Figure 1
Movie review : Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda
In
my case, due to serious restrictions on time, shelf-space and budget, I have to
choose the books I’m going to buy and read, very carefully. The list starts
getting prepared half-a-year in advance – and usually goes through major edits
based on – guess what? – online reviews. Which is what this is, albeit that of
a movie.
---
Suraj
Ka Satvan Ghoda, directed by Shyam Benegal and based on Dharamveer Bharati’s ground-breaking
novel, is a must-watch in your college years – apart from some other classics
like Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (Hindi adaptation of Twelve Angry Men).
The
premise is appealing (having missed the first 15-20 minutes before switching
the channel to DD Urdu, I assume the starting of the film is the same as that in
the book): a recollection of a summer in which a group of idle friends, bound
indoors because of the Loo, are (primarily) listening
to stories narrated by Manik Mulla, the elder and the more-experienced in their
group. The narrative then moves on into the several stories Manik Mulla
narrates and the arguments the friends have – the stories all, speaking
crudely, being actually just one story told from the perspective of various
different characters involved.
Figure 2: Rajit Kapoor
as Manik Mulla
In short, meta-fiction.
Not
a genre from which you usually expect genuine enjoyment. Intellectual
stimulation, yes. Aesthetic pleasure, not so much. Having done an HS course on
Approaches to Literature last semester, I could go on and on about the inter-textuality,
nonlinear narrative, character arcs and commentary rife in Suraj Ka Satvan.
Figure 3: With
Rajeshwari Sachdev as Jamuna in the first story
n the first story
In
fact, watching Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda was an experience that fit in very nicely
at the end of a semester marked on one hand, by intense discussions on “fundamental
questions” like Truth vs. Beauty; and on the other hand, by a lot of thinking
and reading
on ideas that framed modern India. One of the “unsolved conundrums” I carry
over from the literature course is whether formalism really outlines what we
like in texts; whether the ingenuity of a meta-fictional piece is really enough
to make me like it. While I think I got what the course instructor meant when she
asked us to consider Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain,
there is still that nagging doubt about whether these are all not just
gimmicks, nothing more than a smokescreen.
Figure 4: The second
story
Also,
the fact that the avant-garde movement we discussed was rooted mainly in the Parisian
café culture. Ideas that emerged from a culture so radically different from the
one I find myself in that I am perhaps unable to appreciate them.
In
Suraj Ka Satvan, I found something that was not Oulipo,
not Rashomon, not Sherlock Holmes. A distinctly Indian work which, despite its
eruditeness, is aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps, very much because of its
Indian-ness, but I can’t say for sure if that’s what it is. For me, it brought
together the two strands of thought that defined the last semester – Indian
contextuality, and literary theory.
I don’t know what Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda will do for you, but I can say this: If you’re in college, there is no reason not to expose yourself to ideas. And in a movie as overtly erudite as this, whilst having enough of readerly pleasure to make the medicine go down, you can’t go wrong.
Figure 6: With Neena
Gupta as Satti in the fourth story
- Udit Mavinkurve
