There's a funny thing about the Hindi movies from the 60s and 70s. They can be charmingly delightful owing to their quaint old-era appeal and plots that can only be described as 'innocent' by today's standards - not to mention melodious music. But if the storyline contains a flaw they can be a pain to watch because you cannot shut your brain off from thinking logically.
The 1968 movie Neelkamal is a case in point. I had heard a lot about this movie from my mom - who is a fan of many movies from that era. I also happen to be a die-hard believer in the Hindu concept of rebirths :-) And of course, the song 'Tuzko Pukare Mera Pyar' is among my all-time favorites. So, naturally, I was dying to watch this movie. Once or twice I had chanced upon it while channel surfing but it was evident from the goings-on that I had missed a major part of the movie on all occasions. I am not a fan of landing in the middle of any movie and watching it till the end. So I had moved on.
Last night, though, was a different story. The English movie channels, as usual, had a very stale offering of movies. Desperate to watch something worthwhile, I jumped with joy on watching the words 'Neelkamal' on Maha Movies channel. The timing mentioned was 9pm-12am. I knew that I was in for a massive dose of commercials. But I decided to watch it anyways.
The movie begins with a scene in a royal court in some kingdom in ancient India. A king is delighted to see a hall decorated with masterpieces - paintings and sculptures - from one of his talented artists, Chitrasen. He praises him and as was the custom with the kings of that time, orders him to ask for a reward. Chitrasen, at first, says that the appreciation of his work is a reward in itself but the king insists. On being assured that the king will grant anything that he asks for, he reveals his love for Princess Neelkamal - who happened to be the inspiration for all his creations - and asks for her hand. Obviously, this doesn't go down well with the king and his courtiers. He is arrested and produced before the royal court the next day where the king gives him a last chance to recant his earlier statement. Chitrasen refuses. The king orders that he be buried alive in a wall to be constructed in the same hall.
The movie then jumps to the present time - the royal court and the hall are now a ruin, though most of Chitrasen's work has stood the test of time well. A group of girls from a hostel visit there for a picnic. One of the women, Seeta, ends up in the hall alone. As she gazes at the statues and paintings in awe, they seem to come alive for her. She can even hear the music being played on various instruments carried by the statues. When the rest of the women come to fetch her, they find her staring fixedly around her as if in a trance. She can neither see nor hear them. Finally, she swoons and falls. Later, in the night, as the group is resting in the station waiting room, she hears the voice of a man calling out for Neelkamal. She walks out of the waiting room, hypnotized, only to end up on railway tracks. A kind young man intervenes in time to save Seeta from getting killed by the approaching train. When he accompanies her back to the station her companions are astonished to see stranger with her. Seeta's nightly wanderings continue even after returning to the hostel and she is expelled on the suspicion that she goes out to meet someone secretly. She is diagnosed as being suffering from sleep-walking. Exasperated, her father, on advice of their family priest, gets her married off to Ram.
When her nightly excursions are noticed in her new home, Seeta's mother-in-law and sister-in-law give her a very hard time. Ram, at first, supports his wife. But after Seeta crashes the car while being out one night, he loses his patience and drives her out.
Is Seeta able to convince her husband of her innocence? Whose is the mournful voice that she hears every night? What is her connection to the village of Chitrapur and the ruins of its palace? If you are keen to get answers to these questions, you will have to watch the movie yourself. :-)
I must confess to being slightly disappointed by the movie. To be fair, I suspect that the channel must have edited the movie indiscriminately to make room for the advertisements that seemed to be aired every 10 minutes or so. The result was that, at times, the following scene seemed to have no connection whatsoever with the one preceding it. At one time it even felt like Shashikala and Mehmood had more screen time than the leading pair. Their on-screen antics seemed very juvenile in most of the cases, and very objectionable, of course going by the 60s' and 70s' standard, in one particular scene. The cliched references to the story of Ram and Seeta from epic Ramayana sound irritating now. And as mentioned before, the obvious flaw in the story-line was that Ram could have cleared up the whole confusion by simply following his wife one night. There really was no need for all the drama.
As far as acting goes, Manoj Kumar looks handsome as Ram and essays his role of a confused husband well. Of course, there are times when he resorts to a bit of an over-acting but thankfully such instances are few and far between. Wahida Rehman plays the part of a devout, husband-loving, innocent wife to perfection. I wish they had draped the sarees around her more elegantly - at times she looks as if she is somehow bundled in them :-( Lalita Pawar has always been The Mother-In-Law who has been feared and despised by countless generations of married Indian women. :-) In fact, I wondered how Seeta's dad agrees to get his daughter married off into a household where the mother-in-law is known to have a temper and the married sister-in-law is a permanent resident with her husband. :-(
Shashikala, as Seeta's sister-in-law, makes you want to throttle her and I, for one, would have forgiven Seeta in an instant if she had mustered enough courage to do that. Mehmood, as her henpecked husband, is positively insufferable as he rattles off inane dialogues and resorts to jumping about and twisting his face in an apparent attempt to provide the absolutely-not-needed comic relief. Balraj Sahani is the quintessential hapless father of the girl. And Rajkumar is a perfect miscast as the talented and (supposedly!) good-looking Chitrasen. His wafer-thin mustache is as irritating as his theatrical acting. I think the king did right by burying him alive. :-)
The movie leaves quite a few unanswered questions in the end but if, like me, you believe in the funda of rebirths, this movie is a must-watch. Chitrasen's 'Tuzko Pukare Mera Pyar' is sure to haunt you anytime you rest your eyes on any sculpture or painting from a bygone era.
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