Movie World
Rabindranath Tagore’s stories converted into Bollywood Films – Part 7
Geet Gaata Chal (1975)
By Dinesh Kamath
From Ramanand Sagar to Gulzar, many
celebrated filmmakers have adapted the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore’s
classic stories and novels. The audience, in our times too, find Tagore's world
engaging and relatable, feeling attached to the emotions, issues, drama and
anxieties suffered by the characters he created. Let us take a look back at one
of the Hindi language version of his work on screen.
Geet Gaata Chal (1975)
This was another Rajshri
Productions adaptation of a Tagore short story. This film was directed by Hiren
Nag, telling the simple story of a teenage boy who prefers the life of a
wanderer to the confines of a domestic life. The film starred Sachin Pilgaonkar
who captured perfectly the free-spiritedness of a young man with no settled
home, no emotional attachments, and who keeps wandering through villages and
towns without a care in the world.
Geet Gaata Chal (lit. Go on
singing) is a Hindi film released in 1975. Produced by Tarachand Barjatya for
Rajshri Productions, the film is directed by Hiren Nag. The film stars Sachin,
Sarika, Madan Puri, Padma Khanna and Leela Mishra. The songs written and
composed by Ravindra Jain. The movie is a remake of 1965 Bengali movie Atithi.
The film has Sachin as Shyam, Sarika
as Radha, Khyati as Meera, Urmila Bhatt as Ganga, Madan Puri as Sohan Singh, Padma
Khanna as Champa, Manher Desai as Durga babu, Leela Mishra as Buaji and Dhumal
as Champa's dance troupe owner.
The movie has an interesting plot. Durga
Babu, and his wife, Ganga, comes across Shyam, an orphan, who sings and dances
on special occasions, and decide to take him home. Shyam meets with their
daughter, Radha, and she slowly falls in love with him, but he thinks that she
just wants to be friends. In his eyes, Shyam wants to be a free person, not
tied down to anyone or anything, and would like to spend the rest of his life
wandering, singing, and dancing. When he discovers that the family intend to
get him married, he likens his plight to that of a caged bird, and flees,
breaking Radha's heart. Will Shyam ever return? What impact will this have on
the family? The movie answers all these questions.
The movie has beautiful songs like "Geet
Gaata Chal O Saathi" sung by Jaspal Singh, "Shyam Teri Bansi
Pukare" - Jaspal Singh, Aarti Mukherji, "Bachpan Har Gham Se"- Kishore
Kumar, "Kar Gaya Kanha" - Aarti Mukherji, "Main Wohi Darpan
Wohi" - Aarti Mukherji, "Shyam Abhimani" - Mohd. Rafi, Asha
Bhosle, "Dharti Meri Mata" - Jaspal Singh, "Mangal Bhawan
Amangal Haari" - Jaspal Singh, "Chaupayan Ramayan" - Jaspal
Singh and "Mohe Chhota Mila Bhartaar" - Jaspal Singh, Hemalata,
Chetan.
Stories by Rabindranath Tagore is a
widely appreciated show on Epic channel. These stories have been adapted to the
small screen by director Anurag Basu. He picked different stories like Chokher
Bali, Charulata, Kabuliwala, Detective, Samapti, Chhuti, etc, and devoted two
or three episodes to each novel, while short stories are narrated in a single
episode. Based in the early twentieth century of undivided Bengal, the stories
are set in a politically volatile Calcutta. Tagore, hailed as the most
articulate feminist of his times, defined confident women as the protagonists
of his stories who managed to be strong and defiant in nature while being
cocooned in a conservative Indian society.
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