Mar 18, 2008 11:40 AM
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“Bazaar” (Market) a master piece penned by Sagar Sarhadi, has definitely eclipsed the basic
purpose of any cinema - Entertainment.
It’s not a movie which requires popcorn and cold drinks, but
a reflection of Indian social institutions which was/ are so deeply rooted that
it has uprooted the essence of emotions in human relationships, and hence
requires time apart from 2.5 hours.
Watching Bazaar is
a realization that every character portrays a bundle of contradicting ethos of
societies and individual. It has been brilliantly sketched using metaphors like
desire, needs, money, lust, etc., consciously or subconsciously. In other words
each character is a signifier of societal infliction.
The main plot has an influence of early 80`s counterculture
(read as culture) of women trafficking to Middle East countries wrapped in veil
of marriage around which the subplots are intertwined. But even after 26 years,
it still has the same relevance. If I am any judge, it’s a “bitter realization”
unrealized and unacceptable because we have still not learned the lesson that
closing eyes doesn’t mean that it’s all absorbed. Perhaps Salim (Naseeruddin
Shah) profoundly echoes the same when he helplessly shouts:
“woh neelam-ghar jo sadko,bazaro aur chauraho pe laga karte the, aaj
hum unhe aapne gharo main aapne kamro main le aaye hain”
Hitherto, the past has been visited and it’s really
essential to deconstruct the present if future needs speculations.
Modernity has touched every sphere of human life and with
all due respect to human achievements, we are under achievers.
Everyone seems to bask in the glory of money, lust power and
intellect and identifying success as the commodity. The commodity is getting
humanized and humans are getting commoditized.
The social value has undergone metamorphosis. Today, God is
more tolerant than ever and one can purge his/ her sins with either dip in Ganga or visit to a Dargah.
The status of women may have changed but not their state.
The exploitation is not a gender-biased noun perhaps the reason if you are a
human being you are being used at workplace, home not only by strangers but by
close ones too. Sometime by your own parents (for their own dreams), your own
spouses (for their own urge and needs) and your own kids (for their own lifestyle/
dreams/ demands)
If the philosophy needs a break then perhaps the reason that
Bazaar is reality on celluloid that
has survived the vicissitudes of time. Bazaar
has emphatically projected the real phase of society where existence itself is
a crime because your survival and existence is bound how well you look in get
up of “seller/ buyer”.
Plot:
Movie is about Nazma (Smita Patil) and the conflict with her dreams and
her conscience. Nazma belongs to shriveled nawaab family; she is forced to
enter body trade for the survival of the family. One fine day she ran away from
home with one of the customers “Akhtar” to accomplish her dream of getting
married. To accomplish her only dream Nazma wears the hat of a broker just to
get an old Arab returned “Shakeer Ali” married, who has obliged Akhtar (Nazma’s
love interest) for years. Shakeer falls (rather lusts) for a 15 year old
Shabnam (Supriya Pathak) and what happens next is history. (Highly recommended
to be watched)
One of the best scenes of the movie goes as follows:
(Background of the scene: Nazma along with another friend
visits Shabnam’s house for pre-marital rituals and they hear Shabnam crying.)
Friend: Hum yeh sab kya kar rahe hain nazma..
Nazma: "didi Zindagi main yeh kis kambakhta
ko malum hain ki woh kya kar raha hain"
Friend: kahi anjane main humse koii gunah to nahi
ho raha
Nazma : "to anjaan bane rehna hi achcha hain"
Friend: (with a crying tone) Nazzooo
Nazma: "Fikra na kaho aapne kiye huye ki
talafi ke liye dargaah par ek chadar chadadenge"
This scene is the gist of the movie.
Characters:
Namza (Smita Patil) & Salim (Naseeruddin Shah) are the
main victims (read as protagonists) and don’t need any eulogy .But what draws
attentions is the surprise package of
Farooq Shaikh & Supriya Pathak as “Sarju & Sabnam”. They look
extremely fresh and tend to blur the boundary between real and reel life. One
of the dialogue exchanges between Shabnam and Sarju titillates your inner
chord "hum aur tum agar gareeb na
hote to hame koii juda nahi kar sakta tha"
Every character of the movie has enough in their plates to
deliver and they have done more then their due diligence, whether its Sulabha
Deshpande, Shaukat Azmi, Bharat Kapoor or pretty lady Neesha Singh.
Moral of the story:
Learn to say “NO” sometimes to your own desires. You never
know where it leads you to. Stop being a commodity, you aren’t born to be used
for others discretions.
“Using and being used is not the way of life. You aren’t required to
climb someone’s shoulders to reach your dreams. Never ...”
