-baseraa hai
kyuun jhagadaa tere-mere kaa kuchh teraa hai na meraa hai
sun kuchh bhii saath na jaavegaa jab kuuch kaa baaje nakkaaraa
sab Thaath padaa rah …
ik bandaa maalik ban baithaa har bande kii qismat phuutii
thaa itanaa moh Kazaane kaa do haathon se duniyaa luutii
the donon haath magar khaalii jo uthaa sikandar bechaaraa
sab Thaath padaa rah …
@Ratnakar,
(1) Madhumati also has this special impact. Dilip Kumar has been sent out by Pran under the excuse of an official work and Vajayanti Mala is died because of rape attempt done by Pran. DK comes back and he does not find her. She is missing. Her father has not found her body. DK’s sufferings are unbearable.
(2) In Mr and Mrs Aiyar, Bheeshama Sahni and Surekha Seekri angle. when he is taken out of the bus and she requests to give him specs and medicines and rioters laugh that he is going so far where these all things are not needed.
We hear only sound and next morning we are shown his specs lying at the bank of that small canal. a powerful scene.
(3) Kasturba’s death scene in Gandhi (Richard A.).
(4) Om Puri’s scene in Gandhi where he tells he killed a child.
(4) Rani Mukharjee’s killing impact on Kamal Hasan in Hey Ram
many other
@Seema,
thanks for your comment
RK,
Expressions on Wes Bentley’s character looking straight into eyes of bleeding Kevin Spacey is ‘BEAUTY’.
ArthiV,
All the death scenes in the begining just kick-started each episode.
RK @ 27: The Sankalp song isn’t the same as Nazeer’s except that line. I don’t remember Nazeer’s nazm fully right now but I remember it starts something like “chhod surkh-o-numa kahan phirta hai maara maara, sab thaat pada rah jayega..” I remember these lines somewhere in between
“yeh budhiya lade bael bhare jab poorab pachhim jawe ga
ya sood barha ke lawe ga ya toota ghata pavay ga”
or some such thing. Read it in Class IX
I felt the final scene of Mithya was particularly poignant.
@RK : ya thanks for reminding that chappal scene, what a beauty! i am still in love with Gulzar the director!
@in DCH, i guess the death of Dimple was also directed meticulosly.i felt touched by that!
@and what about Nana’s death scence in Partho Ghosh’s less remembered Gulam-e-mustafa.
@Another climax(..though not a death scene) is in Nana’s film(YUGPURUSH, i loved the concept but was treated badly) when Nana, a mental patient is dischared from the asylum and he comes to join party wid Manisha , jackie and a series of political events and finally Nana succubms to the cunningness, backbiting,temptness of the people around him and is taken back to asylum once more!
@Death of Amrish Purni in Ghatak
@Subrat,
True,
thats why Kaifi Azmi’s name is given as lyricist in the Sankalp. He used the most popular line of Nazeer’s Nazm.
Nazeer’s Nazm should have been composed by different musicians and sung by different singers.
Considering past work of Vinod Sehgal with Jagjit Singh in Mirza Ghalib his voice and singing range and style suits a lot with such a song.
@Aditya,
Yes Mithyy’s end was solid and impressive.
Do you remember “Geeta Maera Naam”? Sunil Dutt slides in to the “Pond of Death” along with his chair himself.
and a villaineous character gets some sympathy.
@Ajay(33),
Out of Nana’s films the ending of Prahaar has been most impressive. That ending was sane and different and quite impressive.
Prakash Jha had made a film Parinati, which was based on the story of Vijayadan Detha and this story has been known to almost all the people.
Where young son of old father and mother goes back to his village without intimating his parents and parents kill him by thinking him as a tourist and they used to do this killing to loot the tourists.
In morning they get to know that they have killed their only son.