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B. R. Chopra set the trend of socially relevant films, writes M.L. Dhawan
Apart from novel themes, his films were replete with romance, music, action, emotion and drama. Chopra never made size or style to substitute for substance. He always laid importance on a good script. He was, perhaps, the only one of his contemporaries to have several writers on his payroll. A strain of social commentary ran through most of his classics. Though he never made feminist statements or talked about the empowerment of women, yet the theme was a strong point in some of his films. While his Ek Hi Raasta and Babul were based on the theme of widow remarriage, Sadhana was about rehabilitation of prostitutes, Dhool Ka Phool about illegitimacy and Gumraah had infidelity as its subject. Whether it was Muslim marriage as in Nikaah or the politics of rape as in Insaaf ka Tarazu, he had an incisive non-formula tale to tell. He set the trend of socially relevant films. His magnum opus Naya Daur (1957) was a melodrama about the perils of progress. The race between a bus and a horse-driven carriage symbolised the victory of traditional values over the modern ones. Chopra’s films laid stress upon the sanctity of love, human relationships and marriage. Pati, Patni Aur Woh explored the conflict between the rights of a woman as a wife and the claims as a beloved. When Madhubala, the original heroine of Naya Daur, refused to shoot for an outdoor location, Chopra took her to the court. Inspired by real-life legal histrionics, the courtroom became a steady fixture in his films like Kanoon, Waqt, Dastaan or Insaaf Ka Tarazu. Chopra firmly believed that cinema is not just a medium of entertainment. He felt it should also carry a message. He created an entertaining format to get his message across. Based on the Hindu-Muslim relations at the time of Partition, his Dharamputra made an appeal for communal harmony. This was a story of an illegitimate Muslim child adopted by a Hindu family who on reaching adulthood becomes a fanatical Hindu. The film reaches a climax when he leads a mob, which sets out to burn the ancestral mansion of his real family. In his Dhool Ka Phool, too, he pleads for communal harmony when an old Muslim, Abdul Rasheed (Manmohan Krishan) tells the boy not to side any particular religion (Tu Hindu banega na musalmaan banega, insaan ki aulaad hai insaan banega). Though some of Chopra’s films such as Mazdoor, Raaj Ki Awaaz, Dahleez, Awaam, Pratighat were not money-spinners yet his honesty of purpose and integrity were discernible in every frame. Divine intervention came in the form of success of his serial Mahabharata. In the beginning of his career, Chopra had promised the film industry that he would make films with a difference. He kept his promise till the end. In the twilight of his career, he made Baghbaan, a film on filial ingratitude. In the agony of the protagonists Raj and Pooja Malhotra (Amitabh and Hema Malini), he brought forth the turmoil and tribulations of an elderly couple. Chopra would say that a creative journey is a journey of obsession. Filmmaking is a business of ideas as nothing can survive with hype alone. He was a man of vision whose imagination galvanised those around him. Unfortunately, in our industry, filmmakers of vision have been rare.
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AN
M.A. in English literature from Lahore University, Baldev Raj Chopra
stared his career as a film journalist with Cine Herald. After
Independence, he came to Bombay. A stint in production and he made his
first directorial venture with Afsana (1951), a film on
adultery. The film was a silver-jubilee hit.