By Harsh Thakor
Mrityudand, made 25
years ago on July 11th, in 1997, is an ideal illustration of feudal tyranny,
political scenario and subjugation of womenfolk at the hands of criminal
elements in state of Bihar. One of the finest commentaries of social and gender
injustice. It blends an art and commercial film into one. Even if a commercial
film, aspects of classical art constitute an integral part of the movie. Scène
dissection is crafted with great precision as well as dialogues. The ebb and
flow or twists and turns keeps an audience guessing .To me amongst the finest
portrayals of social reality and a movie that projects crusade against social
injustice of women at a crescendo. At the very ground it projected the
subjugation of the village women folk to the political ruling classes,
illustrating how they dictated their lives with the very but of the gun.
Artistically it dwelled on the psychology of village men and women when faced
with a different set of situations, particularly in confrontation. The tussles
between contending forces and their co-relationship are most surgically
depicted. It probes into the roots of rural violence at the economic base. The
movie is directed and produced by Prakash Jha. The music is composed by Anand
Milind and the lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar. The cinematography is by
Rajan Kinagi and Rajan Kothari. The choreography is by Nimesh Bhatt.
The star cast
includes Ayub Khan, Shabana Azmi, Madhuri Dixit, Shilpa Shirodkar, Om Puri,
Mohan Agashe, Mohan Joshi, Harish Patel, Pyare Mohan Sahay, Brij Gopal, Pradeep
Kuckreja, Suhas Bhalekar, Achyut Potdar, Ajit Vachani and Abha Dhulia. With
inept skill Prakash Jha grafts this script or transplants genuine art forms to
weave the plot. A shot of Ganga ghats, village temple, landlord haveli,
powerbroker’s farmhouse, and village streets gives the movie a touch of realism
and takes cinematography to classical shades. Most articulately the characters
of Viay Singh,Abhay Singh and Tripat are integrated into the plot and that of
Ketki ,Kanti and Chandravati ,to illustrate the contradictions of the social
system.
The portrayal of
behaviour of a priest as a criminal in case of Abhay Singh, depicts the oppressive
nature of the Hindu religious hierarchy Mrityudand portrays some of the most
scintillating sequences formulated by Prakash Jha.Killing of local temple head
priest, Ketki rescuing Kanti from Tripat, Ketki and Vinay’s confrontation when
she pokes her nose into his affairs, Murder of Vinay Singh, Ketki and Tripat's
duel in her house when she attacked by him at one night, Abhay and
Chandravati’s confrontation when Abhay knows about her pregnancy, and execution
of Tripat Singh at Ganga Ghat; captivate the audience till the very end. The
climax of the film when Madhuri Dixt as Ketki executes Mohan Joshi as Tripat
ranks amongst the most soul searching scenes portraying women’s quest for
social justice. The movie simply brought out the very best in Madhuri Dixit,who
for the first time enacted a progressive role ,portraying rebellion of a woman
against feudal injustice. Madhuri symbolised a rural women launching a
rebellion or crusade against injustice in a path breaking manner. The scale of
intensity of Madhuri’s eyes in scenes of vengeance or anger gives vibrations of
a Tsunami erupting. Arguably her role ranks amongst the finest portrayals of
women in quest of liberation, in Bollywood history. It is heart touching to
witness the evolving or metamorphosis of Madhuri Dixit as Ketki from a
subordinated village woman into a rebel striving for social justice. She
revealed her prowess for championing social reality in place of donning sex
symbols or a conventional Bollywood heroine, displaying great malleabality. Madhuri
gave shades of the classical acting of Waheeda Rehman,Nutan or Meena Kumari and
even overshadowed Shabana Azmi.To me amongst the finest performances by a Hindi
film actress portraying rebellion against injustice. It is regretful that in
her career Madhuri Dixit sold herself to crass commercialism, rather than
invest her talents into art films.
The performance was a
testimony of the talent Madhuri was endowed with to perform path breaking roles
as a truly consummate actress. Instead of selling herself as a consumer brand
heroine, Madhuri may have transcended the levels of Smita Patil,in portraying
the struggle of an opressed woman. Perhaps this film missed out on highlighting
or integrating the aspect of land struggles tyranny of landlords ,misery of lower
caste agricultural labour or seizures or caste opression .Upper caste landlord
rivalry is projected and not the confrontation of the peasantry with
landlordism. The first part also has excessive plots and sub plots, with tinges
of romanticism. Plot of Film In the village of Bilaspur in Bihar, women are
treated as mere sex objects and can be used or eliminated from their lives at
random by men folk.. One day it’s a horrific sight in the village to see a mob
killing two defenceless girls in full public view with no person coming forward
to help or rescue them. A young couple Vinay and Ketki live a life encompassed
with love and happiness but all that soon changes, as he gets influenced by a
corrupt contractor named Tirpat and becomes a slave of drinking, domestic abuse
and lots of other vices.
Ketki is a dedicated
wife but is unable to bind the family together due to her husband’s bad habits.
Ketki and Vinay show great determination to confront the shackles that the
village has engripped them to. She also struggles to survive in a male
dominated village. The village is ruled by a contractor and broker Tripat
(Mohan Joshi), aided by the local politician MLA Durga Pandey (Harish Patel),
who whose main objective is to divide two brothers - namely Abhay Singh (Mohan
Agashe) and his younger brother Vinay Singh (Ayub Khan), sons of upper class
local landlord, who lives in his past glory and acquire their rocky river land
for their construction projects. Vinay gets married to the educated young
woman, ketki (Madhuri Dixit). As Vinay struggles to keep the household going,
Ketki aides him to embark in an entrepreneurial venture as a contractor, but
destiny shapes for Vinay getting enslaved in the hands of Tripat and Pandey. He
abuses Ketki, warning her not to interfere with his affairs. As their marriage
begins to break up, Vinay soon realizes that the Tripat and Pandey have taken
advantage of his friendship.
Vinay is humbled and
apologizes to ketki. As Vinay and ketki were trying to regroup, Tripat kills
Vinay . Abhay Singh (Mohan Agashe. brother of Vinay Singh (Ayub Khan),
renounces 17 years of unfruitful married life and turns nto a temple priest
after killing local temple head. Kanti (Shipa ShirodKar), a servant, whose
husband is forced to leave the village to pay off a debt, resorts to
prostitution in order to help. Ketki witnesses Kanti being exploited by Tripat.
Abhay Singh's devastated wife, Chandravati (Shabana Azmi), banj (sterile woman)
throughout her life, falls in ove with the Rambharan (Om Puri), a sympathetic
lower caste merchant who has been giving loans to the landlord's family.
Chandravati's relationship with Rambaran turns sexual; with Chandravati
discovering she is not sterile. This provokes Abhay to get help from his
biggest rival, Tripat to save his reputation. They unite with the villagers and
decide to give Mrityudand to Chandravati. Abhay Singh (Mohan Agashe. brother of
Vinay Singh (Ayub Khan), renounces 17 years of unfruitful married life and
takes on the celibate life of a temple priest after killing local temple head.
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