Page 37 - Seniors Today Dec 2019
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Then, the pretty Nirmala Deshpande (Ranjeeta)
arrives as his new secretary and Ranjit is
bowled over. He looks rather pointedly at the
zipper on her dress—if the film were made
by another director, he would have mentally
unzipped it too. But he openly leers at her and
asks why a pretty girl with a good figure needs
to work. And Nirmala replies that she needs the
money, otherwise which Hindustani girl would
like to take up a job?
Cliched character Lies and deceit are the basis of the film’s premise
The film seems to suggest that a young woman, that they make her say that she fell for an older
dressed in western outfits, who steps out of Ranjit for his money, because “middle class”
the home to work, is up for grabs. Durrani just people are deprived of things money can buy.
ogles, spouts bad poetry and contrives to keep She does, however, return to his wife, the money
bumping into her, but Ranjit launches a full he gives her for her grandfather’s surgery. It
seduction plan by claiming his wife suffers may help heal your marriage, she tells Sharda.
from a terminal illness, and wins Nirmala’s When Ranjit brings along Durrani to discredit
sympathy. Suddenly, there is “overtime” as an Nirmala, Sharda says she has had enough and
excuse to meet her. Again, it’s a BR Chopra film, packs her bag to leave, only to be confronted by
there is no visual of them in bed, but Ranjit is her son at the door asking where she is going.
seen reading the Kama Sutra in the loo, later,
there is a line about her giving “sab kuchh” to Horrible chauvinism
her married lover and Sharda saying he sullied The film might have covered up the blatant
(“Kharab kiya”) Nirmala. sexism at this point by having the wife stay in
Ranjit has to keep coming up with convincing the marriage for the sake of the child and even
lies to assuage his wife’s suspicions, and goes granting the creepy man a promotion. But Ranjit
to the extent of writing two diaries and leaving tells Durrani that women can love just one man,
them around for the two women to read while men are capable of distributing their
about his love for them. Sharda does catch on love to many women. His horrible chauvinism
eventually, and goes to meet Nirmala. Both and disregard for his wife’s feelings, comes to
are shocked at Ranjit’s deception; Sharda is the fore, when a pretty new secretary (Parveen
actually sympathetic towards the secretary. It is Babi) arrives, and the cycle begins again.
the writer (Kamleshwar) and director’s cruelty Extra-marital affairs were not unheard of even
towards a sweet-natured, trusting Nirmala 40 years ago, and Hindi cinema has also taken
up the subject in a few films; it’s the attitude
that remains disturbing—if a man strays it is
funny and a woman has to accept it, or undergo
a makeover to win him back. If a woman has an
affair, she has to be punished with disgrace or
death, and the husband who takes her back, is
portrayed as noble.
That the film has been remade in 2019, shows
that not much has changed in the interim. As
the old film and the new convey, it is up to the
woman to keep a marriage going, men are like
The sordid story is repeated in the new version
that only.
37 SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 6
