Synopsis
Fast talking conman Mr. Sampat,
(Motilal) lives by his wits and survives
by conning people. He connives and concocts
an elaborate scheme wherein he involves
theatre diva Malini (Padmini), and Seth
Makhanlal Gheewala (Kanhaiyalal). He uses
the former helps the latter to win the local
municipal elections and then gets them involved
in starting a bank, Friends Bank by offering
customers higher interest. Naturally deposits
are high. He even persuades Malini to start
her own theatre company leaving the Kala
Mandir Company where she gained her reputation.
But even as Sampat has a good life, a local
maharaja who had huge deposits with the
bank due to Malini withdraws his funds when
she snubs his advances. Soon all his schemes
fail and both the Seth and Malini lose huge
amounts of money. Seeing he has nothing
more to gain anymore Sampat leaves them
to deal with their problems themselves and
moves on …
The film
1948 saw the southern studios break into
the Hindi Film Industry with the mega success
of Chandralekha. The film, produced
by the Gemini Studios, and directed by the
legendary SS
Vasan is remembered for its spectacular
drum dance still unmatched till today. Following
the success of Chandralekha, Vasan
had directed Nishan(1949) and Sansar
(1951) before coming out with perhaps
his best Hindi film, Mr. Sampat.
Mr. Sampat is based on RK Narayan’s
book Mr. Sampat: The Printer
of Malgudi which came out
in 1949. However Vasan in fact took enough
liberties with the original work, turning
it into a broad burlesque film and using
it successfully to lampoon politicians,
ex princes, journalists, filmstars, religious
zealots and bogus philanthropists. To his
credit Vasan handles the satirical elements
of the film extremely well making the film
delightfully irrelevant and thoroughly amusing.
Among several memorable scenes in this film
is one for example where a charity organization,
a politician and a Marxist leader give speeches
to uplift the poor and then totally by pass
a man lying on the road!
In that sense Mr. Sampat is a
remarkable film working on many levels as
the film challenges the notions of the commercialization
of art and tries to show that serious work
can be successful too. This is something
true of all art forms be it art, music,
theatre or even cinema. This is clearly
shown that as Malini is a respected theatre
artiste with the Kala Mandir the plays she
performs in there are plays of social concern
looking at problems facing a young Independent
India in its first few years after Independence
in the days of controls and permits. However
once Malini starts her own Theatre company
under Sampat’s devious advice it is
important to note that all the plays staged
here are cheap mythologicals with little
or no depth. Going by the logic that ‘this
is what people what,’ this represents
Malini’s fall as an intellectual and
thinking artiste.
Vasan believed that films were meant to
entertain and were meant to be catered to
the ordinary man. Colossal production values,
huge sets, mammoth dances, thousands of
extras were his hallmark. Thus his films
were regarded as mere variety entertainment
instead of true cinema. This is true of
his swashbuckling entertainers such as Chandralekha
or Insaniyat but not entirely true
of Mr. Sampat. May be this is because
here Vasan had adapted a famous novel and
being somewhat a novelist himself he realized
the importance of staying faithful to the
spirit of the book. Incidentally Vasan’s
own novel Sati Leelavati was also
made into a film and which incidentally
was MGR’s debut film and he more than
anyone else knew the pitfalls of transferring
the written word to the silver screen.
Coming to the performances, Motilal is
the life of the film as the fast talking
confidence trickster, perhaps his best known
screen role. He was a debonair and stylish
man was the one actor who along with Ashok
Kumar was largely responsible for a
much more naturalistic style of acting in
Hindi films. He is spot on in his sense
of comic timing. Special mention must be
made of the scenes where he cons the same
conductor in the beginning and at the end
of the film as he is ticketless on each
occasion. Padmini in her first major Hindi
Film role-plays Malini the theatre actress
who is lured into his money making schemes
by Sampat and it is a fine performance.
As with every South Indian Actress who entered
Hindi films, their training in dance gave
them a distinct advantage over their contemporaries,
Padmini too being a fine dancer, many of
the stage performances in the film make
splendid use of her tremendous ability as
a dancer. Of the supporting cast Kanhaiyalal
stands out as the ghee merchant tricked
into losing all his money following Sampat’s
various schemes. Agha is his usual competent
self in the role of the tea owner whose
main desire is to give Malini a cup of tea
to drink from his hotel.
What is remarkable in Mr. Sampat
is the way music has been used in the film.
The songs have been used exclusively only
for the theatre sequences and that too in
a collage form rather than songs as themselves.
The theatre sequences are a mixture of the
song and dance and dialogue pieces and are
exactly like variety entertainment sequences.
Though the stage sequences are admittedly
a trifle long, it is to the film’s
great credit that it tries to weave the
music into the story and stay faithful to
it rather than try to capatilize on the
great craze that Hindi Film music had become
by then and just have random catchy songs
or item pieces.
Unfortunately however satirical comedies
are rare in Indian cinema as they are thought
to lack repeat value even though films like
New Delhi (1956),
Parakh (1960)
and much more recently Jaane
Bhi Do Yaaron (1983) prove otherwise.
Thus our producers continue to favour other
genres like romances and melodrama rather
than the satire which is the one form which
proves that you can be entertaining and
thought provoking at the same time which
ironically is exactly the form the Kala
Mandir plays use in the film. It is a fine
example of satire – within satire
and works extremely well in the film. Of
course there could be debates on where and
how the film has deviated from the book
and again raise questions on the relationship
between literature and cinema but Mr.
Sampat is as fine a film on its own
level.
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