Rangeele Babu : Premchandian revolutionary character dares to challenge the God
It is said and it has been said all over the world in every country and in every civilization that there is no man who does not face sorrows. There have been philosophers who have been investigating existence of God or his role in the life of any human being.
Raju (Dev Anand) says in the Guide, one of the most wonderful films of the hindi cinema.
“Now this question is not important whether I will live or die. Question is this whether god exists or not. If he does not exist then it does not matter whether I live or die because what is the use of living in this world where there is no purpose behind its moving. And if he exists then I have to see how long he does not listen to his devotees. How he can leave his devotees with such a deep trouble.”
People have been there who call themselves as Nastik (atheist) and say that they don’t believe in the existence of a god. Atheist can still be moral and may be completely harmless to other people and they may be theist to that level where they remain responsible to whatever they do or think. They have their own code of conduct. They are as good as a completely god fearing man who does not do any wrong thing because he is influenced by spiritual morality and life is a medium for him to attain some level of spirituality. They may not believe in the form of a god but they are conscious about the awareness and they listen to the sound of that awareness and their actions are guided by that awareness.
Atheist turns harmful for society and other people when he starts thinking that nothing is controlling this world and he can do anything he likes and if he does not believe in the law of Karma also then he can be seen involved in any kind of heinous crime against humanity.
Then there are people who remain in confusion all the time. They are neither theist nor atheist in real manner. They live life in a fear.
For them only it has been said,
Dukh mein sumiran sab karein such mein kare na koi
Jo sukh mein sumiran karein unhe dukh kahe ko hoye
At times they will be seen, lying in front of God’s statues or will be bending before a formless god and at other times they will be seen doing things which leave along god even human beings will not approve.
There are situations in life when sorrow becomes so dense that even highly devoted and religious person starts abusing God and nature because his limit has come and his mind thinks he can not bear more than that. He tries to abuse because he thinks that perhaps God will listen to him.
People become mad after witnessing extreme sadness because they are unable to bear that happening.
People are seen as completely changed after something sad thing happens to them. Many cruel and violent people are found becoming silent and soft once they face something very harsh done by nature to their life. They start taking shelter in Bhajan Keeratn or prayer kind of activities. Many police people are seen following this kind of life after they are retired.
Then people are there who call them theist but they can do most heinous crimes against humanity under the fanatic religious beliefs. Their own god and devotion to that god are supreme and rest all the people living on earth don’t deserve to live here if they don’t follow their religious beliefs. They can kill any number of people to satisfy their religious bigotry.
Theists can contain any kind of people, genuine as well as perfectly cheaters who pray infront of other people but who don’t leave any chance to cheat other people in every area of life and these cheaters can be said as biggest actors on the earth. No cinema actor can compete with them. And these cheaters can exist in any sect in the world. They may follow any profession from being a priest in a religious place to cinema where people earn from acting.
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Premchand’s Rangeele Babu does not believe in the god or better if it is said that he is not God fearing man. . He enjoys the life. He enjoys the poetry and is a profound devotee of Sh'©r-o-shayri. He lives life king size. He is completely harmless kind of person and always seen in happy mood. He cuts jokes with other people and remain friendly with everyone. But many people don’t like him because they think how a man can look so happy all the time when there is so much sorrow and limitations in the life. How he can live such a care free life when all of us are living our lives with so many limitations.
In these people who dislike Rangeele Babu aka Rasik Lal, there is a character Master ji. He even hates him and he thinks that Rangeele Babu is an arrogant man and he has an attitude of I don’t care and nobody can do anything to me.
Once Rangeele Babu (RB) meets Master Ji at a station and RB starts making a conversation with master ji. Now master ji dislikes him and searching a way to ignore him and RB is complaining in his sweet and friendly manner that Master Ji does not meet him.
Master ji makes an excuse that he remains very busy and does not get time.
RB smiles and recites the Sh'©r.
Tumhe gairon se kab fursat
Hum apne ghum se kab khali
Chalo bas ho chuka milna
Na tum khali na hum khali.
RB allures master ji with his good behaviour and makes him also a friend. Master ji still feels objections in his mind towards the life style of RB but he also enjoys the friendship of RB.
Master ji thinks that RB should not live with luxuries and should not wear such expensive and fashionable clothes because now he is approaching to an old age and it does not suit his age.
Master ji is helping RB in his daughter’s marriage and RB has arranged for a grand wedding and masterji is disliking such an extravagant marriage. Groom’s friends are demanding many things and RB supplies them by maintaining a charming smile on his face. They demand that they should be given 100 costly tickets of a cinema. Master ji becomes angry and he says to RB that this is too much and these people are knowingly trying to demean you and if they are so passionate about cinema then why they don’t wait for one day and they should watch once they go back to their place.
RB laughs and says,” Brother why you are getting angry. These people are your guests and if guests beat us with their shoes even then we should not complain. All these things are shows of life and we go to watch a show to get happiness and if we cry also there by some scenes still we get a joy in doing so. Please go at once and bring 100 tickets and don’t care about few hundred rupees”.
Master ji is very angry and he curses RB that he has got a lot of money and he should waste all his money to earn big name. But to become slave to rude guests is not symbol of good hosting. Host remains a host till he does not cross his limits and if he starts insulting you then he becomes a devil.
