Almost nothing to like (Sharada)

Those of you who have seen Sharada and have liked the L V Prasad flick, please pardon this blogger. I too, like all you old film buffs wanted to see this Meena Kumari and Raj Kapoor enterprise for a long, long time. I had imagined that it is going to be one good drama with plenty of twists, turns, histrionics and punchy dialogues. But lo! What I got in return was an utterly contorted, soppy, vague and inane film that should not have been in the first place itself. This is not the way you project a self-sacrificing and great woman. The emotions are forced, the actions are unrealistic and a great team of actors totally wasted. There, I've said it. I've said bad things about a much celebrated 1957 film and I'm ready to accept the brickbats for it. But then, I have reasons for doing so.

Now for a short flashback on the story that starts off well but loses all the steam midway. Shekhar (Raj Kapoor) reaches an naturopathic ashram with his friends when one of them suffer from a severe tummy ache. There me meets Sharada (Meena Kumari), one of the staff, and is immediately smitten by her beauty and dedication to her job. But it is the constant referral to her being a 'devi' that irritates me. Why would anyone idolise a woman who merely does her job too well?! Anyways...
Shekhar is the eldest son of a rich widower called Kashiram (Raj Mehra). At home he is called Chiranjeev (a name that Sharada does not get to know when she first meets Shekhar). Though initially hesitant, Sharada agrees to marry Shekhar when after relentless pursuing he proposes to her. Shekhar is off to China for work and tells her to wait for him, so that they can get married when he returns. Sharada is obviously quite pleased with the proposition as she too by now harbours sweet affections for him in her heart. Mind you, this is where the goodness of the film ends. For, the plot totally goes haywire from here. I really liked the initial scenes where the relationship of Shekhar and Sharada are developed.

News comes that the ship in which Shekhar was travelling sinks. This leaves Sharada shocked and she suffers in bereavement. Meanwhile she also comes to take care of Kashiram's other children who grow close to her. Kashiram's munim suggests that he marry Sharada so that the children get a new mother as good as this woman. Sharada too, accepts the proposal on the insistence of her poor father Ram Sharan. But, bad times have only begun. Shekhar is after all not dead. He is nursed back to health by some tribals and is soon ready to return home to his father and Sharada, his love. But, when he reaches the ashram he is devastated to discover that Sharada is now married! He confronts Sharada with the most poisonous of words and she keeps telling him that in marrying, she had merely fulfilled her responsibilities. Till this moment I can understand Sharada's sad plight. She is a victim of circumstances. But when she starts grovelling for sympathy from Shekhar who is lambasting her husband I cannot understand why a woman would do so. Perhaps, she is a bit too faithful towards her husband now and is ready to forget her past love.

Then comes the scene where Chiranjeev now has to face his new mother. He even has to touch her feet. While he finds that detestable, Sharada happily blesses him. This gets too much for me. How is one supposed to see this! Embittered and heart broken that he has to call his past love mother, Chiranjeev takes to drinking and is forever inebriated. What I find weird is how Kashiram stays almost quite unaffected. All he does he huffs and puffs but he never gets to the root of the matter as to why his son is hitting the wrong road. When things go out of control, Sharada packs up and is about to leave the house with her husband and children. Then, swept with remorse, Chiranjeev calls out MOTHER! And, I faint!!
While things were quite ridiculous till now, it gets worse from here. Sharada, who is happy bringing up her step children and is in no mood to have some of her own, takes care of Chiranjeev as if he is her favourite son! And Chiranjeev, too, loves his new mother too very much!! Aarrgghh!! How on earth is that possible for any sane human being. This is depiction of distorted emotions. Something very queer and ludicrous.

Sharada wants Chiranjeev to get married and so he does. The new bride, Chanchal (Shyama), who always had a thing for this young man, is a bit taken aback by the fondness that Chiranjeev and Sharada share. And I ask, why won't she, when Chiranjeev giggles and laughs with his 'mother' and spends not so much time with his attractive wife.
Soon Chanchal is tipped of by a friend about Sharada's past affair with Chiranjeev and all hell breaks lose. And all this while, Kashiram can only complain about why the daughter-in-law is being so difficult without even going into the depth of the matter. Chanchal forbids Sharada to go near Chiranjeev. This pains her (obviously! She did have a thing for him in the past!) as he is her favourite son!! Fed up with Chanchal's tantrums, Chiranjeev leaves home. And the scripts now keeps climbing up every step of insanity...

Those of you who still have the gall to see this film, hats off to you. Here even the supporting cast is wasted. The director never really cashes in on Agha's coming timing, now Gope, Om Prakash and Manorama's talent. Anita Guha is seen in a wee bit role. Shyama is good but she is made to look too cruel and selfish (when her suspicion is not at all unjustified). Raj Mehra has a role that is too weak. The music by C Ramchandra is just about okay.
I've seen Raj Kapoor do better. Here he starts of sweetly, but thanks to the erroneous script, he just loses focus. His eyes and their magic are not cashed in on, his charisma goes unnoticed. In the end, he is just a limpid character playing to the tune of his 'mother'.

Meena Kumari looks beautiful. But that is not enough for me. I need her in an author backed role. I don't want to see her married off to an older man and calling her ex-lover son. I do not want her projecting herself as the self-sacrificing woman ready to lay down her life at every opportunity. That is so boring. And it's so sad that the director did that with this bombshell of an actor. True, she is victim of deplorable circumstances. True, you'd ask me what would she have done otherwise. I don't have the answers. It's just that Sharada and Shekhar do not impinge on me as mother and child. I squirmed every time Chiranjeev called Sharada MOTHER. They look way better as lovers and that's how the directors should have kept them!!