The undying torch of Satyakam
iView Author: Arjun Narayanan (Noida, India)
Email: arju1987 [at] hotmail [dot] com
The undying torch of Satyakam
There are times when a work of art goes unrecognised in the public eye and is less talked of in the same breath with other works of art by the later generations. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Satyakam, perhaps is, one such work. After the success of Anupama, Mukherjee went on to turn the light of truth inwards. The result was Satyakam.
Satyakam begins with Sanjeev Kumar’s voice over, who tells the mythological tale of Satyakamjabala, a boy who inherits his mother’s name instead of his father’s as his lineage is doubtful. The movie shifts to the year 1946. Satyapriya (Dharmendra) along with his friend Naren builds a bright dream of the independent India. Satyapriya, during the course of one of his projects chances upon Ranjini (Sharmila), who is being lusted after by Kunwar Bikram Singh (Manmohan). Ranjini’s mother eloped with her driver and ever since, Ranjini has been forced to lead a harlot-like existence at Bikram Singh’s palace. Satyapriya develops a soft corner for her but doesn’t intend to marry her. One night, Ranjini is raped by Bikram Singh and the next morning, Satyapriya, extends his hand of support in the form of marriage. Satyapriya’s orthodox grandfather (Ashok Kumar), who runs an ashram, is shocked terribly to see his son bring a lowly woman to his household, who has given birth to a child outside marriage.
Thus begins Satyapriya’s battles with the world. Satyapriya moves from one job to another, unable to ‘comprimise’ with the situations there. His war with falsehood makes him pay a heavy cost in every step. So comes a stage when Naren becomes Satya’s boss. Unable to see the plight of Ranjini and bear the compulsive truthfulness of Satya, Naren seeks a transfer. Things come to a crisis when Satyapriya is diaganosed with cancer. Ranjini and her son Kabul’s fate is undecided as Satyapriya passes away. Satya’s grandfather arrives to perform the last rites but is shocked again to hear Kabul protest against the decision of him not being allowed to perform the rites of hsi father. Sharmila reveals to Kabul that he is an illegitimate child and that he is not born from Satyapriya. Dadaji’s wisdom takes a jolt on seeing the effortlessness with which the mother and son are practicing the tradition of truth which he has been proud to uphold. He sees the future of his clan in Kabul and his mother Ranjini, who like Jabala has trained her son to traverse the righteous path. Dadaji christens Kabul Satyakam. As Naren turns to give him his walking stick, he sees Dadaji walking away to his ashram with his new sources of support– Ranjini and Satyakam.
Satyakam has been described by Hrishikesh Mukherjee as his favourite movie among all the gems he has made like Anand, Abhimaan and Golmaal. The same opinion is shared by Dharmendra and Sharmila as well. After the soaring success of Anupama, Hrishikesh Mukherjee went on to repeat the same team for Satyakam as well. However, the music handled by Laxmikant Pyarelal failed to give chartbusters, though the duo gave memorable numbers like Abhi Kya Sunoge.
But the hallmark of this movie is the story by Narayan Sanyal. Satyakam should be viewed in the milieu it is placed in. The Nehruvian idealism was crumbling two decades after independance and decadance had set in and had been acknowledged even by the incumbent forces as absolutely normal. Hence, the protagonist of Satyakam is one of the last specimens of the day to hold on to his beliefs of a better society, backed by better ideals and better human beings. As he passes by, a man remarks “Bada badmash aadmi hai. Rishvat vagera nahi leta” (This man is a fraud. He doesn’t take or give bribe). He sees man as not just a living being but as the biggest representative of God on earth. This conscious effort to keep himself afloat like a lotus separates him from the rest of the society, even his own wife.
When Naren praises Satyapriya before Ranjini saying “Satya toh khara sona hai…” (Satya is like pure Gold), Ranjini shoots back saying “Par pase ke sone ko zevar banane ke liye thoda sa toh khot milana padta hai” (But you need some copper in gold to make it an ornament). This is the tragedy of Satyakam. The character of Satyapriya is a personification of the ideals on which our independence was built. Hence he bubbles with fresh energy when the nation is independent and gradually loses his sheen as the years roll on. As we reach the year 1969, he has become a memory, just to be adored and a matter of past.
Dharmendra excels in what is arguably the greatest performance of his career. He wasted his career in many a cheap action movie mouthing the choicest of expletives. Satyakam shows what he was capable of, if given a chance.
Sharmila’s Ranjini mirrors somewhere the emotions of say a Kasturba Gandhi, who was forced to follow many set of ideals just for the sake of her husband and often expostulated against the ideals being imposed on her. Sharmila carries with élan the role of a fallen woman, who turns to an idealistic world overnight. Her face reflects suppressed dignity in the scenes where she tries to put on a cheerful face in the face of difficulty. She holds herself against the author backed role of Dharmendra.
Sanjeev Kumar shows all signs of an actor on the rise. He plays the sutradhaar, whose voiceover carries the entire movie till the end. Ashok Kumar in a strong cameo, heightens the drama and brings justice to the irony of the climax.
Satyakam shows how far we have come from the ideal and shows a very displeasing image of ours in the mirror of the cinema screen. Perhaps this was why Satyakam was a box office failure. Like a torch bearer of truth in the darkness of the present age, Satyakam will live on as long as the validity of truth will exist.
Tags: Ashok Kumar, dharmendra, hrishikesh mukherjee, Sanjeev Kumar, Satyakam, Sharmila TagoreSatykam Scenes from Google Video
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
sense of dejavu: http://passionforcinema.com/satyakam
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could have been written under a different light. good effort though…
it is a good one….brings back memories of watching it in Doordarshan….nostalgic…
I went through the post crazyrals… it is well written and is very analytical. Thanks for sharing
Thanks biswaprasun!
nice analysis…about one of the finest movies ever made in india.
It is the best movie directed by Hrishekesh Mukharjee.
Perhaps the only best movie in which Dharmendra has acted excellently. Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Taigore are at it’s best.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s music was outstanding. “Abhi Kya Sunoge”, “Do Din Ki Zindagi” sung by Lata Mangeshkar are simply superb. The college youth song “Zindagi Hai Kya” sung by Mukesh, Mahendra Kapoor and Kishore Kumar is also a good song.
For the first and last time lyrist Kaifi Aazmi and music directors Laxmikant-Pyarelal worked to gether.
The movie was remade in Thamizh by the legendary KB as punnagai (starring Gemini ganesan, Jayanthi and Nagesh) who was totally impressed with the sotry and direction. He credted Narayan Sanyal and hrishikesh mukherji in the titles. The movie though failed business wise when it was released, has now found a loyal support upon its reruns on he TV. KB holds the movie close to his heart, even though it is not his original work. Nicely written tribute to a great movie!!
Thanks a lot to Girish, Ajay and Jaiganesh.
I didn’t know that a Tamil version is also there. I have heard that Anand was about to be produced by a Tamil Production House. The terms of the house were not acceptable to Hrishida and he went back to Bombay with the script.
crazy ralz why dont you enlighten us writing it again in DIFFERENT LIGHT…