WHETHER it is multiple Hollywood remakes, including one headlined by Lady Gaga, Bollywood musicals like Aashiqui 2 and many others globally, a lot of movies have been inspired by 1937 classic A Star Is Born.
One of the finest is Hindi film classic Abhimaan, which was released on July 27 1973 and celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. The great story of a star mentoring a protégé and it leading to problems remains a great moment in Hindi cinema history.
Eastern Eye decided to mark 50 years of Abhimaan, by presenting reasons why it is a fantastic film.
Empowerment: Despite the presence of a strong male character, the story celebrated the woman, and taught audiences to respect women and encourage them to grow. David’s character at the end even addresses the audience as beheno aur bhaiyo, instead of the usual bhaiyo aur beheno. Other women-centric films, namely Mother India, Kahaani, Khoon Bhari Maang, and Pakeezah, etc., largely relied on the absence of heroes. This wasn’t the case with Abhimaan. It also has a strong feminist message.
Mirror: This is the only version of this story where there would be an off screen connection to the lead couple, and that too in an opposite manner. Jaya Bhaduri was a bigger name when she met the relatively unknown Amitabh Bachchan, and the roles reversed when he went on to become Bollywood’s greatest star. For many it is their defining film together.
Acting: The lead stars delivered great performances, but what made this more interesting was that it was Bachchan’s last raw performance before superstardom kicked in and audiences started looking at him through a magnified lens.
Lessons: Abhimaan delivers many life lessons that remain relevant 50 years after it was released, including the perils of jealousy and ego, and the importance of humility. In one particularly poignant moment Bachchan’s character is told some home truths by Asrani, which really hit home. It is also seen as a movie that teaches working couples an important lesson.
Artistic: Most movies inspired by A Star Is Born are glitzy entertainers, but what director Hrishikesh Mukherjee brilliantly did was find the hallowed middle ground between the commercial and artistic with this film. It gave the movie added depth and realism.
Scenes from the movie
Journey: Instead of the established star committing suicide like in the other films, the lead protagonist goes on a complete journey. In the opening he is seen as a confident celebrity on stage, dressed in western attire. The final scene is also on stage, but by now he has found humility, while his ego is shattered. He is apologetic and appears in traditional Indian clothes.
Songs: One of the last great soundtracks composed by legendary music director SD Burman has timeless songs, which found power in simplicity and remain wonderful 50 years later. With lovely lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, the songs were a connecting point between the golden era of Hindi cinema and more modern music that came later. In many ways, the songs acted like the narrator of a powerful story. SD Burman would win a Filmfare Best Music Director award.
Music: The songs were entertaining, but Abhimaan also showed how much of a big part music plays in people’s lives, which other adaptations did not really do. The movie also showed the real talents and trained maestros as down to earth individuals, who loved the purity of music ahead of any fame, which is something not seen in other adaptations of A Star Is Born.
Nightingale: Lata Mangeshkar delivered some of the finest songs of her illustrious career in the film. In many ways the character played by Jaya Bhaduri represented her natural talent and simplicity.
Themes: The simple story skilfully tackles multiple themes that include toxic masculinity, ego, fragility of marriage, fleeting nature of fame, love, the relationship of an artist with fame, redemption, and mental health. It is also a cautionary tale of letting your own importance take over.
Reality: Abhimaan didn’t need the heroes and villains that have largely defined Hindi cinema. It has grey shaded characters rooted in reality, who are trapped in societal expectations, which is why it remains relevant and relatable 50 years later.
Simplicity: Whether it was the relatively simple setting, stripped back songs or understated performances, the musical drama showed that less could be more. That was largely due to the effective story, skilled direction, and great performances by the actors.
Flawed hero: When the movie was made, the Bollywood hero was nearly always a shining beacon of goodness, but Abhimaan flipped the script and made him flawed. This made him more relatable to audiences.
Ending: Pretty much all the remakes of A Star Is Born have a tragic ending with the
male protagonist giving into suicide, but in Abhimaan he learns an important lesson without resorting to drastic action and subsequently gives a more powerful message to audiences.
Scenes: Whether it is Bindu greeting the newlyweds with grace and dignity, musical moments, Bachchan’s character getting drunk, the confrontations, conflicts, and moments of remorse, Abhimaan is filled with memorable scenes.
Family friendly: It may have dealt with adult themes, but the movie was family friendly and ultimately connected with audiences of all ages across the decades. That is why it remains a classic today.
Did you know?
- Abhimaan released weeks after Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri had got married.
- It was the first film produced by Amitabh and Jaya under their company Amiya, with their personal secretaries fronting it.
- The film was initially titled Raag Ragini.
- Jaya Bhaduri won a Filmfare Best Actress award for her performance, which she jointly shared with Dimple Kapadia, for her role in Bobby.
- One historical account says the story was inspired by the break-up of Kishore Kumar and his wife Ruma Guha Thakurta. Another claims the story was inspired by the troubled marriage of classical Indian maestros Pandit Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi.
- Popular singer Anuradha Paudwal started her film journey by singing the song Omkaram Bindu Sanyuktam for Abhimaan.
- The film’s song Loote Koi Man Ka Nagar was supposed to be sung by Mukesh. But he refused after hearing the demo version by Manhar Udhas and said he should remain the singer.
- Asrani and Bindu got Best Supporting Actor and Actress nominations at the Filmfare Awards, for roles that were dramatically different to their usual comedian and vamp characters.
- Abhishek Bachchan wanted to remake Abhimaan with director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.
- The song Nadiya Kinaare was shot entirely in a tourist village called Asoga.
The actor’s evolving style from youth to maturity getty images
Aamir Khan embracing vintage looks with classic charmgetty images
Bold and dramatic changes defining Aamir Khan’s careergetty images
From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
Aamir Khan’s blend of classic and contemporary fashiongetty images
Aamir Khan’s dedication to authentic character portrayals getty images
Cinematic milestones reflected in Aamir Khan’s on-screen imagegetty images
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5