Dushman(1971) :: Crime, Punishment and Atonement!
People do murders or somebody is killed in an accident by their irresponsible and careless actions. If Judges find them guilty then they are sent to the jail so that they can get punishment for their wrong doings but a Judge in this film, Dushman, thinks differently. He wants to do some experiments with the blindly followed legal system. He thinks that when somebody is not a hard core criminal and he has done some crime unknowingly then he should be treated bit differently. Judge thinks that jails turn such forced criminals in to hard core criminals because there in jail they meet with true criminals and atmosphere is never helpful in brining any basic change in their mentality. Judge is following line of Mahatma Gandhi that change of heart is a must thing. Judge is doing his personal research in the criminal psychology and when a case comes before him in the court where a truck driver has been alleged of killing a villager in an accident, he gives his verdict that as truck driver’s irresponsible driving has killed a farmer who was the sole bread earner of a big family, so truck driver has to go to that village and will have to earn the bread and butter for the entire family of the deceased farmer. He cant leave the village and police will keep an eye over him.
Truck driver does not believe his ears. He is so reluctant to accept this unusual decision which is unheard and unseen before in the area of law. He cries and appeals to judge to reconsider his decision. He says that he is willing to go to jail but to live with the family of dead farmer will be a hell like torture for him. Hate of family members will kill him.
But Judge does not listen and truck driver is sent to the village.
As he had thought, old parents of the dead farmer hate him. Widow, children and sister of dead man throw hateful behaviour on him. Initially he tries to ignore them. Foof items are thrown before him as if he is a dog. He hates it but he is a helpless man here. He tries to escape from the village but a police constable is always present there to keep a vigil on him and his attempts to run away are failed. Whole family adress him with the adjective “Dushman”. Old parents and widow of the dead farmer prefer not to talk to him. Slowly he accepts his destiny and starts taking interest in the farming. He starts liking the life in this village and particulary because of a girl who carries the Baiscope box. Slowly love flourishes between them. Truck driver now understands completely that he has made a uncompensated loss to the family of dead farmer. He starts liking and loving his children and makes friends with them. Poor children also start liking him. When old parents see his hard work in their field, they also start seeing him in a new manner and when he brings them the income of the crop they almost forgive him. Sister of dead farmer also forgives him after some events. But widow of the dead farmer is not willing to forgive the killer of her husband. Everybody in the family forgives him but she is adamant not to show any flexibility. She does not like any money coming from his earnings. Circumstances take turn and influential people of village try to take advantage of her widowhood and when she scolds them then they try to make target of her unmarried sister in law and abduct her. Widow sees this and somehow enters the godown where they have kept her SIL. When she reaches there, at same time abductors come and she asks her SIL to run away. Men find the widdow there and attack her. Truck driver gets to know about it and he saves her and abductors are caught by the police. Now widow also forgives the truck driver and they start living like a family. But now is the time when period of punishment for the truck driver is about to finish. Policemen come and take him to the city. Everybody in the family and in village is sad and protests his forced leaving from the village. Trck driver too does not want to go back and he protests but police takes him to the city.
A day was there when he had protested Judge’s decision to send him to the family of dead farmer in village and time is now when he falls at the feet of Judge and cries that he wishes to live with the family of the farmer as he has found parents, a sister, a sister in law and two nephews. He pleads that police should not send him away from the family.
Judge is smiling on the success of his humane experiment and he says lovingly that your punishment is over, you are free to live anywhere with anyone.
Thus finishes a story of crime, punishment and atonement.
Rajesh Khanna, a truck driver visits a courtesan, Bindu. He is in a mood of fun and he sings a song for her,
“ Sachchai chhup nahin saktee banawat ke usulon se
Ki khushbu aa nahin saktee kabhi kagaj ke phulon se
……..
Vada tera vada, vade pe tere mara gaya mein banda seedha sada”.
Kishor Kumar sings the song and with this song he changes his voice and style of singing for next few years. A wonderful song. Good lyrics, good singing, good composition and good picturisation. If effect of this song has to be seen then one should watch the film “Imtihan” where Vinod Khanna plays role of a lecturer in a degree college (his first film as a hero). Bindu enters the college and few boys sing this song.
Anyway, after the song and heavy drinking, Rajesh Khanna is reminded that he has to go to other place and he starts quite early in the morning. It is still dark outside and he is under intoxication also. He drives fast as he is under pressure to reach on time. Effect of alcohol on his mind, sleepless night, darkness and foggy atmospheric conditions compel him to lose control over his driving and he kills a farmer by his truck. He tries to escape from the scene but he is caught and brought to the court headed by Judge, Rehman. Rest happens as described above.
