The Multiple Roles of Bhumika
iView Author: Arjun Narayanan (UP, India)
Email: arju1987 [at] hotmail.com
The Multiple Roles of Bhumika
How will it be for an actress to act like an actress? Effortless, one may think. But one gets used to ‘act’ different roles to such an extent that one often forgets to ‘live’ it. Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika is the tale of one such actress, who, in the course of living different roles, forgets to live her life. And by the time she realises it, she has crossed miles in her life, the clock of time being irreversible.
The young Usha is a free spirited, sensitive girl. Her caring self is portrayed in the scene where she runs with her goat to save it from the knife of her mother and refuses to eat when served the same for lunch. Her vocal chords are honed under the strict surveillance of her grandmother, who comes from a family of singers. Usha’s mother Shantabai married a Brahmin and freed herself from the family profession. On the death of her father, a relative Keshav (Amol Palekar) persuades Shantabai to send Usha to the producers to make her a filmwali. The young Usha soon blossoms into her youth to become the acclaimed actress Urvashi (Smita Patil). Urvashi’s growing nearness to Keshav doesn’t go down well with Shantabai as he belongs to a lower caste. But Urvashi is ready to give up all to set up a life with Keshav; even leave her career forever. She even does so, but is pulled back on Keshav’s insistence, who doesn’t want to lose a money minting machine like Urvashi.
Urvashi’s chemistry with her co-star Rajan raises smoke in newspapers, much to the jealousy of Keshav. Sparks fly often in the household. Usha desperately seeks the joys of a house wife, be it in spending time with music, or in being close to her daughter Sushma. Usha is not even informed of her grandmother’s death. Her vexation with her marriage leads her into a series of unfulfilling relationships outside marriage. She keeps a soft corner for Rajan throughout. She falls for the pontificating glib talk of a director Sunil (Nasseruddin Shah). When her husband gets her abort her second baby, declaring it to be conceived outside marriage, she makes love to Sunil in desperation and even attempts suicide. Sunil turns out to be nothing more than a fraudster. She leaves her home and starts staying at a hotel and comes across a tad arrogant businessman Vinayak Kale (Amrish Puri). His irreverence strikes chord in her heart for her is the first one who is untouched by her stardom. Being at the end of tether in seeking some love, she even agrees to be his mistress in his feudal haveli. Usha effortlessly moulds herself into the new life but soon realises that her rights end within the four walls of the haveli. She moves out of the claustrophobic life with the help of Keshav and returns to Bombay, to the same hotel to find her daughter – happily married and pregnant. She contrasts it with her own cluttered life. She receives a call from her old lover Rajan, who entreats her to enter movies, for she is still in demand. But Usha, in being Urvashi, has played far too many roles for a life.
Shyam Benegal put his rural dramas on hold while coming out with this landmark of Indian cinema. This was the movie where the true histrionics of Smita Patil was known, who was till then a news reader in Bombay Doordarshan. Her bravura performance deservingly fetched her a National award. Her expressions and diction in each and every frame was simply out of this world, such that Hansa Wadkar, on whose life the biopic was based, couldn’t have asked for more. She was definitely the beacon light whose screen presence lit the movie, frame after frame. It helped that excellent support was provided by Amol Palekar (in a refreshing role with shades of grey), Nasseruddin Shah, Anant Nag and Dina Pathak. Amol Palekar brought out with ease the selfishness, insecurity, jealousy and pity that come out of Keshav.
Shyam Benegal strikes an entirely different chord here and in a trend setting move, uses colour to indicate time period in a movie that plays back and forth with flashback. The second biggest use is of radio. When Usha runs into Keshav’s room imploring upon him to marry hear, one hears the news of the march of the Red army into China (the year – 1943). When her forced abortion takes place, the radio announces the death of Joseph Stalin (year – 1953). In the dramatic scene where she leaves her home, one hears that Nehru has raised the Kashmir issue at Bandung Conference (1955). Finally, when she escapes from the feudal prison of Vinayak Kale, we come to know that Ayub Khan has staged a coup to wrest power in Pakistan (1958). This is the last indication of a shift in time period.
The movie also captures the growth of Hindi cinema through the growth of Usha into Urvashi, from the studio system of the 1930s to the era of demanding actors of the 50s. Benegal draws a parallel between the characters enacted by Urvashi and her own life to enunciates it further. The movie in which Urvashi is acting – Agnipareeksha- sounds more like a statement on the life of the lead actress of the movie.
Special mention should be made of the songs especially the B&W song Tumhare bin jee na lage ghar mein. The song is vivacious and is used to give us a gist of the character of Usha. The lavni, with which the movie opens, sets the tone of the movie to indicate the story of a woman, who has to perform, no matter what.
Usha is a bundle of contradictions, which makes her so real and relatable. The names Usha and Urvashi also seem to be well thought out by Benegal. Usha, like the morning sun is pure and bright. But Urvashi is a celestial nymph, meant to please all who come her way. Usha seeks love, in whichever form it is. The only man with whom she is impressed is Rajan as she says in the lines “Ek tum hi ho jisne mujhe sirf diya hai…. tumse shaadi karke main tumhe bhi khona nahi chahti” (You are the only one in my life who gave me everything without taking anything in return. I don’t want to lose you by marrying you). Bhumika is a visual treat with avant-garde cinematography by Govind Nihalani. Watch out for the still where she sits before a multi-framed mirror, reflecting on the umpteen roles she is enmeshed in.
The movie ends with a phone call from Rajan which Usha leaves unanswered. A song sung by Urvashi in the movie would perhaps fill in the missing lines:
Yeh tune kaisa dikhaya sapna
Main sab chod kar aayi apna
Khadi hoon rangon ki ek nagar mein
Badal gayi main toh ek nazar mein
Piya tumse milake ankhiyaan
Tumhare bin jee na lage ghar mein……
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
wow. honestly, i hd not exected it to be so well written.. great job Arjun…
Thanks a lot Satyendra! I’m new to PFC and hope to play a long innings here
@ Arjun very well written indeed.hope to see many more interesting posts from you.
Bhumika certainly was a landmark movie for everyone connected with the movie.
Sure Suthumadhavan… there are a lot mor ein th epipeline. Thanks for stopping by..
Nice article. I watched the movie last year when they were showing it in my college. After watching I was in awe how Shyam Babu has come up with a powerful and appealing cinema. The movie also questions the patriarchy attitude of men while focusing on the different roles played by a woman.