Utsav(1984):: Eroticism at its best in hindi cinema!
When a genius like Girish Karnad, the playwright, who wrote his most famous play, Tughlaq, at the age of 25 only and won Jnanapith award for writing plays in 1999, joins hands with another genius Shashi Kapoor, a film producer who dares to make different and sensible cinema and tries to carry cinema to new heights, then only a film like Utsav borns. Girish Karnad had made his foray in hindi cinema by directing Godhuli in 1977 and Shashi Kapoor as a producer had already made, Junoon and Kalyug with Shyam Benegal and Vijeta with Govind Nihalani and 36 Chaurangee Lane with Aparna Sen.
Going back in time was not new for Girish Karnad as his plays though dealt with the centuries old subjects or mythological and historical characters and yet they also brought modern sensibilities and social and psychological conflicts before the readers/audience. Girish Karnad?s plays go back to history for their subjects but discuss the facts relevant to present society and that way they transcend the time. Like he did in Tughlaq where he searched the threads behind the transformation of Muhamd Bin Tughlaq, who wished to do some reforms in his kingdom but inability of people to understand him correctly, turns him in to a tyrant ruler. People could relate with his play with the prevailing political scenario of India.
Girish Karnad and Shashi Kapoor brought Sharad Joshi (Late), the famous humour and sarcasm based Hindi author and columnist to write the dialogues of the film.
Story of film, Utsav, is based on Sanskrit play, Mrcchakatika (The Little Clay Cart) of Sudraka. History remains doubtful over the ownership of this play because Bhasa, who had written many plays, is also said to be the author of an uncompleted play, Charudattam and Sudraka?s play is claimed to be based on that play. Many believe that Sudraka and Bhasa both were names of same author and many claim that both these names were other names of Vishungupta Aka Kautilya Aka Chankya, the author of Arthashashtra a famous book dealing with politics and tips regarding how to rule. Vishnugupta was the mentor of Chandra Gupta Maurya, the founder of Maurya Dynasty and the grand father of Empreror Ashoka.
* * * *
Time was there in ancient India when average human life was understood as 100 years and it was divided in to the four equal parts :
(1) Brahamcharya Ashram (Celibate life): till the age of 25, one has to go to Gurukul, a kind of residential educational institutions, to get education and to strictly follow complete celibacy was very important. Education was defined by 64 arts and it was good to learn as many arts as it was possible.
(2) Grihastha Ashram (Married life) : Till the age of 50. Knowledge of Kama Shastra, was one of the 64 arts and Kama Shastra was not only related to physical pleasure but it dealt with psychology related to married life and to know how to live successfully the married life and while pursuing one?s professional career to earn bread and butter. One had to enjoy the life to fullest.
(3) Vamprastha Ashram (Forest dwelling): till the age of 75. At the age of 50, its time to handle over business etc to the grown up children and to follow the path of meditation etc in the forest. Its period of slowly detaching from the worldly affairs and focussing on the search of the self. Spouse may go along.
(4) Sanyas Ashram (Monkhood) : After 75, its time to leave every attachment and companionship and to start journey to get salvation from human life.
Utsav does an experiment in the story and Rishi (Sage) Vatsyayan, the author of KamaSutra plays the role of Narrator here and he is part of the story also.
Rishi Vatsyayan is writing his famous book Kama Sutra and to gather the material for his book he often visits a place where courtesans live.
Palak, is the king and he has become infamous because of his wrong policies and atrocities on the people. Aryak is the revolutionary warrior who wishes to dethrone the Palak and to become the king. King?s brother in law, Samsthanak, likes a courtesan, Vasant Sena and tries to get her at any cost but she does not like him and circumstances land Vasant Sena at the home of a musician Charudatt. Who was rich in older days but his passion for music has made him poor as he does not do any other work and all his money has been spent in pursuing the music. Chaudatt?s wife, Aditi has gone to her father?s home and Vasant Sena and Charu Datt fall in love with each other. Vasant Sena leaves her ornaments with him and later a thief, Sajjal, steals the ornaments from Charu Datt?s home. Sajjal wish to marry a servant of Vasant Sena and he needs gold to give to Vasant Sena?s mother so that he may get Madholika, his lady love.
