Jagriti

The film is centered around a stubborn, badly behaved rich boy, Ajay (Raj Kumar Gupta). Though doted upon by his mother and grandfather, he is a problem child. The grandfather sends Ajay to a boarding school to discipline him. But Ajay refuses to reform, constantly getting into trouble with the authorities including the kindly new superintendent, Shekhar (Abhi Bhattacharya). Meanwhile, he befriends a poor, cripple boy, Shakti (Rattan Kumar), who urges him to become good. Shekhar wins the children and teachers over with his unorthodox methods as he teaches the boys about life and about our great country’s heritage even as Ajay stubbornly refuses to toe the line. Finally, as he attempts to leave the hostel, Shakti attempts to stop him and is run over in a horrific accident. Ajay realizing that he is to blame for Shakti’s death, reforms and comes first in both, academics and sports. Shekhar, whose methods have won approval by the education board, leaves to spread his message elsewhere…

A good film doesn’t need stars. If the content of the film is rich, it overrides everything. Nothing proved this idiom better than Filmistan’s Jagriti, a small little film with no stars and set predominantly in a hostel of a boy’s school. However, such was the impact of this little gem that not only did it take the box-office by storm, but also went on to win the Filmfare Award for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor for Abhi Bhattacharya. It is indeed to Filmistan’s credit that they produced a strong purposeful film like Jagriti considering they were known more for their frothy, formulaic films where you mix romance, villany, violence, sex appeal with popular stars and catchy music. And today when one critically analyses their repertoire of work, it is films like Jagriti that stand out rather than Nagin (1954), Munimji (1955) or Paying Guest (1957), popular though they were.

Jagriti is a reworking of Satyen Bose’s earlier Bengali film, Paribartan, made in 1949 and works on a simple humane level and is at once simple, sensitive, thought-provoking, humorous and engrossing. Bose recreates an authentic Bengali ambiance, paying attention to detail and filling the film with small emotional touches that make for rich viewing. More importantly, the film looks at juvenile delinquency and is perhaps one of the earliest Hindi films to do so. While the track of the unorthodox teacher winning over his ‘problematic’ students was explored earlier in Hollywood classics such as Goodbye Mr Chips (1939) and later on in The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and To Sir With Love (1967), Jagriti retains its own distinct Bengali flavour in terms of its treatment and its cinematic language.

In keeping with the times and mood of the nation, Bose blends in strong elements of Nationalism within the film. The film is a throwback to the idealistic 1950s following the euphoria of Indian Independence. The film references India’s glorious past, history and culture as the teacher takes the students on a trip around India to familiarise them with the country. And it invokes much gratitude to Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and the Indian freedom struggle. The film cuts to busts and portraits of these three leaders even as it dedicates a song to the father of the Nation, Gandhiji, thanking him for leading our freedom movement and getting us Independence from the British. Jagriti also urges the Indian of tomorrow not to be complacent following our freedom and to see that the Indian flag flies high and proudly to show the world that India has arrived.

In Jagriti, Bose reaffirms the flair he has in dealing with children as what really strikes one is the naturalness in the performances of the children of the hostel at times reminding one of Jean Vigo’s brilliant Zero for Conduct (1933). Raj Kumar Gupta ably carries the film on his slender shoulders with a smoldering performance as the ‘angry young boy’. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the angry young boy’s screen name was ‘Ajay’ and the angry young man of the 1970s was mostly called ‘Vijay’, both to do with notions of victory. Gupta is perfectly complimented by Rattan Kumar playing the cripple Shakti. Ajay and Shakti’s scenes together at the school swing are the heart and should of the film. They are warm and enduring and later on in the film when Ajay comes to the swing following Shakti’s death, one cannot help but be moved by him as he misses his friend. Besides Jagriti, Satyen Bose also had much success dealing with children in films like Bandish, Masoom and Mere Lal even if he is remembered more for one of Indian Cinema’s finest comedies, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), starring the three Ganguly Brothers – Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Anoop Kumar – with Madhubala.

Coming back to the other performances in Jagriti, Abhi Bhattacharya perfectly fits the character of the kindly new superintendent, playing his part faultlessly never trying to upstage the children at any stage but rather complimenting them with understanding, compassion and yes even punishment if need be. He is also well aided by well-written dialogues, which get their point across without appearing too preachy for the time. Thus, you listen with interest to what he says which is a major strength for the film to get its message across to the viewer. Pronoti Ghosh does full justice to her little cameo as Shakti’s mother.

The music of Jagriti was extremely well integrated into the film and is in fact a highlight of the film. The film thankfully concentrates on the story and doesn’t let the music intrude. In fact the film has just 4 songs, which for the 1950s was a major risk since songs were essential to the Bollywood film idiom. But then Jagriti is a classic example of quality over quantity. Each of the songs is a minor masterpiece – Chalo Chalein Ma, Dedi Humen Azadi , Hum Layen Hain Toofan Se and that evergreen song by Kavi Pradeep – Aao Bachon Tumhen Dikhayen Jhanki Hindustan Ki. Jagriti represents one of the best scores of Hemanta Mukherjee’s career but then remember, it was Filmistan that gave him a break as music director with Anandmath (1952) and it was for Filmistan that he composed his most popular score – Nagin (1954).

Interestingly, Jagriti was remade in Pakistan as Bedari (1957) again starring Rattan Kumar, who had migrated to Pakistan in 1956, in a double role of both the boys. Using Jagriti’s template, Bedari turns it into a patriotic film for Pakistan, thanking Qaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah for giving Pakistanis their motherland and hailing him as a fine soldier of Islam. The film even uses the same tunes as the original film but is more overtly political as it brings in the Kashmir issue with the teacher here asking the students not to rest till their flag flies over Kashmir. What’s more, it doesn’t hesitate to insinuate that Jinnah’s biggest adversary was Mahatma Gandhi in his battle for an Islamic homeland.

Jagriti released in 1954 and proved to be the sleeper hit of the year. Today, when the nation has all but lost its basic human values, it is films like Jagriti, which need to be revisited and seen to waken the good inside us that seems to have got lost.

Hindi, Drama, Black & White