A "Namkeen" new year day. Review on Namkeen

This is an attempt to pen a review of a Hindi movie which I have never done before as I prefer reading about hindi movies. However, one of our finest writers in the MS family Mr Jitendra Mathur( @jmathur) asked me to give it a try, so here goes:

On the first day of 2013, I decided to treat myself with Baingan ka Bartha, dal and roti while watching the hindi movie "Namkeen". My Baingan had just come off the flames and was cooling down and I had started streaming the movie to my TV.

The Cast:

Gerulal: Sanjeev Kumar

Jugni:    Waheeda Rehman

Nimki:    Sharmila Tagore

Mithu:    Shabana Azmi

Chinki:   Kiran Virale

Gerulal is a truck driver, a tough man of high moral standards, he arrives at a small village in Himachal Pradesh where he is required to work for an indefinite period for a contractor. Gerulal decides to rent a room for the length of his stay and his old friend takes him to a house which looks like an ancient ruin owned by the old lady Jugni. Jugni has three daughters: Nimki, Mithu and Chinki with Nimki being the eldest and Chinki being the youngest. Gerulal finds the family to be a bit dysfunctional in the beginning but reluctantly decides to stay. Slowly he finds that the house is so bad in condition that there is no electricity, no proper water supply and on the first night, the old lady does not even offer him food.

Gerulal feels he has been insulted even though he paid his dues on time and has behaved well, he decides to leave the house and find another place to live, however that night Nimki makes it up by arranging for a few basic essentials for Gerulal like a lantern, bucket etc. Slowly as time progresses, Gerulal is accepted well in the family by the three sisters.

By now my dal, baingan and roti were ready and I was also quite happy at the way the story was progressing and on the New Year day what more can I ask for - nice Indian food on the plate and a nice Indian movie on TV.

Now coming back to the story, India being India, the girls are often teased by the villagers who pass vulgar comments Rajeev_Vermacially at Chinki and envy Gerulal who gets to stay in that house. This movie was taken in 1982. so what has changed in our country in the past 30 years?

A few times Gerulal engages in confrontations with the villagers and even beats one up for his misbehavior. The girls back home come to know of these events and Gerulal also promises to stand as moral support for the women and helps them out in their everyday business of buying wares. One night Gerulal hears someone outside the house, he steps out to find an old drunkard asking him about the girls in the house, Gerulal scares the man away and finds a "Rampuri" knife dropped by the drunkard. Jugni, the old lady asks Gerulal about the matter and Gerulal explains how he found this lecherous old sot and scared him off. Another night, Jugni tells her tragic tale where she was a dancer in a Nautanki and worked for an evil man named Kishenlal, Kishenlal also happens to be the father of the girls. Jugni parted ways with Kishenlal and his Nautanki group to raise her daughters well but Kishenlal still haunts her from time to time by showing up at her house to get hold of one of his daughters so that he can make her work as a dancer.( The old sot that Gerulal ran into was indeed Kishenlal).

Parallel to this Gerulal develops admiration for Mithu's  ( who can not talk) poetry and intelligence. Gerulal also develops a bit of a romantic liking for Nimki and treats Chinki like his own daughter. One day Gerulal has to wind up his business in the village and head for his next assignment. Gerulal brings gifts for the family, Nimki, Mithu and Chinki are heart broken. Nimki urges Gerulal to marry Mithu while Gerulal says he has feelings for Nimki and asks her to join him. Nimki can not do this as she is the strongest person in the family and without her the family will fall apart. Gerulal leaves the house with a heavy heart, the girls are very disappointed to see him leave.

By now I was half way through my dinner and had been interrupted by countless phone calls from well wishers for the New Year, it was great to talk to so many friends and family members after a long time but I also had to pause the movie again and again and some times had to drag it back or move it forward which made me lose some continuity.

Three years pass and Gerulal happens to stop at a near by village where he sees Chinki dancing in a Nautanki. He accosts her and demands an explanation, and Chinki tells that circumstances made her join her father's Nautanki.

Gerulal rushes back to the old house where he finds Nimki who looks old and unhealthy. She tells a touching tale of events that happened after Gerulal had left. Mithu went bonkers jumped to her death, Jugni had died of shock. Gerulal promises to never to leave Nimki and assures her that Chinki is fine and happy where she is and the story ends with Nimki moving on in life and leaving the past behind.

I am not a big fan of tragedy movies and so I would not have actually seen this movie had I know that it will turn out to be a tragedy(I only occasionally watch tragedy), the first half is lighthearted and fun to watch while the second half takes a bit of a serious turn. In the end I was quite impressed by this movie, Rajeev_Vermacially the performance of all the actors. The screenplay, dialogues and direction were done by the legendary Gulzar and the story was written by Samaresh Basu. Music is by R.D Burman with Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar casting their magic with their voice.

The names of the three girls Nimki( namkeen/ salty) Mithu(Meetha/sweet) Chinki(sour/tangy) is also representative of their nature, the shots featuring the terrain, the markets along the foothills and rivers are worth watching, the movie has a good message but as far as I am concerned, it did lack something that can not be measured in numbers or by the skill of the cast or the production crew, it is what is called the X-factor or Oomph. Having said that I will still recommend this movie to everyone.

Happy New Year 2013 friends.