Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)
Director: Abrar Alvi; Writer: Abrar Alvi; Producer: Guru Dutt; Cinematographer: V.K. Murthy; Editor: Y.G. Chawhan; Cast: Meena Kumari, Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman, Nasir Hussain, Sapru, Sajjan, S.N. Bannerjee, Dhumal, Krishna Dhawan, Jawahar Kaul, Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Minoo Mumtaz, Pratima Devi, Ranjit Kumari, Bikram Kapoor
Duration: 02:24:26; Aspect Ratio: 1.290:1; Hue: 131.126; Saturation: 0.037; Lightness: 0.321; Volume: 0.211; Cuts per Minute: 11.500; Words per Minute: 37.547
Summary: After the failure at the box office of
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Guru Dutt had let M. Sadiq direct his
Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) before making this elegiac movie which he credited to his long-term collaborator and scenarist, Alvi. Taken from a classic Bengali novel, the story is set in the 19th C. zamindari milieu of the Choudhury household. It is seen through the eyes of the lower-class but educated Bhoothnath (Dutt) who arrives in colonial Calcutta looking for work (while British troops loot the shops). Through his city relative Bhoothnath finds accomodation in the Choudhury haveli (ancestral mansion) while working at the Mohini Sindoor factory, which allows the narrative to move from the aristocratically indolent world of the zamindars to the more prosaic one of the Brahmo Samaj. The plot has the hero being fascinated by the lady of the house Chhoti Bahu (M. Kumari), whose husband (Rehman) prefers the company of dancing-girls and all-night drinking bouts. The film gradually gives way to a darker mood as the family loses its fortune and descends to ruin while Chhoti Bahu becomes an alcoholic. At times compared to Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar (1958) as a commentary on Bengal’s decaying feudalism, Dutt’s film is a romantic and somewhat nostalgic tale about a bygone era, presenting the past and the future through the contradictory attitudes of two female figures. Meena Kumari’s skilful performance, redolent with sensuality (e.g. the scene where she entices her husband to stay by her side through the song
Na jao saiyan, sung by Geeta Dutt), is counterpointed by Waheeda Rehman’s robust and girlish presence (esp. in the
Bhanwra bada nadaan number sung by Asha Bhosle). The film itself is told entirely in flashback and the long shadows of history invade the images in sequences such as the
Saakiya aaj mujhe neend number (sung by Asha Bhosle) where all the dancers are seen in shadow while the singing courtesan (Minoo Mumtaz) is bathed in light.
censor certificate
sexuality
architecture
haveli
spectre
The film opens with the book
Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam by Bimal Mitra and the visual is superimposed by another visual of the decadent haveli. The placement of the overseer in center of the frame punctuates his centrality in the narrative and at the same time his profession as an overseer/ outsider is a cue to his position within the haveli and its hierarchies.
The overseer is haunted by a female voice beckoning him into the past memories of the haveli. It is interesting to note how both the haveli films
Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulamand
Trikaal negotiate with memory through an interior monologue/ voice-over. While Bhoothnath's voice-over indicates the nostalgic trajectory of 1940s/ 50s which economized the haveli setting for laying out the possibility of a conflict in a narrative, Ruiz Pereira's attempt at finding his own links to the Suarez family history has a serene, reminiscent tone.
In
Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam a female singing voice has been an allure to attract the protagonist into telling her story. Similar examples can be seen in
Lekin (1990) and
Woh Kaun Thi? (1964). While in
Lekin the haveli is site of the occult, the latter is the site of horror-con. In this sequence, climbing the staircase in a mansion serves as a motif for the protagonist to enter into the layers of his past. The lensing accentuates the hazy pathway towards it. In a similar opening sequence in
Trikaal(1985) the narrator/ outsider to the haveli points out the various members of an almost Chekovian family. The characters jut out of their surroundings through a different use of lens by creating a lesser depth of field. Except
Woh Kaun Thi? all the other mentioned films above show haveli as a site of oppression of the female characters - choti bahu in
Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam, the younger women in
Trikaal and Rewa in
Lekin. For more of a sense of claustrophobia in haveli films one can possibly read
Maya Darpan and
Rukmavati ki Haveli.
women
adaptation
Singer: Geeta Dutt
Song: Chale aao chale aao
दिये बुझे बुझे, नैना थके थके
पिया धीरे धीरे, चले आओ
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Song: Meri jaan o meri jaan
मेरी जाँ ओ मेरी जाँ
अच्छा नहीं इतना सितम
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Song: Bhanwara badaa naadan
भँवरा बड़ा नादान हाय
बगियन का मेहमान हाय
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Song: Saqiyaa aaj mujhe neend nahin
साक़िया आज मुझे नींद नहीं आयेगी
नींद नहीं आयेगी
ghost
opression
sexuality
spirit
architecture
gender
Singer: Geeta Dutt
Song: Piya aiso jiya main
पिया ऐसो जिया में समाय गयो रे
कि मैं तन मन की सुध बुध गवाँ बैठी
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Song: Meri baat rahi hai mere man
मेरी बात रही मेरे मन में
कुछ कह न सकी उलझन में
Singer: Geeta Dutt
Song: Na jao saiyan Churaa ke baiyan
न जाओ सैंया छुड़ा के बैंया
क़सम तुम्हारि मैं रो पड़ूँगी, रो पड़ूँगी
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