Ye Wo Manzil to Nahin (1987) :: Sudhir Mishra’s first and best!
We think that what we do, is like walking on the sand of sea beaches where sea water waves will remove the signs of our feet, but no, existence has damn good memory and everything is registered there. Our past hankers after us and never leaves us free from the ghost. Deep down our psyche registers what we had done in the past and if we try to conceal it from others then it haunts us more and we wriggle to get rid of this ghost of past. This bad memory wakes us from our sleep several times in the life. If we have confederates also in that act then in later life we try not to talk about that event with each other and avoid that event altogether.
Three old friends (Manohar Singh, Habib Tanveer and B.M.Shah), who have been treated as freedom fighters, have come to visit their old school where they used to study during their graduation days, around the time when “Quit India movement” was in highly active state.
Visiting college makes them nostalgic and then comes their common friend, a female friend of theirs and she forces them to think about their past which they don’t wish to recall but they succumb before their consciousness and thus comes Shrikant (Lalit Tiwari) through flash back. Shrikant is active revolutionary freedom fighter and British police pressurises three friends to know whereabouts of Shrikant and they surrender before the pressure of police and when Shrikant comes to meet them at their selected place and police shoots him.
India gets freedom and three remaining friends live their lives and make successful careers. They try to forget what they did with Shri Kant and live their lives.
But past haunts them when they come to visit their old college. Deep down all three of them know that they are cowards and not freedom fighters. They break down when they all accept and reveal the truth before their woman friend. But time has something for them in its store and they see their old college is going through some student agitation.
Son of trustee of college (Naseeruddin Shah) and his gang try to kill student leader (Pankaj Kapoor) and he enters Principal’s office but poor fellow is unable to take any action against powerful son of trustee.
Three old men try to purify their wrong deeds of past and try to help Pankaj Kapoor and his friend Madan Jain. They know they cant save them but they want to do effort as this is the only way to purify their consciousness. What they could not do with their old dear friend Shrikant they try to do with Pankaj Kapoor.
Their efforts to stand against tyranny of powerful mafia trustee and his son and to save Pankaj Kapoor and his friends are the atonement, catharsis which they need.
Film leaves an impact on audience and raises questions about status of our country.
Film has many sensitive moments. One would love to see Pankaj Kapoor and his friends enjoying on the roof of the hostel and singing in chorus,” Aa chalk ke tujhe hum le ke chalein ek aise gagan ke tale, jahan ghum bhee nah on, ansoon bhee na ho bas pyar hee pyar pale”.
Through student politics, director tries to raise several questions about the wrong doings spread in our society and ultimately shows his dissatisfaction on the situations prevailing in the country.
Young Pankaj Kapoor, Madan Jain and Nasseruddin Shah bring out powerful performances. Habib Tanveer’s voice attract a lot and Manohar Singh’s dialogue delivery where he kind of chew his words is a nice thing to watch. B.M.Shah brings a sensitive performance of an old man. Raja Bundela, Sushmita Mukherjee and Rajendra Gupta play their role well.
This is first directorial venture of Sudhir Mishra and it would have been very good if he had got his due place in Hindi films by his first film only. This political drama will give you a satisfaction of watching a nice and sensitive film.
This film leaves us in astonishment that why Sudhir Mishra did not get a proper place in hindi films even after creating this wonderful movie? Was his time of enetry in hindi films not proper? Because this was the time when so called “Art Film’s movement” was losing its lustre and Naseeruddin Shah was in a strong disilusioned phase and had already joined hands with Pankaj Parashar for Jalwa. Amitabh Bachchan’s Toofan, Jadugar, Ganga Jamuna Sarswati etc were falling flat and Mithun Chakravarti was rising high with the success of “Pyar Jhukta Nahin”. Govinda had entered the industry and break dance was the flavour of the season and nice films like ” New Delhi Times” were getting only critical acclaim. And Sudhir Mishra’s film was not belonging to any category either. It was a different film. Except Nasseruddin Shah, other actors were relatively new at that time and not saleable in commercial sense, Habib Tanveer and Manohar Singh were big names in Theatre but not in cinema and their entry in to the films were not advertised properly. Marketing side was totally ignored in such films at that time. Today even a small budget film Iqbal gets more marketing. No advertisement in newspaper, TV etc and when film has no big stars then it could have been a problem.
