Kalyug : Humanization of mythological characters and modernization of events of Mahabharata
Son yells,”Kulta (Slut)”, and runs to hit his mother.
* * * * * *
People read or watch very easily that Kunti goes to Karna and tells him that he is her eldest son and asks for the lives of Pandava brothers.
People read or watch with ease that Karna was born before Kunti was married. People take it easy to read or see that all the five Pandava brothers know it later that Karna was their brother.
Its an easy thing to digest when things are seen from a distance.
[ It has happened in somebodyelse’s life. It’s a tale. Its Ok.]
Now bring it to the life of somebody we see or know and body may start perspiring.
A mind is conditioned since childhood and it thinks and responds within those conditioned boundaries only.
One (male or female) may always be interested in enjoying physical relations with every third or fourth person coming in contact but same person may come under rage equivalent to madness, when counters such actions taken by his/her mother father, sister, brother, son or daughter.
* * * * *
Karan (Shashi Kapoor) has been killed. Sushma Seth comes in the room where whole family is gathered including Amrish Puri.
Whole scene is an amazing piece of cinema.
Sushma Seth says,” I have to talk to you guys”.
She obviously is indicating that she has to talk to her sons.
Supriya Pathak, Reema Lagoo and Amrish Puri easily become ready to go out. Its Rekha who shows resistance. Her gestures and eyes are indicating in very obvious manners that she does not wish to go out.
Sushma Seth declares again in no uncertain words,” Mujhe apne beton se baat karnee hai”.
Amrish Puri, almost forcibly takes Rekha out.
He shuts the door behind them.
Savitri (Sushama Seth) says to her sons,” Karan Mara gaya. Karan bhee mera hee beta tha. Tum sabse bada”.
Crest has fallen on all the three brothers, Dharam Raj (Raj Babbar), Bal Raj (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and Bharat Raj (Anant Nag).
Raj Babbar is stunned but still controlled. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is sad and gives a smile which can be a mixture of showing helplessness and sarcasm.
But this declaration affects Anant Nag the most. He address his mother as “Kulta” (Slut) and runs to hit her.
Raj Babbar holds him.
Only Raj Babbar understands the pain of his mother and goes to console her.
* * * * * *
Only above mentioned single scene is able to shout from the roof top that this bold film has got some amazing merits.
* * * * *
Time to time it hits very hard and may send audience into a journey of introspection or thinking.
Its easy for us to read or see that Karna has been revealed that he is son of Kunti but it can be really hard for someone in real life to bear such fact.
Karan is obviously disturbed to know that by now he has been working against his own brothers and Victor Banerjee’s conspiracy has even killed son of Kulbhushan Kharbanda. He knows his own brother Bharat simply hates him. He is frustrated also because he had to live the life like an orphan.
He goes to AK Hangal, who is living a retired life, and says that should he commit suicide.
AK Hangal, who has raised him since his childhood, is frustrated on hearing this but he has no control on anyone and his frustration is vented out in the helpless anger,”Kaun rokta hai tumhe, karo jo karna hai”.
Little Karan knows at that time that he has to die soon, as a man has been sent to kill him.
Thinking affects the doings and events happen and subsequent outcomes may be shocking and that’s what one feels while or after watching the Kalyug.
Characters and therefore audiences also feel sadness on the rivalry and subsequent losses, which both the families have got but life moves on and people who are left behind have to function and therefore Son (Baby Urmila Martondkar) of Rekha and Raj Babbar, is brought back from the boarding so that he can be trained to take care of the business empire of the family.
* * * * *
Kalyug is said as inspired by Mahabharata. Its inspired by Mahabharata but its superimposed in the era of Kalyug.
To some extent Kalyug is somewhat an iconoclastic take on the story of Mahabharata and its doubtful if Shyam Babu had made this film in 2008 then fanatic Hindu organisations would not have created problems before its release.
If Shyam Babu wanted to make a mythological film on Mahabharata or exactly a modern replica of mahabharat tale then he did not need Girish Karnad and Satyadev Dube. It was for sure that when these two gentlemen were handling the writing department then shocking changes would be made in to the story.
