Saudagar (1973)

सौदागर

My Hindi teacher handed me this film, with no explanation - she just said I should see it.  I am glad she did.  Saudagar ("trader") is a sad, thought-provoking, excellent film, and an unusual showcase for the skill of young Amitabh Bachchan, before he became "Amitabh Bachchan (TM)".

Moti (Amitabh) trades in gur, a sugar product distilled from the sap of date palm trees (sometimes called jaggery in English).  Each morning he collects the sap and brings it to Majhu (Nutan), a widow in his village.  Majhu boils the sap into jaggery, and Moti brings it to market, sells it, and gives Majhu half of the take.  They are a very successful pair - Moti is very industrious, and Majhu very skilled. 

On an excursion to a neighboring village, Moti spies a supple young village girl Phoolbanu (Padma Khanna) and is instantly smitten.  He wants to marry her, but the price her father asks (to set aside for her as insurance in case of divorce) is Rs. 500 - too steep for Moti's pocket.  So Moti hatches a plan:  he decides to marry Majhu, so he can work her even harder without giving up half his profits, save up the Rs. 500, and then divorce her. 

If Moti sounds like a reprehensible character, that is because he is.  One of the more compelling elements of  Amitabh's performance in Saudagar is how hard it is to imagine him playing a character like Moti after hitting the long stride of his stardom.  Moti is surely a dashing, charming man - all the village girls swoon over him - and he unabashedly uses that charm to his advantage to outwit his competitors in the marketplace and to deceive and manipulate Majhu, all the while remaining an appealing (though not a sympathetic) hero.  He plays the character with subtle emotive skill; his eyes convey, before each wantonly selfish step he takes, that he knows he is behaving despicably.  As Amitabh sets his jaw and his brow, one can almost see Moti weighing his wants against Majhu's livelihood and honor, the way he weighs out gur by the kilo on a balance in the marketplace.

Even more compelling and rangy than Amitabh in Saudagar is Nutan, who is beautiful, in a sad-eyed kind of way that is very appealing.  Here she is supposed to be an over-the-hill widow, no match for Moti's voluptuous young village girl; actually, though, Nutan's mature, solemn beauty is much more attractive than Padma Khanna's vanity and curves.  Her performance, too, is excellent; her role requires the most range of the three principals, as she has moments of hard resolution, joyful domestic bliss, and explosive rage, and Nutan carries it all very well.

Finally, Phoolbanu, the vain, pouty girl who enchants Moti, is something of a pastiche - she is presented as both an upstanding, hardworking Indian woman, and at the same time a nubile, sexualized nymph.  Her introduction shows her writhing beneath a palm tree trying to catch droplets of sap on her tongue; the image is very suggestive, almost lewd, and it's clear from Moti's expression as he watches her that he finds it so as well:

The end of Saudagar is a little ambiguous - it is left to the viewer to imagine Moti's ultimate fate - but there at least develops an understanding between the two women that they are both victims of Moti's cruel selfishness.  This is very satisfying; although they were made to suffer by Moti's connivances, they should not have to pay to redeem him. 

 

Comments

[maajhi]

Carla, I think you should check out some of the Partition movies, simply because your website has thin coverage of movies based on that significant event. Pinjar, Hey Ram, Earth, Gadar are good to start with in that order.

[carla]

Maajhi ji, thanks for the recommendations.

*Earth* I have not only seen and reviewed, but it is one of my all-time favorite movies. (It's somewhat different in style from most of my reviews because it is older - it was one of the first Hindi films I saw: http://www.filmigeek.net/filmi_geek/2006/10/1947_earth.html )

I have *Pinjar*, which means I will watch it eventually. I'll take your mentions of *Hey Ram* and *Gadar* to heart.

[Daddy's Girl]

This one looks really interesting - thanks for the review. I really like Nutan's acting - I especially loved her performance in 'Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki'(you might want to check it out sometime if you haven't come across it yet). I'm glad to finally find out what 'jaggery' is - one of those things I've always wondered about but have never remembered to find out about.

[maajhi]

Yes, indeed. Your newer reviews are suffused with the affection of a fan of Hindi movies, while the earlier ones are more (though not entirely) in the colder "New York Times review" style of an outsider.

It's really great to have you as a fan of Hindi movies. Your blog is a shining contribution already, and I don't know what else is to come :).

[The Buddha Smiled]

Hi,

Am glad you found this movie to watch - it is really well done and incredibly subtle in the acting and narration. I remember seeing this movie many, many years ago, so my memory of it is somewhat rusty, but the sequence I do remember is the market scene after Moti has married Phoolbanu and the gud she makes is not half as good.

You've got a good spread of movies here, so I'm looking forward to many, many more thoughtful, affectionate and enjoyable reviews.

[carla]

Maajhi ji and The Buddha Smiled-ji - you have both made me smile with your kind comments! Thanks for reading.

As for what's coming next, well, I watched two more old movies this weekend - one from the 60s that wasn't very good, and one from the 70s that I loved - comments on them in the near future.

I do think this movie, *Saudagar*, is a gem and I am so glad that Naseem ji gave it to me because I don't know that I would have seen it otherwise.

[Amrita]

I love this movie more for Nutan than for AB. Although I agree that this was one of his better performances [but then I love the early AB more than any other kind] Nutan was the one who sold it for me. great post, filmigeek!

[SS]

Indeed, very good movie, If you want to see real Bachchan, this is it. This movie shows Bachchan as helpless person which we have rarely seen in Angry young man era, worth watching till the end.

SS

[nasim khan]

where this movie was shot?have they shown village of bangladesh?please send me the answers.

fsfwfsv

[shama]

@nasim, From the credits and thanks, it appears it was shot in a fishing village near Kolkata

[Yves]

Hi Carla,
I was looking at Saudagar reviews, and chanced upon yours at Bollywhat (http://www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=18323.0), but I was surprised to see that the same review appears at Imdb under another name: Anitavazirani (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur19918994/comments).
Just wanted to let you know, in case you were not aware. But perhaps you adopted that name on Imdb.
BTW, you did get to see more Nutan, didn't you?
cheers
yves

[Yves]

Carla, sorry for the links, I have included some parasitic brackets.
Here they are again:
http://www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=18323.0
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur19918994/comments