The six seasons of Kalidasa in Bollywood – Monsoon

After a long spell of a harsh summer, the monsoon ushers in a season of joy and relief. The aroma of the scorched earth touched by the first torrent of rains is intoxicating. Birds and beasts are equally delighted. The whole nature changes its texture.

This is indeed the season where Bollywood outdoes itself. Farmers rejoice. Those who are lonely go about dancing in the rain, hoping that a beloved would be discovered soon enough. Lissome heroines prance about in their fully drenched attires, performing dance steps which could put an Olympic gymnast to shame. When it gets pitch dark, lightning helps young ladies to locate their lovers.

Courtship reaches a higher level of intensity. Hormones run amok. Sounds of thunder make the heroine cling closer to the hero. Those who have lost their beloveds to the harsh workings of Fate fondly recollect their lady-love in this season. Perched on their mighty swings, groups of young ones indulge in much playfulness.

Kalidasa holds monsoon to be the king of all seasons and draws a parallel between sweaty elephants and dark water-laden clouds. The copious rains these bring are even compared to the elixir of life on the lips of offspring: mother’s milk. Peacocks dance in gay abandon. Rainbows get linked to the waistline ornaments of young ladies. Rivers in spate get compared with damsels who flirt with their lovers with gay abandon. In doing so, both are reckless about their own kith and kin. The season unites a separated couple. It also brings about separation between lovers.

Consider some of the couplets from Canto Two of Ritusamhara and few Bollywood songs which come to one’s mind.

“Oh, dear, now the kingly monsoon radiantly shining like a king is arriving with a convoy of rainy clouds as its ruttish elephants; lighting flashes as its pennants and buntings; percussive thunder-claps as its drum beats… welcome it for it is the delight of voluptuous people… [2-1]

Do Bigha Zameen (1953, Bimal Roy)

Chhalia (1960, Manmohan Desai)

Dil To Pagal Hai (1997, Yash Chopra)

“Oh, dear, sheeny are the faces of the deer with their swiftly zipping eyes, which are akin to black-lotuses and to your eyes as well, and they the deer and you, zip your eyes more and more, when there is a thunder or a rumble, then you run into my embrace, as they run to overcrowd the white sand-beds amidst lushly thickets of forests, and this gorgeous beauty of forests and the graceful beauty of yours, all this is promptly rendering the heart highly ecstatic… [2-9]

Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958, Satyen Bose)

1942: A Love Story (1994, Vidhu Vinod Chopra)

Koi Mil Gaya (2003, Rakesh Roshan)

Hum Tum (2004, Kunal Kohli) 2004

“Though the cloud-cover rendered the nights as pitch-dark, and though thundering is thunderous, and though the pathways on ground are indiscernible for it is pitch-black, even in such nights the lover-seeking women are making haste on those paths, that are indiscernibly shown by the flashes of torch-lights, called the flashes of lightning, for they are impassioned to meet their lovers, to all intents and purposes… [2-10]

Kala Bazar (1960, Vijay Anand)

Barsaat Ki Raat (1960, P L Santoshi)

Mera Naam Joker (1972, Raj Kapoor)

“Well decorated are the water-bearing blackish clouds with the wiry flashes of lightning and with rainbows, and they are flashily dangling down with the weight of water, likewise the jewelly ear-hangings and waist-strings of the womenfolk are dangling down that flashily, thus even those vivacious women are instantly stealing the hearts of sojourners, for these exotic women are reminiscent of the lady loves of those sojourners… [2-19]

Parakh (1960, Bimal Roy)

Jeevan Mrityu (1970, Satyen Bose)

Guru (2007, Mani Ratnam)

“These days the women are not applying sandal-paste that is mixed with yellow camphor etc., for it will be too coolant, and hence their limbs are quietly bedaubed with the powder of aloe vera and sandal-paste as bodily scents, and with flowers bedecked as ear-hangings at hairslides, their plaited hairdo is rendered fragrant with these flowers and shampoos, such as they are, they are in the service of their in-laws in their chambers, but on hearing the rumbles of clouds, they are hastening themselves to their own bedchambers, where their men are in long wait, though the nightfall has not fallen that deep…[2-21]

Barsaat (1949, Raj Kapoor)

Milan (1967, Adurthi Subba Rao)

Fanaa (2006, Kunal Kohli)

“In this rainy season when congeries of clouds have showered enough, plethoric is the flowery blossom, hence the womenfolk embed their hairdos with the tassels of Maalati flowers together with Vakula flowers, and with other new blossomy flowers, and the tassels of new buds of Kadamba flowers are pinned and pensile like their ear-hangings, and this has all the hallmarks of lovers, that decorate the hairdos of their lady loves, themselves with their own hands… [2-24]

Chandni (1989, Yash Chopra)

Lamhe (1991, Yash Chopra)

Rudaali (1993, Kalpana Lajmi)

Bollywood uses rains to depict not only the hopes and aspirations of spinsters and the blossoming of romantic affairs of ardent lovers. Once in a while, it also uses the rainy season to capture the moods of separation and melancholy. Some of the compositions and their settings in a movie are quite innovative, and are based on pure classical music, like this one:

Saaz (1997, Sai Paranjpye) 

In Ritusamhara, Kalidasa captures different shades of the rainy season so very eloquently. Luckily for us, he lived and worked in a tropical country and thus included this season in his classic work.

Our dream merchants also do a fine job, armed as they happen to be with a medium which is visual and has a greater potential for engrossing the senses. However, Bollywood songs often lack the emotional depth and societal context which the poet captures in some detail.

[Notes:

1. Translations of ‘Ritusamhara’ courtesy Mr. Desiraju Hanumanta Rao:

http://www.sanskritdocuments.org/sites/giirvaani/giirvaani/rs/rs_2.htm

2. Movie buffs might be surprised at not finding the iconic song from Shri 420 ‘Pyaar hua iqrar hua…’ here. Since it has already been covered in the opening post, one did not wish to repeat it here as well.]

(Related Posts: https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/the-six-seasons-of-kalidasa-in-bollywood

https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/the-six-seasons-of-kalidasa-in-bollywood-summer)

 

 

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