When brilliant authors like Girish Karnad and Pt Satyadev Dube are at helm then one can not even imagine that they would act as a photocopy machine. They would work as researchers and would give us their own take on the Mahabharata’s tale and that too in present contexts otherwise kathawachakas (Storytellers, narrators) are there who recite the mythological tales in very impressive manners.
Kalyug is their trial to understand the Mahabharata phenomenon in modern context. They have done enough brainstorming to create their own Mahabharata representing contemporary scenario.
It is not like this that imitation of the mythological tale is an easy work on stage or in cinema. There also, job of actors is hard as they have to match with the image of mythological characters. They have to become shadow of the great characters, whose certain images are already inscribed in the minds of audiences and every fact of whose lives are known to the audiences and hence job of the actors are first to resemble with those images and then they have to perform at a convincing and attractive level. This is not an easy job.
But writer’s job may be bit easy in such an imitation.
Kalyug is a thorough and deeply analytical work.
Kalyug salutes the genius of the Ved Vyas, who wrote Mahabharata and about whose creation it is said that whatever happens in the world or whatever is possible in the world that all is described or included in the story of Mahabharata or vice versa.
Kalyug puts a seal of authentification on that hypothesis and analyses the characters living the life described in the Mahabharata.
It reveals that every single moment of our lives we are simply imitating some traits given in the book. We are repeating same mistakes which are registered as the mistakes done by its characters in the book. Thousands of years have passed and we have not been able not to repeat those mistakes.
We are filled with jealousy and hatred. We know the bad end but still we are unable to surpass the Mahabharata and we are revolving inside the boundaries decided by the book.
We are unable to break the labyrinth described in the Mahabharata. We appear too weak to do that.
Mahabharata’s characters are mixed and events are also mixed and nothing is taken directly as such.
If it was a direct take then audience might have expected the imitation only and then he would have expected certain kind of performance from the actors because then he would have thought that he knew everything and every character but here writers walked one step ahead of the audience.
Authors duo deconstructed the mythological story to suit their purposes. One has to do efforts to find simple looking similarities between Kalyug’s screen play and story of Mahabharata.
Kalyug is humanization of characters, deified in the mythological epic. Traits of Mahabharat’s mythological characters are adopted and imposed on the characters of the film but hardly any character represents one single character included in the Mahabharata and one character may be an amalgam of many characters.
It’s a take with the understanding or say doubt that if Kauravas were not present in the scenario then five Pandava brothers still might have fought with each other over the questions of Zar, Joru and Zameen as their mothers were different. Here we see five brothers. 3 belongs to one mother Sushma Seth and 2 belongs to Vijaya Mehta. Karan’s character is similar to Mahabharata but here he lives with AK Hangal, a character resembling with Bheeshma, since his childhood and Savitri (resembling with Kunti) knows it since beginning that Karan is her eldest son.
Authors don’t let audience fall for easy conclusions and understanding that this character is this and thus well defined. No it is not about fixed characters. It is more about basic characterization of human being. Here in Kalyug, every character is doing mistakes and they can not be defined in a black and white manner. Here they are doers.
A mythological depiction does not help much as that becomes a story we all know.
Mahabharata type serials don’t help much.
Kalyug helps as characters are taken from within us. We can escape from Mahabharata as we know it is a story happened far away in the past and several thousands years are lying between us and these events but we can’t not escape from Kalyug as it represents people living around us.
Brothers have jealousy with each other and they are fighting with each other. Joint families are facing politics and conspiracy all the times. People are ready to move ahead by keeping their feet on the chest of their relatives and friends.
Kalyug is about human behaviour. Mahabharata is time less because man will behave, and it behaves, in a similar manner whenever such situations occur before him. Human life is controlled by the emotions, feelings and thinking and all three aspects are inter- related. Whenever balance is lost, human being falls in to the destruction.
Film is certainly a winner in capturing human behaviour deeply. Human mind has got entry into darkness also and it’s still the most mysterious thing present in human life. It changes its phases in the blink of eyes.
Kalyug presents behaviour of characters in such a subtle manner that an actor like Om Puri looks loud in few of his early scenes where he is addressing the workers of his factory and his shouting is justified because he is an ambitious person who wishes to become leader of workers union. But in an otherwise subtle film he looks loud but director brings him in to right frame of the film as soon as he enters the meeting room and takes a seat before Anant Nag and responds to AN’s saying,” seedhe mudde kee baat karein”, by saying,”vaqt bachega” and keeps his dark goggles on the table.
