Namkeen – Sweet , Sour and charming – vintage Gulzar
Namkeen - Sweet , Sour and charming – vintage Gulzar
There’s something about Gulzar’s films. The amount of sensitivity that the writer/director shows in his films is perhaps, arguably, unparallelled. And usually the best part of his films are his women characters. They are a far cry from the cardboard pieces, and you almost feel they have entered your living room…. breathing the same air as they are.
A truckwaala named Gerulal(Sanjiv kumar)comes to a remote village in himachal by work and starts staying at Jugni’s(Waheeda rehman’s) house as a tenant. Jugni lives in dilapidated house with three young daughters, all of whom are of marriage age. The eldest is Minki(Sharmila tagore), followed by Mithoo(Shabana azmi), and Chinki(Kiran vairale). Her husband is an alcoholic and wayward, and comes home every few weeks. Jugni’s past was sordid and involved dancing in a ‘nautanki’. Jugni and her daughters labor for a living. Gerulal settles in, and becomes part of this family. But one fine day he has to move over as per the orders of his ’seth’. He leaves and does not return for several months. When he returns, nothing and no one is the same anymore.
Sanjiv kumar literally lives the character of the truck driver (SRK/Aziz Mirza -Chalte Chalte … go watch Namkeen please). It is difficult to believe a Gujju playing the North Indian foul mouthing Punju Gerulal.
But a treat to watch are the women…..
Waheeda rehman looks good as the ‘budhiya jo apney bachchon ki hifazat, cheel ki tarah karti hai’. She is the old hag/matriarch who sells cow dung (yes, you heard that right) to earn bread (but no butter) for the family. She acts like an Alzheimer’s diseased, an octogenarian suffering from short term memory, who was once a nautch girl at a nautanki. The way she warms upto Sanjiv kumar, she protects her daughters from nautanki waalas and she abuses them makes you wonder why she’s been so grossly underused except perhaps by Guru dutt and Vijay ‘Guide’ Anand.
Chinki the youngest one is the real devil. The street smart, getting into fights, rebel, ready with a ‘befitting reply’ sort of a girl. And yet she’s completely obidient…. taking to her elder sisters.
Shabana Azmi plays the mute Mithoo. Her eyes and mannerisms make up for her talking. She charms you with her performance. “Bahut gussa, bahut shaanti, bahut aanso, bahut hansi” – Please take a bow Mr Gulzar for creating such a real life character.
But the best is the dimpled Sharmila Tagore. Those big beautiful poetic eyes of her’s talk… yes they talk.. all about what she is feeling. She does the ‘eldest in the house’ and responsible bread earner of the house as if the role was written for her. Although may be at times her bengali accent and style of taking an effort while talking (similar to hema mailini in innumerable hindi filmy ‘nahiiin’s) is perhaps noticable, nevertheless it does not distract from the setting and the mileu of the film. You can’t help but fall in love with her. Wish every one had a woman like her in their lives…. like the Minki.And wish she didn’t have to be the ’sacrificial lamb’
Perhaps the best expression that u think of the three sisters is the one that sanjiv coins in a scene. “Teenon, motion ki tarah, ek dor sey bandhi hui hain… ek ko kheecho .. toh baaki donon bhi chali aati hain”
The love that Sanjiv and Sharmila have for each other is never stated directly (typical Gulzar), but is understood by them (and us). Yet they don’t do anything about it since they can’t do anything about it, and yes, they know that too !!!!
The music of the film is completely rooted to its environment. The song which arrests your attention immideately is the folk song/tongue twister “Aaan ke chali … baanke chali … “ which Pancham (a must in gulzar’s films) has set to tune, sung by the evergreen Asha bhonsle. Special mention to the flute and the ‘Jhi- Jhi’ in the song when the sisters are grinding the masala. It does remind you of the “Jhin min jhini” from Maqbool and the recent ‘Chanda chamkey’ song from Fanaa.
Another gem is the ‘Raah pey rehte hain’. This song sung by kishore will remind you of ‘Musafir hoon yaaron’ (Parichay), but just that it is a lot better. There is a lot of isolation/pain in the voice/words.
Poetic and nostalgic lyrics like
“Hum jahaan pey rukein, usko shaher kartey hain” ….. convey the ‘monadic’ nature of sanjiv kumar’s profession.
The film’s somewhat sad ending may hit you. The theme of sacrifice is present throughout. The lovers do meet towards the end but it is perhaps a little too late. If only the situation had been better. If only sanjiv kumar had been more ‘heroic’, if only Sharmila and sanjiv could’ve compromised, it would’ve been a happy ending. Alas then that would’ve missed out on the soul of Namkeen. Life is sweet…sour….bitter…and namkeen …
“Jab khushi key din nahin rahtey, toh dukh key din bhi nahin raengey”
Vintage Gulzaar … vintage Pancham … and vintage performances.
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
Kartik
The movie does have a sad ending but then it does not get the melodramatic way. Remember the scene when Sanjeev Kumar is checking his room lights and all two younger sister are watching him. They even bring him a stool or box to climb and have a look.
Too good! Just action speak louder than words!
Punds
Dude.. fantastic post… Namkeen is right up there.. Gulzar saab just rocks!!! I loved is Namkeen a lot.. but, still my personal favourite still is Ijaazat.. for the simple reason to have showed the “live-in” relationship so realistic even back in those days…and then i saw Salaam Namaste.. so, now my love for Ijaazat has become concrete..
Great post dude…and I still can’t believe that ur passion for Cinema is (as u told me) “new”! (U big F liar..! :o )
Yeah…understated narration and stories abt messed-up relations (including ‘Angoor’!) are Gulzar saab’s biggest contribution to an industry living and dying on stereotypes! What a relief his films are, even in this age when we are supposedly ‘post-modern’ (whatever the fuck that means).
Am inspired to write a few analyses myself…will do soon. Till then, keep that ‘new’ love rocking…
Hey Kartik,
Read you for the first time.
A real neat post. True, it’s Gulzar Saab who is capable of bringing out the simplicities and complexities of human emotion in every possible circumstance, especially for women. Be it the irony of the unmarried daughters of Namkeen, the angst of a woman caught between marriage and career in Aandhi, the dignified silence of a married yet alone woman in Khusboo or an entirely different look at the woman wronged in Ijaazat, Gulzar saab has forayed into every lane and by lane of societal status of a woman vis a vis a relationship.
Who has given right to this moron to review a Gulzar film. I am sorry but I am pissed..! He didn’t mention the best song in the movie, one of the best ever written, sung and composed in Hindi films history- “Fir se aiyo badla videshi….” I am used to expcting quality from this website. Thanks.
@Amit..
“Who has given right to this moron to review a Gulzar film”
Can you please elaborate.. and can you please define “BEST”. It is so funny when you criticize the review written by the author and just mention he leaving out one song.. Food for thought huh!!
Ohh yeah and..
We strictly discourage hatred on this site. If you have a point do mention it, do challenge the author, do dedate.. But name-callings… naaah.. buddy you are at the wrong address.. only got the www. right.. the rest of the address is completely wrong.
Having said that i would love to see your opinion on some of the views you are passionate about.
Amit – Thanks for your passion for Gulzar, albeit the acid. Now… Who has given KK right to review Gulzar’s move???
“Freedom of speech” hain bhai, the same freedom of speech that gave you the “right” to call KK “wrong”.
As Sumeet has mentioned, PFC is not a place for spleen venting, so, chill dude – relax, have a cuppa chai, and share your thoughts and stories with us.