Sajjal is a thief but he has a philosophy and as Vatsyayan says that stealing is also an art, Sajjal also says to Madholika that he does not steal to become rich but steals only to fulfil his ordinary desires of food and living. Because his Guru Mooldev has instructed him to steal only sufficient amount and not anything out of greed.
Aditi comes back and gets to know about Vasant Sena and out of anger again leaves the home but she gives her only ornament, a necklace, to her Husband?s friend, Maitrey so that he can give it to Vasant Sena in lieu of her lost ornaments. Through Maitrey Vasant Sena gets to know about Aditi?s absence in the home and she visits Charu Datt in the night. Lovers, Charu Datt and Vasant Sena, enjoy each others company. In the morning Vasant Sena becomes astonished to find Aditi in the home but Aditi says to her that she wanted to meet her, that?s why she came back from her father?s home.
Vasant Sena spends one day at home of Charu Datt and Aditi becomes friendly with her. Its day of celebration all over and Charu Datt convinces Vasant Sena that they should meet in a forest outside of the town and he will send a bullock cart for her. On the other hand, Samsthanak also makes a pact with mother of Vasant Sena and he also sends a Bullock cart. Vasant Sena, mistakenly, sits in the bullock cart of Samsthanak and reveals there in the forest that she had come to meet Charu Datt. Samsthanak, out of anger, attacks on her and when she faints and falls down he thinks she has been died and he escapes away and in the way he meets Charu Datt and orders his soldiers to capture Charu Datt and impose allegations that Charu Datt has killed the Vasant Sena. King orders death penalty to Charu Datt and while soldiers try to kill Charu Datt, Vasant Sena reaches there and at the same time, Aryak and his fellow revolutionaries attack the fort and dethrone the Palak and Aryak becomes the king and he pardons all the prisoners. Charu Datt is saved and released but seeing the death with so much closeness he has been united with his family more and when he is overwhelmed with the feelings of company of his family, Vasant Sena realizes that she cant get the love of Charu Datt in the same way as Aditi gets. She becomes disillusioned and goes back to town. There she sees the Samsthanak who is beaten by the people and still he wanders by reciting her name. Seeing his passion towards her she accepts him and his love?.
* * * *
Rishi Vatsyayan is a complete celibate and when a courtesan, Vasant Sena, asks him that if he also feels some attraction or allurement while watching man and woman engaged in love making? He replies that its very important to be detached while doing research and that?s why he is a complete celibate because then only he can understand the psychological depth behind any procedure or a particular posture or a movement by any of the lover or their response to each other’s movements, glances etc.
Vasant Sena, though, daughter of a courtesan, is a virgin and though brother of king wishes to buy her company she prefers love of a poor musician. She is a respectable entity in the society and people respect her.
After falling in love with Vasant Sena and after spending sometime with Vasant Sena, Charu datt learns the art of love making and when he enjoys physical contact with Aditi, she comments out of happiness, what had happened to you today? She complains,? My whole body is aching” but her face is glowing with sheer happiness. She has enjoyed the time a lot.
When Vasant Sena asks Aditi if she feels bitter about her, Aditi replies,”Bad? No. It has been 7 years of our marriage and it has been a routine life and there was no charm in our way of enjoying the married life. But after spending one night with you, my husband …”. She does not complete her sentence out of shyness. Vasant Sena asks her but she cant explain and then something passes from their side and Vasant Sena just jumps out of astonishment and excitement and shouts and Aditi says, something like this.
Both the women, love the same man and they have no jealousy or hate towards each other. They sing
Man kyon Behka re Behka Adhi raat ko
Bela mehka re mehka adhi raat ko.