Kalyug opts a sophisticated and economic route as far as depiction of human emotions is concerned and normally extreme reactions have been avoided.
A matured audience can not afford to be neutral or inactive after watching the film. He can not manage to keep his mind away from thinking. This film is bound to shake him.
An Oscar like award is nothing before the quality of the film. Oscar will get high standard if its given to such a film.
Kalyug is rich in everything.
Good story and screen play and dialogues, cinematography, performances and direction.
Kalyug has commercial actors like Shashi Kapoor and Rekha but camera does not stick to one character only.
And what superb performances Shyam Benegal has taken out from his actors.
Leave alone known faces like Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Raj Babbar, Anant Nag, Amrish Puri, AK Hangal, Victor Banerjee, Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Supriya Pathak, Sushma Seth but lesser known actors give brilliant performances.
Vijaya Mehta is so impressive in her small role.
The way she says to AK Hangal,”Par Dhanraj to hamesha bachcha hee rahega apke liye” and then her face and act of stealing eyes represent what can not be said in words.
She might have spoken hardly 4 dialogues in the film but her character appears clearly above the surface.
Sunil Shanbag makes an impressive debut.
Ranjit Kapur as an ambitious manager leaves this question why he did not act in many films or any other film?
Scene with all women in white standing together gives an illusion as if we are watching the women in the painting of Amrita Shergil.
Hussain’s horses are there on the walls.
Whole atmosphere is authentic and creates a doubt whether Shaym Benegal , Girish Karnad and Pt Satyadev Dube modelled their project on some real life business houses?
Kalyug is that film where after watching it one feels why the hell he has not been associated with the making of this film. How one can miss the time when it was made? How one can miss a chance to be a part of its writer’s team, which created this magnificent work?
Even witnessing the making process would have been a great learning experience.
* * * * *
An anecdote says that Babu Devki Nandan Khatri, writer of excellent series of books namely, Bhootnath (7 volumes), Chandrakanta and Chandrakanta Santati (6 volumes) etc, was fond of playing cards also. He used to write on loose papers and while Chandrakanta Santati was under printing stage then it happened many times that the printer or proof reader used to came to him saying that so and so pages were missing and Devki Babu used to read previous page and used to write then and there the required pages again while continuing playing the cards with friends.
Those who have gone through the magical plots of Chandrakanta and Chandrakanta Santati will be able to guess about the wonder hidden in this anecdote. Plots and contents of the abovementioned books are not less complicated than a labyrinth and it was above human act shown by Devki Babu to maintain that continuity in the books.
Page number 37 of first volume of Chandrakanta Santati would be having some puzzling question and this puzzle w’d be solved in the page number 67 of the 5th volume.
Reader needs a sharp memory to enjoy those books. One can imagine the genius of the author.
Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug must keep the place in the hindi cinema what Chandrakanta Santati keeps in Hindi literature.
One glance by a particular character in initial scenes will be having some deep meaning and an audience will get to know the meaning of that glance in the later parts of the film. Film is so much layered that one has to be utterly attentive to enjoy completely this film.
To quote an example two scenes can be mentioned.
In first scene, Anant Nag, Rekha and other family members have just returned from a party organised at the home of AK Hangal and Victor Banerjee and there AK Hangal had disclosed to AN that VB and Shashi Kapoor have got a contract because they possess some imported machines as they are able to keep the cost of production low on the basis of these machines.
That was the era of government control on everything.
AN is visibly angry. He asks son of Kulbhushan Kharbanda to connect the phone to Amrish Puri, who is brother of Rekha, Rekha says,” Ruko mein milatee hun”.
She stands up from her place and comes and sits on the same sofa where AN is sitting.
AN sees her curves from the side. She is the wife of his elder brother Raj Babbar. While connecting the phone,
AN says in anger,” Damn, ye karan Singh ko itne ideas aate kahan se hain”.
Rekha says,” Jante ho Bharat Karan mujhse shadi karma chahta tha”.
AN,” Wo akela hee thode line mein raha hoga”.
And the reactions of Rekha, which comes through the expressions in her eyes and on her face, are able to suggest what this wonderful actress could do under the genius direction of a director like Shyam Benegal.
