Gaman 1978
If one has to understand the pain of separation and helplessness, Gaman is the movie for you.
Gaman is one of the most visually impactful Hindi cinema.
Director Muzaffar Ali's brilliance is been shown in every shot of the film. Gaman is a film of departure. Ghulam played by Farooq Sheikh a man from a village who tries to do better in life, tries to meet his end. He moves to the city of Mumbai with the help of his friend Lallulal Tewari played by Jalal Agha who's been working in the city for a quite long time. At first, Ghulam seems to have a very progressive journey to become a taxi driver, he feels hopeful. But eventually, all hope dies when he realizes that there's no way out of this rotten city.
There are so many factors in this film that are nothing less than genius. First of all, the acting. Everyone, from Farooq Sheikh to Smita Patil, a very young Nana Patekar to Jalal Agha, everyone was on point, giving their best to it.
Secondly, the music of this film. There is the thing about this film, that it takes time. It makes a hole in your heart and makes a space for itself permanently. If you really watch it, patiently. In recent times, in all the films I've seen, there was hardly any film which's music was this good. Akhlaq Mohammed Khan and Jaidev were genius. The way they captured the essence of the plot and the pain of the characters was beyond explanation. Every song in the film was more than good but two songs that really stayed with me were 'Aap Ki Yaad Aati Rahi' by Chhaya Ganguly and 'Ajeeb Saneha Mujhpar Guzar Gaya' by Hariharan.
Thirdly, the sub-text of this film. For example, the character of Farooq Sheikh's name is Ghulam, which means Slave. Although I might be interpreting too much, if this thing was intentional then hats off to the Writer and Director of this film. As we see that the character of Ghulam is always been a slave, firstly he's been a slave of his own thoughts, and later he becomes the slave of the city, his condition. On the other side, the character of Smita Patil's name is Khairun. Which translates to Someone great. As we see clearly in the film, although Smita Patil has hardly any dialogue her screen presence makes an unavoidable impact on the emotional aspect of the film.
I still remember watching Namakhalal with my father as a kid and absolutely falling in love with Smita Patil. Her simplicity, subtlety, and beauty were undeniable. And after all these years, watching her again made me overwhelmed with satisfaction.
Finally, I'd say that 'Gaman' is one of those few films that are genuinely good and deserve more appreciation.
~ Subhodeep Chakraborty
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