Synopsis
The
film looks at the havoc caused in a village
by a cheque for Rs 5 lakh sent to the postmaster
(Nasir Hussain) by Sir J.C. Roy to be given
to the most honest man in the village to
improve the village. Not knowing what to
do, the postmaster calls a meeting of the
5 so called prominent men in the village
- the zamindar Thandav Tarafdar (Jayant)
who rules with an iron thumb, the doctor
Hari (Rashid Khan) who only treats those
who can pay him, the contractor Bhans (Asit
Sen), the head priest Tarkalekar (Kanhaiyalal)
who misuses religion and the honest village
schoolmaster Rajat (Vasant Choudhury) who
is love with Seema (Sadhana), the postmaster's
daughter. Unable to decide among themselves
who should get the cheque, they decide on
having an election. The peaceful life in
the village is turned inside out as the
4 apart from the schoolmaster do everything
to ensure their popularity. In a complete
turn about the zamindar forgives what is
due to him from the farmers, the doctor
starts to give the people free treatment,
the contractor has handpumps and walls dug,
the pandit organizes a pooja where the goddess
Lakhsmi appears. To get the schoolmaster
out of the way, rumours are spread about
him and Seema. On the day of election the
zamindar and his men resort to booth-capturing
but the postmaster's lame assistant Haradhan
(Motilal) revels himself to be Sir J.C.
Roy and exposes the others for what they
were and decides that the most honest man
in the village is the postmaster as he could
have kept the cheque if he wanted to. He
also reunites Seema and Rajat in the process.
The film
Following
the super success of entertainers Madhumati
and Yahudi in 1958 and then the sensitive
love story Sujata
in 1959, Bimal
Roy surprised all when his next film
was a small little satirical film with no
big stars. But Bimal Roy was vindicated
when the film opened to great critical acclaim.
The film was Parakh.
The
film once again establishes what a fine
and sensitive filmmaker Bimalda was. Parakh
sees Bimal Roy venture into satire territory,
something not really associated with the
realistic filmmaker of Do
Bigha Zameen (1953), Sujata and
Bandini (1963).
 However,
Parakh is a witty, perceptive film
and looks at how greed and money affect
the behaviour of people. The film finds
Bimal Roy truly enjoying himself as he blows
the lid off so called respectable people
and shows to what levels people can stoop
to for money. Unusually for a film, the
music department is in charge of the writing
of this film. The film is based on a story
by Salil Choudhury with dialogues by Shailendra
and dialogue direction by Paul Mahindra.
In
terms of cast the film is more of an ensemble
piece with well sketched out characters
rather than lead roles and supporting roles.
Sadhana,
billed as Sadhana Shivdasani, for the only
time in her filmi career gives perhaps her
best ever performance in just the second
film of her career. She plays a simple girl
in the film a far cry from the glamour of
Love in Simla, her first film released
earlier the same year. Bimal Roy while taking
Sadhana in the film said she reminded him
of a young Nutan
who incidentally was Sadhana's favourite
actress. Ironically after Love in Simla,
when Sadhana reported for the shooting of
Parakh, Bimalda almost dropped her as he
now found her too glamorous. Sadhana pushed
back her fringe, sprayed gel on it to make
it stay and convinced Bimalda she could
look simple as well. Shorn of her glamour
and trademark fringe, Sadhana lets the focus
be on her performance & gives a sincere,
simple and understated performance. It is
one of life's biggest tragedies that Sadhana
the first real fashion icon among filmstars
with her Sadhana cut and churidar kurtas
was known as the epitome of glamour of the
swinging 60s whereas Parakh and some of
her other early films like Hum Dono (1961),
Asli Naqli (1962) and Man Mauji
(1962) reveal an actress of considerable
depth and substance but post Mere Mehboob
(1963) only the glamour side of her was
exploited by our filmmakers. Motilal is
his usual ebullient self as post assistant
Haradhan who is actually the great Sir J.C.
Roy coming up with yet another impeccable
and thoroughly natural performance winning
the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor for the
same. The rest of the supporting cast do
full justice to their roles. However Vasant
Chowdhury as the idealist schoolmaster is
just about adequate.
While the music department took over the
writing of the film, they still did their
respective work in the music department
as well. Parakh sees at least two
extraordinary numbers both rendered by
Lata Mangeshkar. The first of these
is the Mila Hai Kisika Jhumka. In
this beautifully picturized scene, the village
post- master's daughter, who is waiting
by the riverside for the arrival of the
village schoolmaster, picks up a hibiscus
flower under a neem tree and imagines it
to be someone's jhumkaa. But the icing on
the cake really is that all time great -
O Sajna Barkha Bahar Aayi, a song
which even Lata Mangeshkar rates as among
her best ever. The song is also poetically
picturised by Bimalda with Seema inside
the hut and the rain falling outside. It
is said that Salil Choudhury got the inspitarion
for the song while driving his car in the
rain as he listen to the swish of the wipers
and the patter of the raindrops on his windshield.
Salilda makes splendid use of sounds and
orchestrates the song beautifully with the
sitar pieces enhancing Lata Mangeshkar's
brilliant singing. The song was equally
popular in its Bengali avtaar as well as
Na Jeo Na. The other songs are more
situational and go well with the mood of
the film be it Kya Hawa Chali Rut Badli
- extremely well written by Shailendra,
Yeh Bansi Kyon Gaye, Teri Leela
Sabse Pyari Lakshmi Maiya or Mere
Man ke Diye.
Released
in 1960, Parakh went on to win for
Bimal Roy yet another Filmfare Award for
Best Director making it a hat-trick following
Madhumati and Sujata the previous
two years. Parakh proves that a small
well made film can be equally good if not
better than the big budget film with big
stars because it is the content that ultimately
counts. It is a shame that a small gem like
this is often never considered or brought
into discussions on Bimal Roy's cinema because
Parakh is a fine film in its own
right and is in fact a film extremely relevant
for today's mercenary times.
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