And an alert audience may be stopped at that glance of AN where he sees the curvaceous body of Rekha in a tightly draped saree.
There are some scenes in the film which gives some more clues.
Rekha says once to AN,” Bharat tum ye munche kaat do”.
He laughs and says,”Kyon moonche katne se contract wapis mil jayega”.
But afterwards he keeps a clean shaven face.
Bharat gives value to Rekha’s advice. Rekha relies on Bharat’s capabilities more than her own husband Raj Babbar or brother in law Kulbhushan Khartbanda.
Rekha protests before her brother when he tries to propose his daughters marriage to Bharat.
In the pre-climax scene, Rekha enters into the bedroom of Bharat and his wife Supriya Pathak and she sends SP out of the room and instructs her to close the door behind her.
Rekha goes to the bed where a drunken and devastated Bharat is lying. She sits besides him and lifts his head and keeps in her lap and moves her nailed fingers on his face and says,” Mein tumhara khyal rakhungi”.
Only in this pre-climax scene one is able to combine all the previous clues dealing with the scenes concerning Rekha and Anant Nag to make a conclusion what director is trying to show in the relationship between these two characters.
Rekha has few dialogues only but her character is established as a power motivated and ambitious person who wants to keep control around her. She is a fighter and she can fight with anyone to get her rights or whatever she thinks belongs to her rights. She is not disillusioned from the world like her husband, Raj Babbar, and she has faith in the capabilities of Bharat (Anant Nag). He is sort of hero for her. She thinks that he is a person who has guts to do something.
Rekha, a draupadi like woman, shows attraction towards AN. He also sees her with physical attractiveness. And they both like each other. AN is more like Arjuna and writers have tried to understand in present circumstances, when legally Polyandry can not be possible, how a woman might have kept relationship with two or more brothers. Director and his team of authors try to analyse the whole situation in present circumstances and when and why a person can look outside his/her marriage.
Raj Babbar, husband of Rekha, is somewhat a saintly man. He is a composed and good hearted person and who has more interests in pursuing his hobbies and spiritual growth. He is not interested in following cut throat competition of business. He can run it if its run by following simple tactics and without harming others. He will be failed before cunning businessmen. He is a satisfied man inside. He is not reactive anymore.
But somewhere his wife Rekha is more in to the worldly affairs. She wants to live like a winner. She wants to be in central stage. She is not following similar philosophy which her husband is following in daily life.
In their bedroom they have their separate beds and enough room is there in between their beds.
In one scene, she is angry in the night after knowing that Sushma Seth and Raj Babbar have approved the marriage proposal of Amarish Puri’s daughter Supriya Pathak for Anant Nag.
She says without making any background while combing her hair,” She is still a child”.
Raj Babbar does not understand first what she is saying and later when he realises that she is talking about SP and AN, he says,”But her father might have thought something before making the proposal”.
She is angry on his composed reactions and come to her bed. Raj Babbar switches on the lamp kept between their bed to read the book and she switches off it and lies on her bed. RB also simply lies down on his bed to sleep. He does not protest her impulsive nature.
She makes fun of his horse riding hobby. She still has youthfulness inside her and wants to live life that way only while he has matured and his goals are different.
Though on surface they look like a successful couple to others and even inside their family, Reema Lagoo, says to her husband, Kulbhushan Kharbanda,” Didi aur Bhaisaab ka dekho kitna achcha hai, dono kitaien padhte rehte hain”.
Kulbhushan Kharbanda is also a carefree type of person who is fond of eating good and living a good life. He has a teen ager son but his sexual attraction towards his wife still has fire and they behave like a honeymoon couple.
He also does not keep hatred inside for his cousins, Victor Banerjee and Akash Khurana and even he enjoys drinking with AK at his home.
Rivalry is developed between Anant Nag and Victor Banerjee and VB uses Shashi Kapoor as his captain in this battle. In business he is heavily dependent on SK but he does not take him in to the confidence when he sends a man to kill Anant Nag.
* * * * * *
What is mentioned in Mahabharata, happens all the time everywhere in the world and Kalyug is a trial to prove this hypothesis.
* * * * *
Kalyug is a film on which more than 100 pages can be written in a flow. Its one of the finest films existing in Hindi cinema.