Vasant Sena loves and embraces the son of Aditi and Charu Datt as if he is her own son and fulfils her motherly feelings.
Charu Datt loves the music and he seems to be happily married. His wife is young, beautiful and wise but when he comes across Vasant Sena he forgets his married status and starts an affair with her. His life comes under danger because of his association with Vasant Sena and somehow he is saved then though he recalls Vasant Sena but passion is lost as now he values his life and truth about his married life more than the love towards Vasant Sena. He worries more about his son. He gets more wisdom.
Samsthanak, is a bit foolish person who does not know how to deal with woman. He does not mind, taking resort of atrocities and using his powers in wrong manner to get the woman he likes. But his liking towards Vasant Sena is not adulterated. Its not fake or simply lust. He loves her and knowing the fact that he is not handsome or good looking and Vasant Sena does not like him, he tries to get her by force. But ultimately his love also wins when Vasant Sena, accepts him as a person in her life, who loves her. Though she does not get the person to whom she loves.
A masseur becomes dejected from the world when he realizes that by merely taking name of a living person Charu Datt, he could be saved from a difficult situation in the life then what can happen if he takes name of the God. He says because Vasant Sena has saved his life from gamblers so she is his mother. He wants peace in forest but does not get it and when he sees Vasant Sena falling near a lake in fainted condition he says,? Perhaps worldly illusion is fetching me towards it. I may not be a good monk but there I know I am a good masseur and my knowledge should be used to save the life of Vasant Sena. There should be some message behind everything happening in the world. He saves Vasant Sena and takes her to the place where Charu Datt has to be killed.
Sajjal, the thief, gets Vasant Sena?s blessings. She gives him Madholika and when they both are going away from the place of Vasant Sena, the political mentor of Aryak, tries to convince the Sajjal that if he helps him in releasing the Aryak, who is captured by King Palak?s soldiers then history will write name of his master Mool Dev in golden words. Sajjal leaves Madholika, his love, and goes to help Aryak, in the political matters. The greed of good name over powers the love and sends it in back space for some time.
* * * *
Shashi Kapoor and Girish Karnad, had not got big budget like Mira Nair might have got for her film KamaSutra – A tale of Love (1986) but they made far better, sensitive and beautiful film and while Mira?s film misses the philosophy behind such subject, Utsav remains true to the philosophy and depicts the ancient era but keeps touch with the subject in a time less manner.
Mira’s film was heavily criticized for showing nudity and Utsav brings more substance on screen without showing any nudity. Beauty is spread all over the film.
Two scenes are able to send audience in mesmerised conditions. In first scene, its hard to breath when Vasant Sena asks CharuDatt to help her in removing her ornaments. It?s a long scene and eroticism is deeply present in every bit of this scene though there is no nudity involved there. Its Girish Karnad?s visual painting which emotes poetry through its elements.
In another scene, Charu Datt takes bath with Vasant Sena. Utsav suggest that its not necessary to go for nudity to bring eroticism on screen and Girish Karnad does it aesthetically.
Rekha epitomises the character of Vasant Sena. She was the best part in Mira Nair?s Kama Sutra also in the role of Rasa Devi and she is best part of Utsav also. She looks stunningly beautiful and with ease she brings Vasant Sena before the audience.
Amjad Khan, in the role of Vatsyayan is amazing. His facial expressions and use of hands movements are worth praising. He brings vitality to the role of a narrator. His pure pronunciation of words is noticeable thing in his performance.
Shekhar Suman plays the Charu Datt and it was his first film. He gets good role but his physical appearances are not good. He looks weak and frail. He tries to act but his lack of experience is visible in some scenes. He could have enjoyed the opportunity in far better ways but he remained satisfied with mediocre performance.
Shashi Kapoor, is quite good in the role of Samsthanak and brings dramatic touches in his performance. His get up is also given theatrical touches and he acts in that league only. He gets close ups only in the climax and enjoys doing theatre before the camera.