3-4 months later Master ji hears that RB’s son in law is died. He had gone to England for civil services and there he died.
Master Ji goes to RB’s house and found RB is lying on bed. Master ji starts crying but RB gets up and embraces him and consoles him and says with a detached and peaceful nature,”Wow Master Ji, you defeated even children. They cry for sweet if somebody takes away. They cry because they know they will get another piece of sweet but you are crying for a thing which can not be obtained again”.
He says further,” Sir, live here like a matured sportsman. Time will beat you but you should not fall down. Keep twisting your moustache. Joy is in remaining as strong even if a killer is going to pull the rope around your neck. If there is a god, I don’t know if he exists, and I listen that he is too kind then how come god can be a cruel? He keeps whom alive and whom he kills, why it should be our business. We are his toys. Let him play. It is his wish whether to play with us or to break us. Why we should interfere in his work? He is not a cruel king who would be happy by torturing us”.
He smiles and says,” If my son puts my house on fire even then I will not be his enemy. After all I have raised him. How can I be his enemy? Similarly how God can be hostile towards us? When this world is the product of his love then how he can play cruel games with this?. If there is no God, I don’t know this also, and there is a force which takes joy in torturing us then Sir, I am not that one who would cry. I could show bravery if my enemy was visible. Now bravery lies in the act that he beats us and we continue to bear his beatings while keeping a smile on the face. Beat to any extent but we will not cry. We will laugh on your every doing”.
After that RB starts reciting sh'©rs to master ji.
Then he said,” Master ji, my daughter also cries and I said to her that why to cry for a person who could not show you devotion and left you alone. If you love him then there is no need to cry. Love is the thing to create joy in the life. Don’t insult god and life and humanity by crying. If you say what I do my heart does not accept it then make it understand”.
Masterji goes to other city on transfer and after a year he gets an invitation letter from RB. He has invited him on the wedding of his son.
Master ji becomes happy and goes to market to buy new clothes and shoes etc. He goes to RB’s city.
When he reaches at RB’s house, he sees that house is decorated very well and Shahnai is being played. He goes inside and finds that people are standing around something. He thinks that there should be exhibition of clothes and ornaments etc. But when he goes ahead he finds that corpse of groom, RB’s son, is lying on the floor and his dead body is decorated with flowers.
Master ji sees RB, who is coming there. He is calm. No tear in the eyes. There is no sign of any kind of tension on his forehead. He is looking impressive in his silky kurta, dhoti and cap. Everybody else is crying. Master ji runs and embrace RB and starts crying.
RB says,” When did you come? I did not know about your arrival. Please wash your face and hands etc and wear the new clothes. We have to go with the marriage procession. We will go with full preparation. Band will play the music. Horses, elephants and cars will be there. Crackers will be fired. Flowers will be thrown on the people. This is the marriage of my eldest son and there should not be any lacking in this. Camping ritual will be done at the bank of Ganga”.
People lifts the corpse and many start crying loudly and RB says,” Why you people are crying? What new has happened? This happens daily. Sometimes we see this happening in this corner and sometimes in that corner. We witness this show daily. You cry daily, sometimes by your own sorrow and sometimes by others sorrow. Who cares for your crying? Who is there to wipe your tears? You cry and he will be going on to do his work. Why you then show your weakness by weeping? Take his blows on your chest and laugh and say that you don’t care for such wounds. Say to him that he should try the most fatal weapon lying in his store. Why he pierces us with these needles and does not listen any argument of ours? Let him turn deaf ears to our sayings. We will not leave our strength. We will celebrate and take marriage procession”.
Master ji thinks that if RB cries then people can try to console him.
But RB’s revolutionary rebel against the doings of nature leaves every body in astonishment. Who can dare to make him understand?
Corpse is kept on a car and car is decorated with roses. Somebody shouts,” Ram naam satya hai (God’s name is the only truth).
RB says to that man with a smile on his face,” You forget man, this is the festival of marriage. For us life is the only truth and rest all is illusion”.
Procession goes on and many people join it. RB rides on his horse and follows the car.
At the bank of Ganga while putting the funeral pyre on fire, RB stops for a moment and hits his chest with a hand.
Humanity motivated the rebellion spirit for a moment but swiftly he collects his usual being and a charming smile starts decorating his lips and face.
Which was the symbol of humanity, his previous act or this control?
Master ji returns to his new place and often goes to meet RB. He finds that RB has transfer some of his daring nature to him also and when now people objects to RB’s behaviour and attitude then he simply smiles on their assumptions.
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Character is solid and has a tremendous dramatic value.
Six actors of Hindi cinema can play this interesting character. Vinod Khanna, Nasseeruddin Shah, OM Puri, Amitabh Bachchan, Pankaj Kapoor and Nana Patekar.
They have suitable personality and raw material and range in their acting skills to enact this amazing character on screen.
Such character should be adapted on screen.
Does not matter its adapted for a feature film or for TV but there should be a cinematic version of this character.
Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Dev Anand, Guide, nana patekar, naseeruddin shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Premchand, Rangeele Babu, vinod khanna
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Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
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D. Santosh
Onir
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Ramu Ramanathan
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Pankaj Advani
Revathy
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Partho Sen-Gupta
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Thanks a lot for such a nice writing.
BTW which novel is it from?
@FultuTimePass,
Not a novel but a short story [Title - Rangeele Babu] of Premchand.