Rajesh Khanna is charming and appealing in the role of truck driver. Before accident he is usual Rajesh Khanna, a charming and fun loving guy who winks his eyes in a mesmerising way when sings songs for his ladies. Rajesh Khanna carries very well the transformation in his character. It is very interesting to see his films after Aradhna phase in the early 70s. He has been part of several social dramas and though he was most famous super star in those years, he was part of the stories and stories were not written to suit his personality. Stories were not written to cash his superstardom. The fact that brilliant directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee worked with him repeatedly says a lot about him in those years. He was favourite among directors coming from Bengali background.
Mumtaz in the role of an orphan girl who visits different places with her baiscope, gives good company to Rajesh Khanna. Their on-screen chemistry has been amazing and it is reflected in many films they have done together. Mumtaz plays her role very well. Her dealing with her drunken uncle is an emotional angle in the film and she handles it with good performance.
Meena Kumari plays the widow of the farmer and she is as effective as she remains in most of her films. In the same year 1971, she had appeared as an old widow in Gulzar’s “Mere Apne” but here in “Dushman” she plays a young widow. She exhibits the emotions of her character very well and audience can walk along with her character’s emotions. It looks very real because of her performance especially in the portions where whole family forgives Rajesh Khanna but she still hates him.
Rehman plays the Judge and he is as usual a charming and suave person and plays every easily his character and appears as most befitting actor in his role of an experimenting judge. The charming and soothing smile in the climax of the film, when Rajesh Khanna falls on his feet and cries, fully defines his grip over the character. Wish, such highly capable character artists appear again in film industry.
Nana Palsikar plays the role of father of the dead farmer and he is so genuine with his facial expression that it looks as if his real son has been killed. Nana Palsikar appeared in Govind Nihalani’s Aakrosh(1980) also and he was there in 1950s in films like Do Beegha Zamin, Devdas, Shri 420, Phir Subah Hogi, kanoon etc and it is astonishing to see the consistency in his performances.
Abhi Bhattacharya plays the police Inspector and he has played this role of a sober and honest man many times with authority and he does the same here also.
Asit Sen plays the police constable and his slow but sweet dialogue delivery pulls the audience where he says” kyon tum samajhte the bhag jaoge, mere rehte bhag nahin paoge”. The scene where Rajesh Khanna reveals that there is no “Miss Ghost” in the forest near the village but it is Mumtaz who keeps her money below a tree is quite good and comical. Rajesh Khanna cuts that tree and in the morning when police constable sees him lying on ground and tree is fallen on his body, he thinks Rajesh Khanna is died and when RK wakes up, Asit Sen thinks it is his ghost. He brings few good comical scenes in the film.
Kanhiya Lal, Sajjan, Leela Mishra, Anwar Hussain, K N Singh, Tiwari, Murad, Naaz play their small roles very well. They have been competent character artists. Character artists of today’s generation should watch more Nana Palsikar, Rehman, Kanhaiya Lal, like actors of yester years to see the factor of consistency in their performances over the years.
Johny walker in guest appearance attracts the audience with his acts.
Virendra Sinha, the writer of the film has inserted many twists in the film and he deals with a nice story. Earlier he had written Milan (Sunil Datt and Nutan starrer film dealing with rebirth) and a mystery thriller Anita (Sadhana, Manoj Kumar). In Dushman he works with an ideal thought and successfully inserts the psychological transformation of the characters in his story. Such stories carry audience with their flow and present enough twists, so that time to time they get shocks to be attentive through out the film.
Dulal Guha, directed the film and he got more commercial success with this film than his earlier films like Dhartee kahe Pukar ke (Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra). Dulal Guha can be credited as the director who introduced pair of Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha in Do Anjane in 1976.
Film is adequately supported by cinematographer M.Rajaram and Laxmikan Pyarelal’s catchy music is also a value added factor associated with, “Dushman“.
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
Dushman Chacha! I always used to watch this movie when it was shown on TV. The movie is a
good time pass. I liked the concept – the story; it was quite unique and the movie seemed a bit
genuine even though it had some of the typical Indian cliches. And how the relationship between
him and the family changes was written excellently. Another thing.. at the start they used to give him the food…….
Unfortunately, I do not remember much about it, i mean, most of the scenes that well.
So am not able to comment much.
Asit sen as in that Hawaldar?
H.G: Oh yes, that Hawaldar is Asit Sen. we used to call him Bhola, as he played a character Bhola in one film.:)
I like this movie and songs.but i don’t find songs for hearing.plz.help me