Anuradha Patel in the role of Aditi, the wife of Charu Datt gives good performance. She acted twice with Rekha and both the films are very good films. Both the film are witness of her good acting talent. She looks good and performs good in Utsav.
Kunal Kapoor, the son of Shashi Kapoor, plays Aryak here and like his father he hardly gets close ups before the camera and his role also relies on theatrical performance. He is given completely tanned make up and his body movements are the important ingredients here. He looks active, healthy and brings life on screen with his physical movements. His fighting with sword in hand look like part of some dance based drama. Folk art or especially Ratan Thiyam kind of impact on film?
Shankar Nag in the role of Sajjal is good and Neena Gupta in the role of Madholika spread beauty and charm on the screen. Their pair looked made for each other and Vatsyayan also prefers their pair to study more postures after witnessing the healthy bodies of the lovers.
Annu Kapoor in the role of masseur is very convincing and shows his acting skill in this short role while Anupam Kher in a short role of companion of Shashi Kapoor is quite ordinary and does not leave any impact.
Kul Bhushan Kharbanda, in the role of political mentor of Kunal Kapoor, looks mysterious with a cloth on his head. He gets different role here and plays it with skill.
Laxmi Kant Pyare Lal, compose the music and all the four songs are wonderful creations. Though best is sung by Lata and Asha, Man kyon behka re behka. But other songs are also good especially Sanjh Dhale sung by Suresh Wadekar and later by Lata Mangeshkar.
Song picturization is wonderful and song of celebration looks so good and Girish Karnad makes alive the mood of festival on screen. It is a crowd which is present on the screen and yet song picturization is beautiful.
Ashok Mehta’s cinematography keeps high the standard of the film.
Budget limitations are often visible in the sets but still Utsav is able to carry the audience in to a different world and inspite of low budget Girish Karnad makes a beautiful film.
Million thanks to Shashi Kapoor and Girish Karnad for making Utsav. A must watch film and a film to keep in collection.
Utsav is a class of its own!!!!
Tags: amjad khan, annu kapoor, Anuradha Patel, Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Kunal Kapoor, Neena Gupta, Rekha, Shashi Kapoor, Shekhar Suman
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
Good post RK,
I have always liked Shashi Kapoor, and respected his guts to make such films which were not really meant for box office returns. I remember meeting him when I was a kid- he was in Bhopal shooting Muhafiz (”In Custody”- in english) with Ismail Merchant when my dad was helping them providing a folk dance group. At that age I was wondering why shashi kapoor is making such a film. It was early 90’s and you can imagine what kind of films were coming out from the industry.
Cut to few years later, after watching all his ‘artistic’ film in my undergrad film club, I just wanted to go back to the time, shake hands again and thank him for his work.
Anshul: Shashi Kapoor’s selectivity as a producer is amazing. He has made only 6 films till date and except Ajooba, which he directed as well, his rest five films make him an excellent and quality oriented producer. Kalyug, Junoon, 36 Chaurangee Lane, Vijeta and Utsav all represent very different stories and explore life in more deeper manner. Because of him Shyam Benegal could enter in to a different kind of film making. His films with Shashi Kapoor are different than his earlier works like Ankur, Nishant and Bhumika.He gave chance to Aparna Sen to become director in 36 Chaurangi Lane. Connected so many theatre based people with films.
All his five films are heavier than the producers contained in the list of recipients of Dada Saheb Phalke award. His contribution to Hindi cinema is far bigger than many others who alreadey have got this award.
Hope indian govt. gets wisdom to see this man!
The fuck-up was that whenever this film was being shown on any channel, most of my women family members would be around. Had to switch to other channels for dignitiy sake.
Have seen bits of it but was very impressed with it. Some day will watch the whole movie UNINTERUPTED
Eroticism is beautiful and should not be confused with pornography which can be vulgar and crude.
