Saturday 4 June 2011

Saajan Bina Suhagan (1978)


I plan to make a tradition of posting a Nutan review on this blog for as long as I keep it running on every 4th of June as we both share the same birthday. This is one of Nutan's last leading central heroine films with that master of Soap Opera-ish movies Saawan Kumar Tak, I reviewed another one of his films with Nutan, Saajan ki Saheli here last year as well

Gopal (Sreeram Lagoo) a wealthy family man receives bad news of his cancer from the doctor, he's advised to leave his home in  the more relaxing environments of Simla for the hustle and bustle in Mumbai all in the name of hiding his illness from his family

He leaves his wife Asha (Nutan) and 3 Children (Barkha Chopra, Kasturi Bartake & Padmini Kolhapure) behind without revealing the real reason for his sudden move, especially since his youngest daughter Bulbul (Padmini Kolhapure) has a hole in her heart


With their father gone to Mumbai, Bulbul befriends the new next door neighbour Rajkumar (Rajendra Kumar), who turns out to be (in a strange coincidence of melodramatic emotions to come) her mother Asha's ex lover. They had separated when Asha's father gave her away in marriage while Rajkumar was away in England studying

Asha eventually does find out the truth about her husband Gopal's illness and before his death he makes her promise to keep living like a married woman when he dies (what????)

Its not long till he does indeed die, only that before he kicked the bucket, Mangatram (T.P Jain) a worker at Gopal's hospital had eave dropped on their conversation. He starts blackmailing Asha for it, making extortionate demands for Money Asha can't even dream of

How long will this go on for? Will Asha put herself out of the misery her husband placed her in by coming clean? How long will she cope with this pretense as well as having to raise 3 kids all on her own?

When the title of a movie translates as it does in this case into Married without a husband you know you're in for some ridiculous soap opera style melodrama. It was quite annoying watching Asha obey her husband's selfish and in fact bad for her health advice, I'm inclined to think of it as sexist and his way of exerting control over her, On the other hand Saajan Bina Suhagan reflects the flip side or should i say dangers of self sacrifice as  Asha ends up paying a big price for her obedience to her husbands ill advice  but this being a family drama it all gets mushied up for a candy sweet ending.


But alas depsite this Saajan bina suhagan is quite watchable, nothing special here in terms of performances , as its all very Soap operaish but give it a go if you like the leads (in my case Nutan) or if you love your inoffensive 70's melodrama time pass movies.

Nutan was one of the major highlights in this for me, her Chiffon saris are a Joy to behold, see for yourself below
Loving her pink polka dots

How's this big flowery one? very Beautiful i say


Lovely colourful Floral sari




Padmini Kolhapure never aged I see, she looked just like this in her later movies
Padmini Kolhapure  at about 10-12 years
Other Cool Screen Caps
Loving Vinod's Jumper here

Can someone please ID her, I think she's Barkha Chopra, she had some interesting neckerchiefs



Good soundtrack from Usha Khanna on here, my favourites are the catchy Jijaji Jijaji hone wale jijaji, the sweet 'Madhuban khushboo deta hai' which should go on the list of bollywood piano songs for anyone collecting them. The irresistible 'O jaani, jaani tum' which samples Spanish group Los Pop Tops 'Oh mamy, Oh Mamy, Mamy Blue' . The song I've chosen to embed today though is Happy birthday Mama just because it fits as today is my birthday and no I'm not a Mama but yet still, enjoy



Paisa Vasool Rating: 4.5/10

P.s. This post has been automatically published

16 comments:

Sharmi Adhikary said...

loved the pink polka dot sari!!

Mette said...

I've only seen one Nutan film yet, and I already love her... I don't think I'll watch this one, though... :)

harvey said...

Happy Birthday!
Glad that you have posted in memory of Nutan's birthday, she would have turned 75 this year! I have also posted a 'my ten favourite Nutan songs' post.
Amazing, she could manage to have a 30 year career where she essayed central characters.
I remember that the song 'jijaji, jijaji' was a great hit and the film as well, but I never managed to see it.

Anonymous said...

Belated happy birthday, Bollywooddeewana!

Jijaji jijaji used to be a very popular song when I was a kid - we'd hear it all over the place, and especially being played by wedding bands when the groom is brought (on a white horse) to the venue of the wedding...

I didn't quite get that 'she should go on living as if she were a married woman' stuff. What did he mean? No signs of widowhood, like the standard white sari of Hindi films? Or no getting married again, etc?

sunheriyaadein said...

I have this movie. I bought it just for the songs - Madhuban khushboo deta hai and Jijiaji jijaji but haven't got around to watching it yet.
'she should go on living as if she were a married woman' - reminds me of Bin Phere Hum Tere.

The Bolly Hood said...

I have to agree with sunheriyaadein, I didn't like the movie, just the songs. I've seen Nutan in another film but I can't remember which...

bollywooddeewana have you checked out my blog? (you follow but I haven't seen any comments from you)

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Sharmi Its fab isn't it

@ Limette I won't blame you for avoiding this, though its quite cute in parts

@ Harvey Thanks so much, she's one person whose classic works I'm yet to discover. I hope I'll know some songs featured on your top 10

@ Dustedoff Bahut Bahut Shukriya. And on her going on as a married woman, he meant she should show no signs of widowhood a la the White sari and all other widow traditions plus I guess the possibility of not marrying again. He wanted her to keep pretending he's living in Mumbai but unable to come down to Simla, though I also think this was to protect his kids from heartbreak especially Bulbul played by Padmini Kolhapure since she had a hole in her heart which might get worse once she hears her beloved dad is dead

@ Sunehri Yaadein the songs are indeed lovely and tahnks for that comparison to Bin Phere hum tere i read the plot on Imdb and they do sound similar, now I'll keep an eye out for that one

bollywooddeewana said...

@ The Bolly hood Yes I have checked out your blog, but I haven't really been on the blogosphere for a long while, rest assured now that I'm back blogging, you'll hear from me at some point

"THE BARD WHO DOESNT HAVE TO TRY TOO HARD" said...

guess d theme of tis movie was ahead of its time :D..thnx 4 d awareness dude :)

bollywooddeewana said...

@ The Brad I beg to differ I think the theme was rather regressive but perhaps you have a different take on it

Filmbuff said...

Belated happy birthay bollywooddeewana.

I got a copy of Saajan ki saheli after reading your review.

I haven't seen this particular movie but like all the others have enjoyed the songs esp madhuban khusboo deta hai.

I would recommend "seema" among nutan's old classics apart from Chaliya, Sujatha, Bandinin etc

bollywooddeewana said...

Thank you for the wishes filmbuff, seems this film is widely famed for its soundtrack I admit i wasn't blown away while watching but when i play back the songs now, i realise how fab they are. Thanks for those recommendations, they'll be making it into my dvd shopping list, i haven't done one in a very long time

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Unknown said...

I wish in the end,Padmini Kolhapure should have taken initiative for Nutan & Rajendra Kumar's marriage.