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
I have not seen the film but it’s extremely refreshing to know that someone is talking aout such rare and lost gems of hindi cinema. Carry on the good work RK. Looking forward for more such reviews.:):):)
CT: Thanks,
this film will give you more satisfaction than Hazaron Khwahishen aisee:).
Fantastic use of flashback trick.
and above this, film will force you to recall all those evenings and nights you spent on the roof of your hostel (if that happened).
Its far better film on student politics than Arjun, Shiva etc.
RK, thnx buddy. I have heard so much about the film and tried to get a copy from all possible places. But so far bad luck only. This is the perfect welcome post for Sudhir mishra. U should add few lines in the end….he is coming soon.
Chaitanya,thats one of the biggest irony. we fail to identify our gems and are too much into cinema of all other possible countries. Same with many regional films. Ghar ki murgi dal barabar……i guess.
RK, u know any place from where i can get a copy of this one.
Phoenixnu: Thats irony that Sudhir Mishra did not get encouragement even after giving his first film as a nice product. Perhaps he was low profiled, introvert and lack of backing etc in Industry can be another reason. film came atleast 4 years before cable TV happened. People could see the film through DD only. In 1987 several things happened, DD telecasted directly relience world cup and showed several beautiful hindi films like this.
You may try at Shemaroo Viedos. Perhaps you get VCD there.
Phoenixnu: perhaps you may buy its VCD from here:
They show 4.99 USD
http://www.webmallindia.com/moviesearch.php?cat=0&na=YEH%20WOH%20MANZIL%20TO%20NAHIN
RK, bahut bahut shukriya.
Phoenixnu: welcome!
if u get it and finally get success in watching it , my soul will be satisfied:)
RK:Thanks buddy once again for a nostalgic trip. However still feel that Hazaron Khwahishen Aisee is Sudhir Mishra’s best.Possibily I’m biased because of Chitrangada Singh :x
Why did she leave acting :((
Bishu:
She is ardhangini of Childhood friend Jyoti Randhawa- the famous and rich golfer. He was classmate and best friend of her elder brother Digvijay Singh a golfer.
Now they all must be playing golf somewhere.
She may again join films later when her family is settled. dont lose heart.:)
Bishu:
Director was more focussed in YWMTN because that was related to over all political and social condition of the country.
Ideological clash was not there. In HKA, political ideology is confused and without any clarity whether Director says
communism is/was better, or emergency was better or wrong ? and lack of strong theme and ideological confusion is
covered by the love angle and though characters are less in number here and strongly etched than his first film
because there theme is spread on vast canvass. But second still shows Director’s own disilusionment with
political ideology. In former he might have been having raw understanding but he had a firm view, whats right and
whats wrong. treatment is different in both the films but first is good in terms of visual story telling.
Bishu, agree with u. RK, i dont agree. But I havent seen YWMTN yet. so may be…BTW, just placed an order for YWMTN. Aapke aur hamara soul…duno hi satisfied ho jayega. Thnx again RK.
@RK: 12 comments in an hour? Aap toh macchar se bhi popular ho gaye!:d:d:d
@Bishu: Yaar chitrangada ka naam kyo le liya? Jaan jalti hai jab bhi uska naam sunta hu! I love her man!
There’s a different story floating in the industry on why Chitrangada quit acting. Cant say it on a public forum.
CT: why u enjoy spreading Dengue?
you wrote
“I love her man”
means Jyoti Randhawa? :o
CT:
whats the secret behind this talented actress’s “quit films movement”?
you may share it secretely.:)
its Sudhir Mishra and his fantastic film which are attracting comments.
@RK, jaane de na…kisi ne aise hi nahi likha tha…aadmi hoon aadmi se pyaar karta hoon…
@Smriti, get Sudhir Mishra to talk abour Chitangda also…separate post. I guess, our demands will go on n on n on….I also love her!!!
CT and Phoenixnu: please guys leave a married actress with her husband and pls dont exchange word liking with Love:)
She was seen as alterego of Late Smita Patil but she left so soon. Hope she comes back Ala Madhuri Dixit after her children(would be) are grown up.:d
@RK and Phoenix : Iss pyaar ko main kya naam du? There is no ‘Tooti kamariya ,chadha pahadiya’(Brokeback mountain) happening her. My love is only and only for Chitrangada….
nice review, RK. i checked in my library, they haven’t heard of this film. any idea where we can watch it?
