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Sujata - FilmFare Award 1959 Reviews

Great Indian Movies - Sujata
May 20, 2006 06:31 AM 4923 Views

Casteism is one of the most brutal social customs in ancient or medieval Indian societies. Casteism defines your right of respect by birth, not karma, character, ability, or talent. If you belong to upper caste, no matter how dumb or cruel you are, you always get better treatment in society. If you belong to lower caste, no matter how talented and humble you are, you always get treated like slave. Many scholars of sociology all over the world often criticized Indian caste systems for its traditional, hereditary social classes defined in hierarchical order that often became a way of oppressing the people from lower social order. Unfortunately even though there were many tries to abolish the caste system or educate people for liberal societies in India for last 3-4 centuries, this snake called casteism still exists in majority sections of modern Indian societies.


Bimal Roy’s Sujata (1959) is poignant yet uplifting story of human conditions at the backdrop of caste prejudice in the oppressive societies. A title character of the movie, Sujata means “Person belongs to Upper Caste”. Ironically even though title character belongs to lowest steps of caste system, her name belongs to highest steps of caste system.


Story


Upendranath Chowdhury (Tarun Bose) and his wife Charu Chowdhury (Sulochna) of Brahmin caste (upper caste) have only one child, a daughter - Rama (Shashikala). But a severe cholera epidemic brings another child belongs to harijan family (lower caste) to their home - a baby girl who had lost both her parents in the epidemic. After initial refusal, they tentatively shelter the orphan as temporary arrangement and give her name of Sujata (Nutan). They tried hard to find a home for the child but couldn’t find any suitable place. So the child, a sweet, lovable, gentle girl called Sujata grows up in this caring and nurturing household with Rama, like two daughters of the same family. But behind the doors as she grew up, even though parents are not troubled by Sujata’s outcast origin, she grew up slightly different than her sister and made painfully aware that she's an outsider.


Once Upendra retires, he returns to his hometown. Giribala (Lalita Pawar), a family friend with conservative views is horrified at the couple harboring an untouchable under the same roof. Giribala hopes to marry her grandson Adhir (Sunil Dutt) with Rama. Meanwhile, Adhir becomes a regular visitor to Upendra's house and falls in love with Sujata. Their joy is however short-lived, Sujata discovers that her foster parents are planning Adhir's marriage with Rama. Sujata denies her relationship with Adhir as a gratitude for her foster parents and joy for her sister even though she unconditionally loves him. On the other hand, Adhir convinced her grandmother that he would either get married to Sujata or leave the family forever. Knowing Adhir’s stubbornness, Giribala informs Chowdhury family that Adhir’s wishes to marry Sujata instead of Rama. At this stage, all hell breaks loose. Charu feels enraged that the marriage of her own daughter denied because of untouchable girl they have been sheltered.


How will Sujata choose between the ones who give her life and the love that is her life? Will Adhir and Sujata be ever married or will they end up being victims of the caste system?


Analysis


Sujata is sensitive story of simple girl with great underlying messages. Sujata’s story is based on the novel from Subodh Ghosh. One of the most powerful parts about Sujata is its subtle and sensitive subject handling. Without Bimalda’s apt handling of subject and Nabendu Ghosh’s screenplay, one innocent untouchable’s story with constant reminder as she belongs to lower caste could have been either too boring or too melodramatic or too pitiful. Bimalda takes first half an hour to convince viewers that how child ends up living with the upper caste family, how upper caste tries their best to get rid of child but somehow they couldn’t, and how lower cast child grows up with their own child and demands same things. Once they grew up, Bimalda shows us vast differences among them even though they brought up together. One wears modern cloths, study in colleges, have many college friends, and live like princess. One wears simple sari, works 24x7 doing homework, and live like pauper.


Bimalda’s subtle touch on many of movie’s melodramatic moments prevents it getting too emotional or tearjerker. One of the most remarkable moments of the movie is parallel sequence involving Sujata in Tum Jiyo Hazaron Saal song. We notice as a viewer that everyone in family including relatives and friends are enjoying Rama’s birthday but for Sujata, it was unbearable. She never celebrated her birthday in her life. She never had privilege to celebrate her birthday. She was always treated as daughter-like instead of real daughter. During Rama’s birthday celebration, she feels suffocated and couldn’t breathe in the house. She walks out of the house into garden. During one moment, we even see her turning off porch light and find solace in the dark. Was that dark moment of Sujata’s life is parable of many dark lives of lower caste people lived in traditional societies for centuries?


