Gharaonda (Bhimsain)offers an invigorating 70s update to Jaidev’s style, particularly via the Bhupinder-Runa Laila duet Do Deewane Sheher Main without losing any of his trademark melodic complexity. And like Mausam with its contrasting solo and duet versions of Dil Dhoondta Hai, the solo ‘version’ Ek Akela offers a melancholic counterpoint to Do Deewane. Where the words Abodana Dhoondte Hain, Ek Ashiyana Dhoondte Hain switch to singular gender and thereby adopt a despairing rather than aspiring tone. Gulzar too offers commentary through a more subtle and romantic lens, such as, “ Bas Dhaudti Phirti Rehti Hain, Humne Toh Teherte Dekha Nahin“.īut this subtle romanticism is as much a strength as a weakness. The film gradually turns out to be one that can’t quite make up its mind as to what it wants to be. The second half hour or so, after the context setting is done, is possibly its most riveting. As the male and female protagonists’ dreams of owning a home come crashing down when they find they have been swindled. The friend who had introduced them to the swindler and who too had poured money into the home commits suicide. This is the segment that lashes out at the ways of the city and this is where the idea of Chaaya marrying the company MD Modi is hatched by Sudeep. No, this is not a dark murder plot a la Humraaz. They just hope that Modi being a heart patient doesn’t have long to live and thereafter Sudeep and Chaaya can reunite. ![]() ![]() But Shashi Kapoor’s dialogue to the winning candidate in an interview that he had to get up so that the other could get a seat (in the train) is not really a world away from the themes running through Gharaonda and Gaman.Īnd yet, Gharaonda and Gaman weren’t just different from Deewar but also from each other. And the difference can be observed in their respective albums too. ![]() Two Bombay films came out within a year of each other in the late 1970s – one in ’77 and the other in ’78. While both were from the parallel cinema space, one starred Amol Palekar, Zarina Wahab and Shreeram Lagoo while the other had Farooq Sheikh in his first lead role. And while both films had Jaidev wielding his baton, it was the former which had the more successful album and the one that is more often remembered today. Guess which one succeeded at the box office? If you thought it was the one with the weightier cast, you’d be wrong!īoth Gharaonda and Gaman came out in the late 70s and appeared to offer a more realistic treatment of the narrative of disenchantment write large over the Angry Young Man films, notably Deewar. The thread running through these or even Muqqadar Ka Sikandar ( Humne Maana Yeh Zamaana Dard Ki Jaagir Hai) was of disillusionment with the Nehruvian dream of a socialist and self reliant independent India but more particularly also of disillusionment with Bombay itself, the one capitalist oasis that appeared to offer a way out, an escape from the chronically slow growth and red tapism of India at the time. The underlying message seemed to be that the city of dreams was where dreams came to die. It’s a different story that the city would perform one of several Houdini Acts over the last few decades and discover new avenues of growth and new parcels of land to build over.
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