Thursday, 12 September 2013

Cutting Chai with Bhawana Somaaya - Day 190


Ganesha & Hindi Films p 1
 12.9.2013, Mumbai




For all the attention we shower on the Elephant God, Lord Ganesha has limited presence in our films. It is difficult to list even ten memorable scenes projecting the God of wisdom.
 Humse Badhkar Kaun/ 1980 told the story of families living in a colony and collectively celebrating the festival. The haunting number Devaa ho devaa’ singing paeans to the Lord proved a chartbuster and is even today chanted at all the pandals. In Takkar, the villains hide the temple treasures inside the idol and hope to escape with the loot, but Jeetendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Vinod Mehra sing Murti Ganesh ki, andar daulat desh ki…’and expose the villains.


 In 1981, Filmwala’s Kalyug was the first film to portray the immersion procession in all its glory. The film’s hero Shashi Kapoor is driving home and gets caught in the festival traffic. The chaos on the street reflects the turbulence in his heart. Ajanta Arts’ Dard Ka Rishta 1983, supposedly inspired from Sunil Dutt’s personal life, delved on a young girl’s obsession with the elephant God. Baby Khushboo is in coma but hears echoes of the Lord coming home. To fulfil the dying girl’s wish, her father brings the idol to her hospital bed and she dies in peace.

Bhawana Somaaya / @ bhawanasomaaya
 

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