Bimalda’s Sujata and Bandini considered as Nutan’s finest performances of her career. Nutan as Sujata is brilliant as untouchable lower caste girl who is adopted by a higher caste family. She delivered all the innocence required for untouchable girl to draw sympathy from audience. She enacted her character with grace and conveyed her inner trauma with the simple glances, stares, and gestures. Sunil Dutt, Shashikala, Tarun Bose, Sulochna, and Lalita Pawar played mere adequate supportive role in this Nutan dominated timeless classic.


S.D. Burman, Bimal Roy's favorite composer, underlines the mesmerizing beauty of this film with evergreen super hits penned by lyrist Majrooh Sultanpuri – Maestro Burmanda’s own haunting melody ''Sun Mere Bandhu Re'', Talat Mahmood’s romantic proposal ''Jalte Hai Jiske Liye'', Asha Bhosle’s classic birthday song ''Tum Jiyo Hazaron Saal'', Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle’s mischievous duet ''Bachpan Ke Din'', and Geeta Dutt's lyrical lullaby 'Nanhi Kali Sone Chali'.


Conclusion


As many of you know, Bimal Roy is my most favorite Indian director to date. Sujata is Bimalda’s one of the finest work along with Parineeta, Do Bigha Zamin, Madhumati, Devdas, Parakh, and Bandini. I haven’t seen many of Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt and Mani Ratnam’s movies but Bimal Roy had worked on some of my most favorite films to date. Sujata is Bimal Roy's one of the most poignantly memorable films. It’s must see for Bimada’s fans out there.


Story is taken from Yashraj DVD.


Chaand kiran si gudiya
Dec 30, 2004 05:08 PM 2389 Views

Long time back, when I was a six year old naughty child, I complained to my mother that I hate my name since it does not sound very pretty. My mother comforted me, saying that Sujata is the best name in the world. Just to make me feel good, she told me that there is a movie called ‘Sujata’.


My instant reaction was that of happiness and joy. I felt privileged and very special. I looked at my friends in disdain and told them they are not as lucky as I am. When I watched this movie, I did not understand the theme properly. All I could comprehend was that there is some problem with the main protagonist (Sujata) which makes people shun her, pity her and even hate her.


I was too small to understand the meaning of ‘caste’.


As I grew up and became aware of my surroundings, things became clear to me. I realized that people had been divided into several castes in ancient times and those redundant customs continue in modern times too. When I was appearing for entrance examinations, I was made aware that I am a ‘General’ candidateand certain seats are ‘reserved’ which I could never have a chance of achieving.


It’s strange that after ‘Sujata’, no movie on the caste problem was ever made, even though our country is suffering due to this social and now political issue.


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Story


This movie is based on a story written by Subodh Ghosh. Sujata (Nutan) is an untouchable girl who has been adopted by a Brahmin family since she loses her parents at an early age. Sujata grows up with the couple’s (Sulochana and Tarun Bose) daughter Rama (Shashikala) who gets very attached to Sujata. Though Sujata is brought up with a lot of affection and care, there is a thin, transparent line between the rights of both the girls. Soon, Rama’s marriage is fixed with an eligible bachelor, Adhir (Sunil Dutt). A dramatic twist occurs when Adhir falls in love with Sujata and insists on marrying her. Though Sujata reciprocates his love, she feels helpless against the stringent societal norms… The lovers go through their share of adversities and opposition till they are united in the end.


Director


Bimal Roy,my favorite director, gave the most sensitive treatment possible to this love story. The humane message gets delivered in the most humble and gracious manner ; without any placards, preaching, battles and violence.


Music


S.D. Burman,the maestro gave the most lilting and soothing notes for this one. Listen to ‘Sun mere bandhu re’by Burmanda himself and you will be able to sense Sujata’s love, almost like devotion for Adhir. Or the feisty ‘Bachpan ke din’which gets you tapping your feet and dancing ; Yet the best is ‘Jalte hain jiske liye’ (Talat mehmood), which is the most tender and gentle proposal to be ever made by a man. ‘Nanhi kali sone chali’is the best lori to be composed so far and I sing it very often to my own daughter. The other notable songs of this movie are ‘Tum jiyo hazaaron saal’( best birthday song so far ) and ‘Kali ghata chhaye’ ( a beautiful love ballad ).


