As Amar Prem turns 50, we revisit Sharmila Tagore's

As Amar Prem turns 50, we revisit Sharmila Tagore's stylised but supremely seductive performance that holds the mutating plot together.

If I had to pick one Hindi film as my all-time favourite it would have to be Shakti Samanta's Amar Prem. From its opening montage of a young rustic girl watching her callous husband bring home another wife, to the dying moments when the woman, now in her twilight years, is taken away to the relative comfort of her foster son’s home as the festivities of Durga Puja break out on the streets of Kolkata… Amar Prem is a glorious homage to that favourite Bollywood archetype: the golden-hearted prostitute.

That Sharmila Tagore plays the woman whom men of all ages gravitate to in pursuit of some life-changing nurturing is a very happy situation for the screenplay. In the film a 7-year old boy and a 30-plus man both desire the same kind of emotional attention from her. This prostitute is not about sex. She is about soul. Sharmila brings to this timeless adaptation of Bibhutibushan Bandhopaddhyay’s story, a kind of simpering beauty that levitates the lyricism of the tragic but uplifting tale to the level of a supremely seductive saga.

Sharmila’s character, a homeless childless woman who is tricked into a life of prostitution, is a mother-figure to the lonely neglected near-divorcee Anand Babu (Rajesh Khanna). She is also the woman to whom the ill-treated neighbourhood imp Nandu (Master Bobby who played pivotal roles in a number of films including Ek Phool Do Mali and Amar Prem before disappearing into adulthood) keeps running to for solace and samosas, in spite of being severely punished by his stepmother (Bindu).

In one of the many sequences simmering with seductive synergy, Sharmila wonders aloud why Anand Babu insists on coming to her when he has a home and wife.

Pushpa’s relationship with Anand Babu is purely platonic. She serves him drinks, provides him with a much-needed shoulder to cry on. She is attentive and compassionate but never over-inquisitive. There is only one sequence where she actually asks him about his wife. And even there Anand Babu doesn’t tell her the truth about his marital life.

Shakti Samanta was not just a master storyteller, he took grave risks with the draconian star system. At a time when Rajesh Khanna after the dream launch in Shakti’s Aradhana two years earlier, was the movie monarch the director cast Khanna as the third lead of Amar Prem. The film’s main dramatic and emotional resonance emanates from Pushpa’s unconditional love for the boy Nandu. Anand Babu comes later.

Sportingly, Rajesh Khanna creates beautiful space for his character. The mutating paradigms of a life that knows no succour at home spills persuasively out of Khanna’s portrayal. He is a man who claims to hate tears and cries in tearless grief for love.

Perhaps sensing the superstar’s secondary status in the story Shakti Samanta gave Rajesh Khanna three memorable Kishore Kumar solos to sing. Each is a landmark to this day.

In the most evocative section of her journey from ravaged innocence to pained old age, Pushpa ends up as a maidservant washing vessel in a rundown lodge (a lot of aged prostitutes find themselves reduced to menial jobs at the end of their lives). In a vivid reversal of fortune, the husband (Manmohan) who had once driven Pushpa out of his home now lies on his deathbed in a pokey desolate room. She gives him his last drink of water. Then when he dies, like a traditional Hindu wife she breaks her bangle with a rock in a symbolical gesture of widowhood.

The above sequence would probably seem laughable in the contemporary socio-cultural context where women scarcely wear glass bangles, let alone break them. But think about it. The woman, the wife, the mother and the daughter …every role that a girl is expected to play is subsumed in Sharmila Tagore’s commodious persona without commodifying her. She is at the same time, a full-bodied woman and a divine entity, flesh and flash of eternity…She is Every-woman and yet not quite like anyone else. And when Nandu shows up at the end to take her away, we feel the same surge of relief for her that we feel when a comatose relative finally leaves for the other world.

Shakti Samanta’s son Ashim speaks on Amar Prem:

“My two all-time favourite films are Amar Prem and Anand. It’s just a coincidence that one of these happens to be directed by my father. I was 20 years old when my father made Amar Prem. I vividly remember the recordings of all the memorable songs. Pancham (RD Burman), Rajesh Khanna and my father were an unbreakable team. Though Amar Prem was a remake of Bengali film (Nishipadma) I feel our version of the story was far superior. What Sharmila did in Amar Prem was remarkable. She completely re-interpreted the character, whereas Rajesh Khanna was asked to model his performance on Uttam Kumar in Nishipadma, which he did and then added his own personality to it. For its time, Amar Prem was a daring experiment. It cast one of the most saleable pairs of the times as a man and tawaif.

RD Burman’s music added a whole dimension to the drama. Do you know Amar Prem was the only film in which Pancham’s father Sachindev Burman sang his son’s composition? To this day listeners break down when they hear Burman Dada sing 'Doli mein bithaye ke kahaar'. I’ve to tell you something very interesting about the most popular song 'Chingari koi bhadke' in Amar Prem. There was no situation for that song in the screenplay. One day my father and the lyricist Anand Bakshi Saab were sitting together, as they usually did in the evenings when Bakshi Saab recited 'Chingari koi bhadke' for my father. On hearing the words my father was stunned. ‘I’m using this song in my film,’ he declared. When Bakshi Saab protested that there was no situation for the number in the film my father reassured him, ‘Leave it to me. I’ll find a place for it.’ And he did. There’s a unique quality of romance, drama and music in Amar Prem. The film never aged.”

Sharmila Tagore Speaks On Amar Prem:

“This was one of those films that just turned out right. We were not looking at the box office. We just felt emotionally connected to the characters. The film became a hit and it continues to be liked by new generations. That’s the magic of the story. Also, I’d say a major reason for the film’s success was RD Burman’s music and Anand Bakshi’s lyrics. The music and the words carried the story forward. I remember the premier of Amar Prem was attended by Field Marshall Manickshaw. And the very next day after the premiere the 1971 Indo-Pak war broke out. Kaka and I did many films together. We really worked well together. I was pregnant with Saif during Aradhana and with Soha when Kaka and I did Choti Bahu. Kaka and I had two major problems. He came much too late on the sets and our best profile on camera was the same. So when we were in the same frame together Kaka and I were always trying to get the cameraman to shoot our right profile.”

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