Watching Pyasa was a futile effort some years ago. It was a torrid, Black & White film, excruciatingly slow-paced, and depressive in nature. In short, It lacked all the stimulants of the modern day. Whilst I waded through Pyasa in my urge to watch a classic, my recent experience with Sahib, Bibi Air Ghulam was different in many ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, Sahib\u2026is not as sombre as other Guru Dutt movies. It is technically not a Guru Dutt movie. He retired from directing after the debacle of Kagaz Ke Phool (another classic that we might talk about another day). Sahib\u2026 is a classic tale of people across social classes, their lives intertwined – a lonely, outcast daughter-in-law of a feudal family whose hedonistic husband is an epitome of debauchery, and an innocent villager who migrates to city in search of better life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sahib\u2026is tragic. It\u2019s a tragedy that fills your heart. The ending leaves you speechless. It celebrates women, and it ruthlessly shows their fragility and notions. The women of Pre-independence were bound by the duties of a wife, daughter-in-law, mistress and all that defined them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sahib\u2026is seductive. Sensuality understandably could not be blatantly represented in 60s cinema, but the film has sensuality that goes beyond the need of the ephemeral pleasure of the flesh. It delves into the need of an eternal soul, a spiritual and emotional need that is the most difficult to transcend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sahib\u2026is delicious. You cherish and relish the screenplay, the subtle expressions of each character, their dilemmas, their bindings to their duties, the vulnerability of money, the ebb and flow of a hackneyed thing called life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On another note, what seems to be opposite of sadness, happiness was in my feed recently. I don\u2019t mean a source of happiness, but a video by Palki Sharma that talked about happiness or lack of it. I have personally never really believed in happiness, as it has come to be defined, in most cases, from an external source. I believe in equanimity of mind, call it stoicism, or as ancient Yogis put it Chitta Vritta Nirodha, <\/em>or the cessation of fluctuation of mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, India ranks 139 in happiness index. I don\u2019t know exactly the parameters of measuring but that is abysmally low. Well, I am not going to get into politics of that. I guess, if you are happy in the moment, you are happy eternally. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Watching Pyasa was a futile effort some years ago. It was a torrid, Black & White film, excruciatingly slow-paced, and depressive in nature. In short,…<\/p>\n