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
Thanks for bringing it so well in our knowledge. I have heard earlier about Kalyug in PFC only, but now i will try to get hold of it ASAP.
RK BHAI
WELCOME BACK
YEH ITNA LABA SANYAS KYUN RAha PFC se…………..
BY the waya as always a nicely written article with lot of deep insights
Please keep writing and I would request if we can meet sometime ,please drop a mail at umeshti@yahoo.co.in
@Pundrick,
You will love the film and you may feel to watch the DVD again and again. Its certainly a multiple watch material.
This is Shashi Kapoor’s finest portrayal, as Modern days Karna, in Hindi cinema followed by New Delhi Times.
Thanks for your comment.
@Umesh,
Thanks for your comment. I was busy in other affairs for around 35-40 days hence a gap in writing.
Will send you a mail.
Wow RK saab..brilliant write-up again on one of my favourite movies..ever…
I am not sure if you have read the article Satish LKasetty had written on the ending of Kalyug on PFC a few days back..
What i liked the most about Kalyug was, their was no Krishna in the movie..i wonder why..this i always wanted to ask Shyam Benegal if i ever meet him…
Maybe in today’s world..you dont need anyone to give you a bhaashan about right or wrong?
“therefore Son (Baby Urmila Martondkar) of Rekha and Shashi Kapoor, is brought back from the boarding so that he can be trained to take care of the business empire of the family.”
The kid is not of Shahsi Kapoor, RK sab..maybe it was a typo..
“To some extent Kalyug is somewhat an iconoclastic take on the story of Mahabharata and its doubtful if Shyam Babu had made this film in 2008 then fanatic Hindu organisations would not have created problems before its release.”
That is some fear i live with..again..if we get Shyam Benegal for an interview someday, we could just talk about Kalyug with him for hours together..
Brilliant write up..
Amazing POST Buddy Keep writing!!
dude, how do u manage to write such extensive posts? gr8 work indeed.
another movie tats close to ‘humanization-of-mythological-characters-and-modernization-of-event’ but of ramayana was hum saath saath hain. sallu bhai gave a restrained performance as bharat. tat was the last of his movie where he actually made an effort to emote/act
@Om,
Thanks for your comment and a correction. It was mixed up in handling two portions at a same time. This was almost at tope and other regarding Shashi Kapoor was in almost bottom.
It should be Son of Rekha and Raj Babbar. Correcting it in post. Thanks.
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If a post on Kalyug was made after 7th November and before 17th December then I was not able to read. Will search and read now. Thanks for mentioning it.
Re: absence of Krishna,- as characters are mixed so in a way Amrish Puri represents some charateristicks of Krishna as he has been shown as advisor (lawyer) of Bharat [Anant Nag (Arjuna) side] but at same time because he marries his sister Rekha (Draupadi alike) to Raj Babbar (Yudhisthir) and daughter to Anant Nag, and from Rekha’s side he could be having shades of Dhrupad also.
Characters are so mixed that we can not make easy conclusions.
and story is not a direct lift. Karan – Karna is a proactive on his own and he suggests a strike in RajBababr’s factories and he takes charge on behalf of Dhanraj- Duryodhana. But he does not wish to be personal with Raj Babbar and brothers inspite of the fact that he used to love Rekha and she is married to him. Before knowing about the secret about his birth, he shows his displeasure to Victor Banerjee when VB ridicules RB and brothers as basttards and tells SK, that they are actually son of Swami Premanand and not his Uncle i.e husband of Sushma Seth. SK says,” but what business has to do with it”.
Philosophy of Right and wrong is present there but dissolved in characters rather than to make it concentrated in one character.
Raj Babbar says to his brothers,” Tum log Karan se itna jalte kyon ho. Rhodes scholar hona koi majak nahin hai.”
He tries to make Anant Nag calm,” Tum har baat pe itna bhadak kyon jate ho, itna gussa achcha nahin hai, business mein dimag ko shant rakhna chahiye”.
Right wrong dose has been taken as per modern times.
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Shyam Babu could be grilled for hours for most of his films and Kalyug will be an interesting topic to discuss with him or authors duo Mr Karnad and Dube Ji.
