Lahore (Web Desk) Farooq Azam writes in his blog that Gangubai Kathiawari’s advertising campaign was not a surprise. Nowadays, such a campaign is organized with the same care as the production of a film. On the contrary, it often seems that if the same hard work had been done on the film, the results would have been more encouraging.
The film, which hit cinemas on February 25, has become part of the 100 crore club in just 13 days. The main character Alia Bhatt and producer-director Sanjay Leela Bhansali are happy to see this success. Let’s see where this journey goes. The story of Gangobai Kathiawari revolves around the young Ganga. Ganga, who dreams of becoming an actress in Bombay, is auctioned off to prostitutes for just Rs 1,000. The story of Gangu, who made her mark in the red light area by becoming the sister of ‘Bai’ and underworld don Kareem Lala from an ordinary sex worker, contained all the material that is considered essential for any ‘spice film’. Despite being impressed by Alia’s performance in ‘Highway’, I was in no hurry to see Gangubai Kathiawari. Instead of a sensitive director like Imtiaz Ali, Sanjay Leela Bhansali was in charge of the film. Clich قسم-type dialogues like ‘abuses love but also abuses love’ were inside the film, but first it is necessary to mention the dialogue that took place between Bhansali and Alia Bhatt during the marketing of the film and The reason for us to see Gangobai. He says,
“This film is important for Indian cinema because it has given performances that I think will be remembered for the next fifty, hundred years. It has hit Nargis in Mother India, Seema Biswas in Bandit Queen and Meena Kumari in Sahib Bibi. This is the fourth performance I will mention in the same category. Here, a girl is carrying the burden of the whole film on her shoulder. ” If performance refers to the importance of Ganguly in ‘Feminist Discourse’, then why go so far? Any film like Vidya Balan’s Dirty Picture, Kahani and Kangana Ranaut’s Queen etc. released in the last decade could have been mentioned. But how does this give the impression that naming Meena Kumari and Nargis can be effective in a publicity campaign? Although ‘the burden of the whole film was carried by a girl on her shoulder’, it was a bundle of rubbish whose parts could not fit together. Each part had its own knock and in that noise the ‘lower sound’ which was supposed to be the beating of moviegoers was lost somewhere. In the tradition of Indian cinema, the lower voice has a deep connection with the songs of the film, but what can be done? The composer of Gangubai was also Sanjay Leela Bhansali himself. If the locale of the film is Bombay sixty or seventy years ago today, then the first thought that comes to mind is that whatever the film is, the music will be incomparable. Despite such a wide scope, the music of the film is very vain. It was not difficult for Bhansali to get the services of any musician, but becoming a filmmaker is an addiction. All the critics who praised the film as a whole could not help but question the substandard music.
Playing the role of younger daughter-in-law in Sahib Bibi and Ghulam, Meena Kumari not only portrayed the sorrow of an Indian woman but also embodied her. The grief of her husband’s unconditional slavery who seeks to burn the flames of rebellion to ashes. Sixty years after the release of the flame film, this flame was also felt in 2018 when the Indian Supreme Court lifted the colonial law of declaring the husband the owner of his wife and threw it in the trash. Does Gangubai Kathiawari have such a possibility in ‘Feminist Discourse’? If not, then why fifty, one hundred years later? Forget the far-reaching social effects of Sahib Bibi and Ghulam and consider only Meena Kumari’s acting and Alia Bhatt’s ‘performances’. The role of the youngest daughter-in-law in terms of high acting is a milestone not only in Tragedy Queen’s own career but also in the history of Indian cinema. Alia Bhatt’s ‘Performance’ in Gangubai Kathiawari is not even a tenth of her own performance on the highway. In one scene, Bai wakes up Gangu at four in the morning when a new customer arrives. Exactly the same scene in Gulzar’s season (1975). A comparison of these two scenes reveals the difference between Gulzar and Bhansali, not Sharmila Tagore and Alia Bhatt. Gangu does not leave Kamathipura in the hope that his beloved may return.
Apparently a very strong woman is sitting inside the bonfire. If she expresses it, then there is a chance that the type effect will be created in a pair of broken bangles in this wrist. The impression of ‘what did I leave behind in the back street’ while remembering home? Maybe you haven’t planted this flower somewhere. Yes it is So this Guru Dutt is not Bhansali either, Meena Kumari is not Alia Bhatt. This is Gangobai Kathiawari which does not come close to Sahib B and Ghulam in any way. So what is the justification for dhikr in one level? You may call any such exaggeration in a publicity campaign a market coercion. Didn’t Guru Dutt have to face such oppression during the exhibition of Sahib Bibi and Ghulam? Released on July 29, 1962, the film was not initially well-received by audiences. When Gardu Dutt sat in the cinema and watched the film, he felt that a song in the voice of Hemant Kumar, ‘Towards the coast’ was affecting the flow of the film. Decided to remove him from the film and reached K Asif’s house. Asif suggested changing the main thesis of the film and re-shooting a few scenes. Abrar Alvi rewrote the proposed sections and even the next day Meena Kumari was called in for a photo shoot. In the heart and mind of Guru Dutt, market oppression and artistic madness were at stake.
Guru Dutt refused to surrender in front of the box office and the film was badly beaten. The eyes of moviegoers could not see what Guru Dutt saw. If the vision of the filmmaker is not bigger than the audience, then he cannot make the history of films as much as he wants. The films that made a splash at the box office in 1962 were A Traveler, A Beautiful, Twenty Years Later and Professor. Where are they today Fifty, a hundred years is a long way off. Just let the media noise stop. Gangubai Kathiawari will not take long to be buried in the dust of the past. In the film of the ‘greatest director’ of our time, there is not even a song of Dhang that can serve as his tablet.