Monday 4 March 2013

Cutting Chai with Bhawana Somaaya - Day 60

Samma hain suhana 

4.3.2013, Mumbai

Over the weekend I was in Bhopal to attend a Wild Life Film Festival. It is the only festival in the world which provides opportunity to participants to showcase talent and also grants a platform to learn the craft. Initiated by CREW Crusade for Revival of Environment & Wildlife I was invited to speak on the relevance of nature in cinema.

Excerpts of my presentation at the seminar….

Nature has been used in cinema to present myriad moods.  The sunrise is for awakening as Raj Kapoor portrayed in Jagte Raho and the sunset for introspection as presented by Mani Ratnam in Dalpatti or Hrishikesh Mukherjee in his haunting number ‘Kahi door jab din dhal jaaye…’portrayed by Rajesh Khanna in Anand. The nightfall aroused hope and desire as Bimal Roy’s Kalyani sang ‘Mora gora aang lay le…’ in Bandini and sometimes sorrow and anguish as in Gulzar’s ‘Khali raat aayi hain…’ in Ijaazat.

The summer is for always for conflict and exasperation –a perfect example is of this is Amitabh Bachchan suffering a sun stroke in the middle of the street in Majboor. The autumn for gratification ‘Aaaj mausam bada beimaan hain…’ in Loafer, the winter for confessions ‘Mujhe thand lag rahi hain mujh se door tu na jaa…’ and the rain for romance and erotica – there are innumerable examples of this: ‘Kali ghat chayye …’ in Sujata and the uninhibited road dance between smita patil and Amitabh Bachchan ‘Aaj rapat jaiyye…’in Namak Halaal.
 
From the black and white ‘Khoya khoya chand…’ of Kala Bazaar to ‘Neela aasman so gaya…’ there was always an effort from the poets and the cinematographers to include the clouds and the stars, the woods and the lakes in every song in every film.

One song in particular that epitomizes nature and which cannot be missed out in a feature describing nature is noted lyricist Kaifi Azmi’s unforgettable ‘Kuch dil ne kaha kuch bhi nahi …’ picturised in Anupama where an exceedingly shy and inward looking Sharmila Tagore who will not open up with anybody is comfortable to share her feelings amidst  nature.

Bhawana Somaaya/ www.bhawanasomaaya.com

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