Even Vanraj Bhatia could be questioned because here he could not bring that magical music which he had done in Films like Manthan, Bhumika and Junoon and Mandi.
His song makes honeymoon trip sequence weak in the film.
Though Govind Nihalani’s camera remains beautiful in that lake scene also.
a good song could have matched with the standard of this brilliant film.
@Observer,
Thanks for your comment. Hope we meet on several such posts
@crazyrals,
Thanks for your comment. Its easy to write about great works as such works bring material automatically into the mind.
Re: HSSH, some 2 years ago, this post was made.
http://passionforcinema.com/suraj-r-barjatya-%E2%80%93-ramayana-connection-1/
I dont know if I will be able to read it, but may be you find some thoughts similar to your own thoughts about Suraj Badjatya and his association with the concept of Ramayana.
Great Article. Expected some words for the “dhanraj” character though.
@psm,
Thanks for your comment.
I did not have much time yesterday while writing the post to make it more longer.
I had option to make multiple posts on various facets of Kalyug, where main characters could be covered separately but I went for present version only. Sometimes things look like personal lust.
and people dont really have time to read things in detailed and that when its related with old films and that too belonging to parallel cinema.
But since you have desired, will try to include something on Dhanraj. Hope it happens in a day or two.
@ RK Saab..you are right..their are shades of Krishna in Amrish Puri, but then again, Amrish Puri character is a bit relegated to the background though, hence i raised that..a character wasnt built in Kalyug, which we could identify and say, ahh.. so and so had Krishna’s charateristics.. eg: Raj Babbar had a lot of characteristics as Yudhister or maybe Nakul/Sahadev.
Where as Amrish Puri saab, yes, was a lawyer/adivsor, but there ends the Krishna characteristics…no way was it mentioned that Amrish Puri saab was highly involved in instigating the Family war…
well, the makers might have had a different vision to from me..but, that is always so healthy..and that is Mahabharatha for everyone..everyone can form their own opinion on it..Period!!
Fir se RK Saab..mazaa aagaya yeh article padh ke.
A very good insight into Kalyug and Mahabhartha. Maniratnam’s dalapathi (Tamil) is also based on Mahaharatha. Compare these two films, and it does not need a genius to see the glaring differences in understanding the human complexities and cinematic medium by these two people. Kalyug has plenty of layers, where as Dalapathi is very superficial.
- Keshav
@ Keshav..dalapathi..indeed had elements of karna/Suyodhan/Kunti in it, and damn i tell you rajni and Mamooty rocked!! Afterall its Mani Ratnam movie..but, calling it superficial??? why? how? plss explain
@keshav – There is cinema and parallel cinema in rest of India.
In thamizh – there is only one track for cinema to travel – the parallel trains also have to take the express route there. Thalapathi is an express train with some bogies of parallel cinema passengers. It would be a futile exercise comparing Shyam Babu’s work with Mani saar’s work and calling Mani’s work as inferior. Even shyam babu wouldnt approve of that. The only chance to compare is if Mani saar stops making films to entertain others and makes films to ‘entertain’ himself as Shyam Babu has been doing. Accepting all the commercial boundaries (self imposed offcourse) Thalapathi was a neat expression of the Mahabaratha angle – maybe a notch better than the Savitri Satyavan inspired Roja.
@Keshav (14),
Thanks for your comment. I have seen only few scenes of Dalpati and an entertaining song in which Rajnikant is dancing under a tree, wearing completely white dress. Rajnikant films are different and Shyam Babu’s film can not be compared with his films. Probably a director would not like to make a layered film with him playing a lead or main character because his mannerisms dont match with such treatment. His expertise area is different and he is a king there.
In Hindi itself in early 80s Boney Kapur had produced Hum Paanch. That was a direct take on Mahabharata and that was in completely commercial category and it can be said that it was floating on surface only as far as depth of a subject is concerned.
@ Jaiganesh,
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if Mani saar stops making films to entertain others and makes films to ‘entertain’ himself as Shyam Babu has been doing.
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Which are the films which Shyam Babu has been making for himself only?
Ankur was released in 1974 and now we are going to see the ending of 2008, so in your opinion which are the films which he has made only for himself in last 34 years and such a self absorbing director is still active and has given a film like Welcome to Sajjanpur in 2008.
