MAY MOHAN JOSHI PRESENT HIMSELF TO THE COURT: A Review!

There was a time in Hindi film industry's history, in 1970s and 1980s, when making movies closer to real life was popular. These are sometimes referred to as parallel cinema. This movie falls into that category.

This is a movie (MOHAN JOSHI HAZIR HO) about the housing problem for low-income population living in crowded metropolis called Mumbai(India) set in 1970s. This mundane subject appears appealing because of the talented actors, though the movie itself is not very technically sophisticated. While thousands and thousands live in Mumbai in middle class and rich areas, there are millions of poor people living in slums and chawls (though I have never visited a chawl) !

Mohan Joshi, a middle aged gentleman, lives in a crowded Mumbai 'chawl' along with his family. A chawl in a multi-storey building with dozens of residents all living in their independent rooms/homes but they share common areas. These chawls are decades old and have many problems due to lack of maintenance. Nobody wants to fix these buildings, not even their owners  who would rather destroy the buildings and invest in more profitable condos without any regards for the poor tenants.

Mohan Joshi's room/home has a damaged roof that is suspended on a bamboo pole and covered with plastic sheet to collect the falling pieces. The toilet water seeps into the kitchen area etc. Mohan decides to approach the rich owner for help. The owner declines to help and informs him bluntly that he is not willing to spend even a rupee on the repair. On the contrary, he wants to destroy some of his old buildings so he can erect profitable new condo buildings!

Mohan Joshi hires a cheap lawyer, who is willing to do anything to win, including sleeping with the enemy .oops. I mean enemy's lawyer! Poor Mrs Joshi has to shell out the cash for paying the lawyer by selling a few pieces of jewelry she has. Someone sends Joshi to a government agency called 'the repairs board'. There he is informed that his file will stay in a pile for years because they do not have funds.

Joshi's lawyer finally convinces the judge to visit the chawl. The devious owner then has the exterior painted and decorated to impress the judge. When Joshi realizes that the judge is indecisive, he looses his patience. Three years have passed since Joshi  first lodged a complaint! Joshi removes a bamboo pole from one side of the building and that part of the building collapses right in front of the judge! That is how Joshi proves the precarious condition of the building though it is not clear if Joshi himself  survives the building collapse.

SWAMI - Another old classic adapted to a Bollywood film in 1970s!

"Do you think it is okay for a woman to have an extra-marital affair because men seem to have that liberty?" the heroine, who is the main character of this movie, asks her uncle and her man friend from the neighborhood! They are having this informal theoretical conversation over cups of chai !

"Of course!" says the 'modern' young man from across the street who visits them occasionally and does them some favors like procuring books for her uncle from the city.Surprisingly, she disagrees "It would be lot safer for the woman to remain loyal to her husband!" she says.

That basically is the summary of the story because that is what she will have to go thru when she is forced to have an arranged marriage a little later in the movie! As the movie progresses, we see the heroine (played by Shabana Azmi), fall in love with that young man! However, later she is forced to marry someone else per the ancient traditions of Bengal. The conflict is between her serious mother who is very religious and is upset that the girl spends so much time near men (uncle and the neighbor) against the ancient traditions of the culture. But the old lady has to tolerate the liberal attitude because of the support the heroine gets from her uncle, the mother's brother! We see the ancient world of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Vedas collide against the liberal world of Thomas Hardy and Tolstoy!

We see the young herione stand up against insulting behavior of her in-laws. Her husband is very understanding and very patient with her. He tries to calm her down when she gets upset with the overbearing mother-in-law . A coincidence happens when her boyfriend from her village visits her husband's home and asks her to elope with him! Her mother-in-law overhears the conversation and falsely accuses her of having an illicit relationship! The heroine gets enraged and joins her boyfriend to return to her mother! However, as she waits for the train she has second thoughts about leaving her sincere and hardworking husband. Her husband shows up at the train station just at the right time and requests her to return home with him! The heroine is overcome with emotions when she sees the kindness of her husband in still accepting her as his wife in spite of knowing about her affair with her boyfriend. She bows down to him and in the end and we see her boyfriend leave on the train all alone!

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee wrote this story set in Bengal more than a 100 years ago. The story explores the transition of old India into the so-called modern world! Many of Sarat's books have been adapted for the Bollywood screen!

GUDDI - Educating a Star Struck fan about how Bollywood Movies are made!

The young modern school girl in Mumbai informs her would be husband ' I can't marry you. I already love another man. But he is already married and he has kids so I guess I will always remain single and devoted to him, just like Meerabai was to Krishna!'

The disappointed man asks her politely ' Who is that man whom you love ?'
The girl responds sincerely ' Dharmendra!'
Her would be husband bursts out laughing 'That actor Dharmendra?'

Directed by the Hrishikesh Mukerjee, the movie explores the psyche of young girls and boys who fall in love with movie stars to the point of infatuation that affects their home life. Yet it is a light hearted movie. As teenagers all of us admired our favorite stars like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan etc etc and skipped classes to watch their movies. We thought that the villains of these movies were bad persons in real life and that heroes were really strong. They could hang from helicopters, fight on top of moving trains etc etc without a scratch on their body.

To cure Guddi, her uncle, an experimental psychologist, takes the help of the real actor Dharmendra. They visit several movie sets and see how movies are made. She watches Dharmendra up close and sees him fight the villain Pran in front of the camera yet in real life they happen to be good friends. [The villain's duplicate replaces the villain when the fight gets intense.]

She watches Rajesh Khanna give a very romantic dialogue addressed to the heroine, facing the camera all alone without the heroine being present! Yet, by the magic of editing, the hero and heroine will appear to converse face to face on the screen.

Guddi is finally cured when she realizes that the entire thing is make believe just like a play on the stage. [Her real bridegroom becomes friends with the actor Dharmendra and they share tennis games together.] 

Guddi then falls in love with her real man and we the audience fell in love with the actress Jaya Bhaduri, who plays Guddi, admiring her talent as she transforms from a young star-struck high school girl to a mature lady in 1970s Mumbai!