Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Ijazaat -1987



Ijazaat is another must see indian movie.The movie is directed by padmabhushan S.S.Gulzar , based on a bengali novel by Subhodh Ghosh.You can see the multiple facet's of gulzar in this movie.Gulzar the writer, the director and the lyricist and this is one movie where you cannot point anything wrong in the way he has done his job.Gulzar like basu chatterji, sai paranjpaye and hrishikesh mukerjee is another middle of the road film maker, who has given some beautiful movies.And this is one of his best.

----------------------------story -----------------------
The movie starts with mahendra(nasrudeen shah) & Sudha(rekha) meeting in a railway waiting room. They recognize each other, they are litle uncomfortable with each other at first. Then we come to know that they were married once and the story slowly unfolds as flash backs. Mahendra is in love with maya(Anuradha Patel).They actually live together without getting married. Maya who does not believe in marriage is also in love with him but is non committal on marriage. During that time mahendra is pressurized by his family to marry sudha. Mahendra tries to reach maya but she is not in town.So he gets married to sudha after telling all about his past and relationship with maya.sudha is ok with it, if he completely forgets maya and starts a new life with her. They get married.

Sudha finds that mahender is trying to forget maya, but still her thoughts are with him.Maya comes back and is upset on mahender's marriage. She even tries to commit suicide.Mahendra takes pity on her and gives emotional support. But sudha who is unaware of maya's suicide attempts believes that her husband is still in love with her and leaves him.so after 5 years are so they again meet in that railway waiting room.After discussing all their past, rekha comes to know that maya tried to commit suicide and that's why he had to support her. she feels bad for her decision to leave him. What happened in there lives in the past 5 years after they separated adds a twist and ends with a nice climax
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This is a romantic movie, but a movie that talks to the matured audience and not to teenagers. It is more about loving after marriage than before marriage. This is a sweet and subtle movie that talks about love in a very sensitive way.There is no big villian who wants to stop the lovers or jealously, hatred that arises in a triangular love story.It is a movie that explores love in a deep way.

The movie is about the 3 main characters and the story is told in a serious of flash backs.This emotional drama unfolds in just one night, with the story alternating between past and present through those flash backs. The movie which starts with the hero getting into the waiting station on a rainy night ends the next morning, when the dark clouds are not there anymore and the sky is clear.The pent up emotions and thoughts are out. It is all clear now, time to move on.

Ijaazat reminded me of maniratnam's alaipayuthe which later came as saathiya in hindi. Alaipayuthey has the same feel of ijazaat, a husband who still hasn't understood the real meaning of love and care waits in a railway station, where his past plays out as a serious of flashback. A new character is introduced at the end of the movie and this character makes the hero realize what loving one's wife really means.

alaipayuthey

Ijazaat beautifully sketches all the 3 characters and does not distract into anything else. Every frame is about these characters, no unnecessary comedy or fight scenes. Songs yes, but they too give more insight into the characters than distract us. It is not a typical run of the mill movie where characters are shown in black and white. In this movie you are made to agree and sympathies with all the characters. The character Maya in any other indian movie of that time period would be a tramp, a life loving free spirited person, a woman who does not belive in marriage is not a character that would appeal to the indian audience.But in ijazaat you understand her too and you are comfortable with her stance on life too.The credit off course goes to gulzar for making the audience agree with that character.This is a pure writers movie, a good story, exploring the complexities of relationships. Gulzar the lyricist has created a poem with this movie.

Cast and Credit:
Rekha .... Sudha
Naseeruddin Shah .... Mahinder
Anuradha Patel .... Maya
Sulabha Deshpande .... Parvati
Shashi kapoor
Shammi Kapoor


Music:


This is another awesome album by the Gulzar,Asha,Burman combo.Another movie with deadly songs by gulzar ,all of them sung by asha.



Mera kuchh saamaan -Asha Bhonsle
Katra Katra milati hai -AB
Khali haath shaam aayee hai -AB
Chhoti si kahani mein -AB

Burman, asha, gulzar

The lyrics are just awesome in the songs.Especially Mera kuch saaman. Pain is always expressed in a crying song a milder version will be where the heroine will sing the song with a drop of a tear in her eyes. But this is a very different one; this is poetic pain, a lyrical pain sung beautifully by asha.

Awards:
In 1987 chithra was on a hatrick for the national awards for best singer, she won the national award in 1985 for "Padariyen" - Sindhu Bhairavi - Tamil

Chithra and ilayaraja

and in 1986 for "Manjal Prasadavum" - Nakhakshathangal - Malayalam.But the R.D.Burman/gulza/asha team broke her hatrick with "Mera kuch saman".Mera kuch saman won gulzar the 1987 national award for best lyricist and singer for asha. But eventually chithra went on to get her 3rd national award the very next year, 1988, for the song "Indupushpam" from the malayalam movie Vaishali.Well a broken hattrick.

In 1988 film fare awards gulzar won the best lyricist for "mera kuch saman", but asha and burman didn't get the singer and music director awards. Reason the entry of two block buster movies tezaab and Qayamet se Qayamet tak.The awards went to alka yagnik for "ek do thenn" and anand milind for QSQT.

listen to Ijazaat songs here in musicindiaonline

Trivia:
Pawan says that the character Maya's penchant for taking off on sudden unannounced road trips was borrowed from Deepti Navals real life persona . Naval - a travel freak is apparently given to taking off on her jeep to far flung places like ladakh, etc...without informing anyone.