This is bit strange understanding.
Hope your explaination can elaborate the matter for souls like me also.
@Om,
When Mahabharata’s tale has been termed as Kalyug, the term which is not respected in Indian tradition as we give respect to words like Satyug, Treta Yug and Dwapar Yug then things have to be shown as per the modern realities. People have fallen below as far as characters of people are concerned, So a Krishna is in background.
Every character is having far serious weaknesses than shown in the characters of Mahabharata.
Here father of Savitri’s sons is Swami Premananda and a tradition like “Niyog” has not been practised rather it has been hinted that Karan is product of rape done by Swami Premananda on Savitri and rest of the three sons are also products of forced physical relationships which Swami had maintained with Savitri because her husband had blind faith in Swami.
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Beauty of Kalyug seems in taking an indirect take.
In Mahabharata its mentioned that while Pandavas are going to Himalaya then Yudhishthra replies in response to Draupadi’s querry that,” Draupadi, though we all five brothers were your husband, but you loved Arjuna more than rest four of us and thus you did not follow Dharma completely”.
In Kalyug, thius saying of Yudhishthra has been made the basis for the relationship between Rekha and Anant Nag. Relationship is not always physical but mental also. She relies more on AN than her own husband. She does not even hide this. When Baby Urmila Martondkar is carried to Boarding school and Rekha and Raj Babbar had sat inthe car and whole family is standing at entrance of the house, She says,” Bharat, tum chaloge” and he simply comes and sits in the car.
When Income Tax officer is carrying under garments of Rekha in his hands and she has a verbal spat with him, she calls Anant Nag for help. Was it a light take in modern times on the event of Draupadi’s cheerharan in the darbar of Duryodhana?
Sushma Seth, after the death of Victor Banerjee, says to Vijaya Mehta,” Chalo Didi, Dev Prayag ke ashram mein chale rehne. Dharam ka man bhee dhandhe se uth gaya hai, beech beech mein milne ata rahega”.
Things have been made light and contemporary and this indirect take is the beauty of Kalyug. It looks a new story and thus its magic does not leave us, the audiences.
We know the story on macro basis but director and his authors play with us on micro level and thus end product is so fascinating.
@ RK saab..very interesting observation..currently need to go to bed..but will reply tomm…after reading this article..i rented the dvd of Kalyug and watched it again..there are a few things which i have different opinion from yours..we will discuss it tomm…nevertheless it will be fun..
@Om (20),
It would be interesting thing to read different thoughts and observations on the film and that too coming out of a fresh watching.
Will wait.
Kalyug was a picture which as rightly remarked in this discussion was highly ‘layered’ which you have to see with a lot of concentration.Yes, I also have wondered about the ending. The character of Bharat especially (Anant nag is my favourite actor)-he is shown lying totally broken & Rekha is shown in a rather bold way walking into his room (after sending his wife out) & consoling him-not as a ‘badi bhabhi’ would, but obviously something more….Thanks for this discussion. Yes, the subtle hint of an attraction between Bharat (AN) & Supriya (Rekha) is so carefully crafted-its hardly evident-perhaps if I’d not read this blog I may not have been clear on the ending of Kalyug.
However such movies would go over the heads of the average movie-going audience!
@devisharade,
Since Kalyug is modern adaptation of Mahabharat in all senses so it seems natural that things had been considered as per the modern sensibilities and definitions. Now in present time, that tale that Arjuna had married Draupadi and Kunti without looking at her had asked her sons to share whatever they have got, can not work, it can work as a mythological tale only.
In present time to establish relationship, other methods are available. Natural phenomenon can take place by breaking the societal norms or by overlooking them. Human being is not always bounded by the generally accepted and conceived things. Right or wrong is the part of analysis done later once an event has been happened.
and then Apad dharma has been existing since time immemorial, where things have been followed not even thought before as time demands such extraordinary decision taking ability and flexibility.
What underrated actor Shashi Kapoor was!!!Three in fact four films come to my mind…Kabhie kabhie,Kalyug,junoon and New Delhi Times.What performances….!!!
As an actor, in addition to Kalyug, Junoon, and NDT, All Merchant Ivory films, Siddhartha, Utsav, Vijeta, Mufafiz will always remain his great contribution to the cinema.