Almost all Hindi movies are vulgar but since they do not explicitly talk of sex, they are mistaken by simple ordinary folk to be made for “family viewing”! I would actually ban them!
Utsav, since it talks of sex very openly, people become uncomfortable watching it with women folk in the family. I would say this is a perfect movie to be seen with everyone in the family. Children, parents, siblings and old folks.
It is a beautifully made movie and as far as I know, the only Hindi movie that talks of sex in such an open and free manner and yet with wonderful humor and sensitivity.
It is an all time favorite of mine.
Muzzy: Dont be afraid. Problem is, Vatsyayan is there in the story and name of Kama Sutra is used few times else film has no nudity. A hype about adul category has been attached with the film else there is no nudity in the film. Utsav is clean film before Qurbani or Satyam Shivam Sundram in terms of visual nudity. Now Ritesh Deshmukh’s sex comedies talk more sexual dialogues. Every third film from bombay fillm industry shows more nudity than Utsav.
Hope you get uniterupted watching of the film soon.:)
RK, just a funny note- do you know the film “Doodh Ka Karz”- where Aruna irani is feeding the baby and the snake with her breast milk.
Utsav is clean.
@Anshul: Feeding the snake with her breast milk? That’s a “Jackass” moment man!
Anshul: Unfortunately I missed this highly imaginative “Debt of Milk”. Name suggests it shd be some film of late 80s.
At that time so many karz films came. Maan ka karz, baap ka karz, iska karz uska karz, na utarne wala karz, karz hee karz etc etc
@RK, the SUPER imaginative “Debt of Milk”/Doodh ka Karz was a product of 1990, starring our very own Jaggu dada (Jackie Shroff) in a lost-and-found-theme-meets-ichhadhari-naag fable. Absolutely brilliant! Directed by Ashok Gaikwad, creator of such priceless gems as Raja ki Ayegi Baraat (1996), Phool aur Angaar (1993), Fauj (1994), Maa Kasam (1999) etc….get the picture?
Amby: I remained deprived of any of the gems you have mentioned. anyway hope, kabhi to number ayega inka.:)
Cant recall ever saw any film directed by Ashotosh Gaikwad.
Is he relative of Anshuman Gaikwad, former indian opner batsman and captain?
RK, you are funny. Thanks for that. You are right about the so many “karz”. I am still paying for that my teenage Karz of 80’s and early 90″s…mey be that was a blessing that i am into films now.
Hey we should have a joke session here at PFC for a change.
Anshul: BTW, how you are associated with films? If I may ask?
Joke pattern is patented by Oz, and think Sirji and Betalal, his imaginary children, have gone on holidays and enjoying spring. Hope they come back soon.
RK, Hope you have got my email.
Sirji and Betalal reminds me of Santa & Banta, born in movie theatre instead of punjab. Anyway they are just funny to imagine.
Anshul : Hi
Sorry, Dont know whats the prob, with email A/C but I did not get your mail. Rather since 13th April have not got any mail. If you sent it after 13, its possible that I did not get it. Its capacity was almost full on friday and I could not clean it that time. Have made space now.
But just now I tried with IMDB, and it shows you as Art Director of Chhal. and a TV serial CID in your credit. Is that you? If yes its nice to know that you have already worked with Hansal and Suparn.
Ur Id, though carries to under construction site.
Sir ji Betalal, reminds me Annu Kapur saying “Sir ji, apne bulaya”
and Sudhir saying in his typical style “Beta lal,zara banduk to utha lao, shikar par chalna hai”.
RK
Yes that is me but Art Direction was untill 2002. After that I did MFA in films…etc…there is lot more during and after that. I will try sending an email again.
poor movie of indian cinema
Yes M Adnan,
Film was poor as Shashi Kapoor did not get much money while making the film, did not get much money from the Box office also and Rich Rajendra Kumar did not Co-Produce the film.