Aroma Radio gave this intresting trivia that Gulzar wrote the dialouges for saathiya.

Links
lyrics
gulzar interview in hindu

-------------------spoiler-----------------
Till the end of the movie you are made to take side of the hero and how rekha didn't understand him etc.We are also distracted by their mutual respect for each other and are made to hope for the usual happy ending of the pair getting back together at the end of the movie.But the usual gulzar twist awaits at the end of the movie.At dawn enters sashi kapoor into the waiting room.From him we come to know that rekha got married again and he has come to pick up rekha from the station. Sashi starts telling rekha why he was late, how he was struck in the traffic etc.He then gets her the shawl that she forgets and asks her to wear it as it is cold outside.By these many small gestures he conveys how much he loves and cares for his wife.Our view of the hero mahendra completely changes with those gestures. Even though mahendra was struggling between the 2 women and tried to be sincere, he never loved or cared for his wife sudha like sashi kapoor.He comes to understand what it means to love & care.The audience are left with mixed emotions.You feel pity for the mahendra character and happiness for sudha. Everyone is made to think the mistakes that the character mahender has done and how he could have corrected it.Probably take some lessons from the movie for their personal life.
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Comments:
This is an incredible blog. You have done a very good research for this blog. I have bookmarked it and will read it at length and will also invite my friends to view it.

regards,
CMG
 
:-) What a coincidence. I was watching Kitaab yesterday and wondered why you had not covered Gulzars cinema and wanted to drop a word in your blog.Am so glad that you are doing a feature on Gulzar and his works. For a film like Ijaazat made in the eighties to do a mature take on a live in relationship - Gulzars cinema was so ahead of its times both in content and narrative style. Passionate,wild, slightly eccentric - Anuradha Patels character is probably one of the best written in indian cinema. Man I had a huge crush on Maya when I saw Ijaazat.( 'uske paas motorcycle bhi hai' - absolutely adorable.)

And the conceptualization of 'Mera Kuch Saamaan' - (Rekha discovers some of Mayas stuff - jeans, goggles,etc in the house and sends them to her . that night the eccentric Maya sends Mohin a telegram asking him to return the other 'saamaan' that she has left behind.

"Tumne to aakash bichaaya
mere nange pairon pe zameen hai"

Take all the romance and passion in the world and Ijaazat will probably stand up to it with its songs and lyrics.

To add some more trivia to your post

Maya has a penchant for taking off on sudden unnanounced road trips. This was borrowed from Deepti Navals real life persona . Naval - a travel freak is apparently given to taking off on her jeep to far flung places like ladakh, etc...without informing anyone.
 
thanxs CGM :)

pawan,
I want to write about so many people, but i dont have time :(.Yes ijazaat is definitely a movie that was ahead of its time.But the important thing is how gulzar presented it without making the viewers dislike any of the characters.

"Take all the romance and passion in the world and Ijaazat will probably stand up to it with its songs and lyrics". :o).

Intresting trivia pawan.I will add it to the post.
 
very very nice !!!!
 
cig, om
thanxs :)
 
Is this a repeat post? Anyway, bear with me if this is a repeat comment!!
The first time I saw it was from the second half(imagine the movie itself shifts from past and present)but still couldn't just switch to another channel!! The songs are simply out of the world!
 
aparna,
I agree :)
 
Though I hated to read the spoiler, your writeup was like a short story. Thanks for introducing this movie, as I am a big fan of Naseer(before he jumped into the mainstream).
 
Raj chandra,
the spoilers are basically for people who didn't understand the movie.Do check it out,check out lekin also.
 
Above posts have said so many things about Gulzar and Ijazaat that my comments would be redundant so no point in saying again and again that earth is round.

The most touching and mind shattering scene was the last one when Sudha is about to leave with Shashi Kapoor but then suddenly walks towards Mahinder. Shashi Kapoor then asks, "ab kya rah gaya peeche?" man, the best part I like about such mature cinema is the way they symbolise things. Shashi Kapoor wants to ask Sudha since now all the fog from past have been cleared, shouldn't you move on? On this Sudha touches Mahinder's feet and says, "Pichlee bar ijazaat liye bina chali gayi thee, is baar ijazaat de do". these two simple sentences narrates the whole movie and give its title apart from giving entirely a new aspect to Sudha's character.

Another trivia: Gulzar first wrote the song "mera kuch saman" and then Pancham was asked to compose. he refused saying that someday you will ask me to compose a song on front page of Times Of India. then Asha tried some humming with the lyrics which as it was used by Pancham and the song became a legend.

there should also be a blog about Gulzar's other movies specially "Kitab". I don't think in hindi cinema there has been any other movie which comes even close to that subject leave apart it's standards. i'm all gaga over that movie.
 
excellent write up... rarely have i seen such a review on ijaazat... always felt the beautiful movie has just been lost in pages of time... but whenever i see the movie.. the same feeling always... its still among the best movies i have ever seen... very rarely are characters presented in so dignified a manner..

Sheetal Nariani
 
This is a great blog and you have reviewed some amazing films...which are definitely not in the list of other critics,bloggers..Ijazat is a great film much ahead of its time...well most of Gulzar's films are like that.
 
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This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative article. Acuvue Advance Astigmatism
 
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