Classic Cinema: Saudagar (1973)

YouTube offers a wide selection of several Hindi films. While browsing through random list of films I have never planned to see such as 'Tasveer' or 'Fool n Final' ! But thankfully saw 'Saudagar', and streamed the entire film!

I have seen the film long ago, when I was in school, sitting with my mother, watching an after noon show on 'Zee Cinema'  or the likes. And I remember thinking what a wonderful piece of cinema it was...the feeling still remains.

Moti (Big B) is a seasonal gud (jaggery) vendor in the a market somewhere which appears to be West Bengal. He extracts sweet juice from the date palm trees in winter, and takes it to the Mahjubi (played by super talented Nutan). She uses her skills to make the Gud and Moti sells it back in the market.

So you get it, it's a business deal. Give and take. But complications starts arising when Moti falls for a girl across his village, but big boo boo for him as he cannot marry her. Her father asks for a large sum of money in the form of 'mehr'.

How does Moti gets out of his problem. He schemes, and oh yes - real bad! He decided to make a business decision by marrying Mahjubi. While our Moti is completely detached in this relationship, he is simply using her to make more money, now that he does not have to remunerate his own wife, he quickly makes up the 'mehr' money to marry the love of his life. Ofcourse he has to ditch poor Mahjubi.

What follows in an complicated series of events that Moti never dreamt of!

It's a well crafted tale of one man's greed, and its consequences on two women in his lives. Brilliant script that binds the characters together. There are substantial moments in the film that make their presence felt at the end of the film. The sweet-bitter end lingers in the viewer's mind, makes you wonder Mahjubi's feeling towards Moti.

An underlying theme of submissive feminism crawls through the film. It's not about what the women endure, but how they come out of the situation. Most Indian cinema from 70s to late 90s only portrayed a pitiful image of women in context to their feminism, but films like 'Saudagar' come out with a greater message. One might think - it was the man who caused problems, but he couldn't give solutions, and that's where this film wins.

Highly recommended.