RK,
Thanks a lot for reminding me the name of the movie..I’ve seen it ages ago on Setmax or Sony but forgot the name. I often tell my friends about this movie… some great performances.
Raja Bundela played Naseer’s son I guess….
If I remember correctly, please confirm, movie has “Hazaron khwahishein Aisi” ghazal, which is played 2 or 3 times. seems it is mishra’s favourite.
I kinda liked Manohar singh, though.
@RK…its liking n love…n everything possible in between…ha ha ha. Married actress ?? who cares. KANK is “cool” these days bro though its shitty!! what say CT ?
CT:
“ek ehsaas hai yeh rooh se mehsoos karo
Pratty: yes you are right.
Ghalib Ghazal ws there and from there Sudhir Mishra took name of his last feature film.
Manohar Singh was very good, though he did very few films but New Delhi Times, YWMTN, and 1942 – A love story will always remind his calibre as an actor and on top of it, he sits as Village chief in TV serial Raag Darbari. That was performance of a decade.:)
@RK: Waah waah! Waah Waah!
@Phoenix: DOnt know about KANK being cool, but Kareena gave a statement today that K3G is a cult film! Now that I am sure of!
@CT…lets form a “culty” film club — founder member is of course Sanjay “culty” Gadhvi with his cult Dhoom 2. Now, Kareena is the new member. Poor Kareena….how much is she licking Karan n Shahrukh just for one mistake…refusing Kal Ho Na Ho. About her one item number in Don, she said it thousand times that she is so excited to share the screen with Shah Rukh. Aur ab kitta bhai!!!
CT and Phoenixnu:
Pooooohja was a “cult” indeed but it goes back to “Shaikala” and “Manorama” the charater artists of yeter years. Later Archana Pooran Singh opted this culty thing and Karan gave same womanerisms to Kareena:)
But she is daring, who can play that role? one can be fainted to read the role on paper. That was a brave attempt by Kareena
@RK: There is nothing brave in playing pooja or whatever.. It’ been proved time and again that if the Johars or the Chopras want their actresses to do something, they will do it..
@Phoenix: I am all for the club..
CT:
no heroine material did that before. only side actresses did that. Yes it can be a fact that it was Johar production so Kareena did it. role was awaful and yet she did it. its brave attempt. She might be knowing somewhere that only Karan will support her in the end because he kept the role in film else everybody in world ridiculed that particular role and the way it ws picturised. you find it less brave:-?
@RK
Wow… ‘Ye Wo Mazil To Nahin’ remains one of my favorites even years after.. Cant get the film out of me since 1987 when I (and most of us) watched it for the first and ofc the last time. Since last 9 years, I am searching for its DVD/VCD (along with Ek Doctor Ki Maut and Raakh) to no avail.. Would love to get any pointers for getting VHS/VCD/DVD version of the film..
@Pratty:
Indeed Sudhir Ji showed his passion for ghalib ghazal “Hazaaron khwahishen aisi ki har khwahish pe dam nikle” as this was the theme song (on three angree old men) of YWMTN.. Sudhir ji extended the display of his passion with his next film title “Hazaaron Khwahishen aisi” and even the next one “Bahut Nikle Mere Armaan”.. What next? “kaafir pe dum nikle”
Btw what happened to Sudhir Ji’s “Nawaab, Nauch Girl and John Company”? is it still on cards?
@Chitrangada Fans
She was the same “Tina Singh” who played lead in gulzar saab’s music album’s “Sunset Point” videos.. She undoubtably has one of the best screen presence in bollywood.. Hope she’ll come back soon
@RK
Manohar singh started his career with Kissa Kursi Ka way back in mid 70s.. unfortunately film could not get a proper release.. otherwise Manohar Singh would have been a more popular name.. some significant films that you missed are Daamul, Party, Diksha and Daddy.. I believe the biggest opportunity for him was Main Azaad Hoon, where despite having a very powerful role, he was restricted to a mere caricature (due to the lackluster work of Tinu Anand… and that hurt the film too..to me the villain of MAH was Tinu Anand)..