Performances


Nutan was the soul of this movie as ‘Sujata’ and how effortlessly she carried the movie on her tender shoulders ! Of course, Sunil Dutt complemented her performance with his own superb one as the strong and silent Adhir. The rest of the supporting cast was splendid, especially Shashikala who for a change, was not a vamp.


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Ironically, the word ‘Sujata’ means a girl who belongs to a good caste. In my opinion, everybody is Sujata.


But does my opinion count ?


In a country that has been divided and subdivided rigidly into inhuman and cruel categories, does the opinion of one person matter ? And to make matters worse, some greedy politicians are reinforcing this division even in modern times.


In the end I remember my mother’s words who told me that an ideal Indian society will be possible only when some educated and learned people like us will pledge to abolish the caste system forever.


Watch this movie today.


Bombay Meri Jaan! India
Jalte hai jiske liye..............
Dec 11, 2002 05:59 PM 3894 Views

Sujata is yet another classic movie directed by Bimal Roy, with his all time favorite heroine Nutan


The story :


A brahmin family takes a untouchable girl into their house, when her parents die. They look around for a suitable home for this girl but as time passes they become attached to the child. This girl is Sujata [Nutan] whom the couple raises as well as their own daughter Rama [Shashikala]. The parents do not differentiate much about the girls but the mother Charu [Sulochana] is quick to correct anyone who refer's to Sujata as their daughter.


Sujata grows up in an atmosphere of love but is always aware that that she is in some way different from the girl she thinks of as her sister. Both the girls are so different in nature: Rama is a bindaas girl, extrovert & loves to sing, plays the piano & Sujata is a mild soft-spoken girl, who always talks with her eyes down. Both the girls genuinely care about eachother. Soon the time comes to get Rama married & her parents approach the family with whom they have been talking about marriage since their daugher was a kid.


Entry of our hero, Adhir (a very handsome Sunil Dutt). He belongs to a brahmin family but is a young man with modern thoughts & doesn't flinch even after knowing Sujata's caste. But his family - esp. his mother Giribala (Lalita Pawar) - is not so happy to know about a untouchable girl staying with Rama & they lay a condition to get Sujata married first, so that she would not attend Rama's marriage to Adhir. However, there is a major complication here because Adhir has fallen in love with Sujata & wants to marry her!!


Charu is so angry that her daughter's shaadi has been threatned by Sujata & she berates Sujata for being ungrateful. Sujata refuses to marry Adhir but at the end when Sujata donates blood to save Charu's life, she realizes her mistake and accepts Sujata as her daugher. Charu gets her ''beti Sujata'' married to Adhir..................


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The Director


What can one say to praise Bimal Roy? He was a director way ahead of his times & each of his film was different yet better than the previous one. In Sujata he touches the sensitive subject of untouchabliltiy without being too dramatic about the whole issue. The characters of his story are so real & convincing. This makes Sujata a film with the most humane approach to caste issues.


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The performances :


Sujata is truly the JAAN of this film. It is one of her best performances in this film, as good as the one she gave in the movie Bandini. Two very different sensitive roles enacted by one great actress. In Sujata, once again Nutan proves that she is an actress who can portray any character with same ease & grace. She carries the whole film's weight with her presence, even though there aren't too many dialogues for her in the movie, she speaks volumes through her eyes!


Sunil Dutt plays the role of Adhir, very naturally & sincerely. He has some good scenes in the climax of the movie and yet he doesn't try to overshadow Nutan.


The other actress who deserves a mention is Shashikala, who gives a brilliant performance as the happy go lucky girl, whether she is dancing, singing the famous birthday number: Tum Jiyo Hazaron Saal or defending Sujata, Shashikala excels in this role.


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The Songs/Music


Jalte hain jiske liye*


Kaali ghata chhaye


Nanhi kali sone chali


Sun mere bandhu re


Bachpan ke din bhi


Tum jeeyo hazaron saal


Wah bhai wah


The film is full of beautiful songs with the music scored by S.D. Burman. He also sings the famous ''Suno Mere Bandhu re''.


* The song Jalte hai jiske liye tere aankhon ke diye is definitely the best song of the movie. Beautifully sung by Talat Mehmood, who later become famous for this song. If we ignore the stage song ''Mere piya gaye Rangoon'', the song Jalte hain jiske liye is surely one of the best romantic songs sung over phone! Didn't I say that Bimal Roy was ahead of his times? :)


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Thanx for reading :)


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