In desperation, Chhoti bahu cedes to her husband's demand and partners him in his drinking bouts. But she is optimistic that the sindoor will live up to its claims and help her win her husband's affections.īut Mohini sindoor fails. Her relationship with her debauched husband (Rehman) has reached an impasse he is spending nights with courtesans. Chhoti bahu has smuggled Bhoothnath into her quarters because she wants him to fetch Mohini sindoor for her. You are instantly struck by Meena Kumari's hypnotic visage. We first see Chhoti bahu when the camera follows Bhoothnath's hesitant gaze as it moves to her face. To further heighten the mystery, he astutely employs a birhan song and snatches of Meena Kumari's sultry voice. The haveli stands as an architectural metaphor for a disintegrating era and, ironically, Chhoti bahu too seems doomed to share its fate.ĭirector Abrar Alvi deliberately creates a halo of intrigue around Chhoti bahu by denying us even a glimpse of her in the opening quarter of the film. He finds accommodation in some quarters of a palatial haveli belonging to the local zamindars and slowly gets entrenched in the life of the haveli's Chhoti bahu (Meena Kumari). A volatile relationship with his boss's pert daughter Jabba (Waheeda Rehman) ensues.
chale aao, Bhoothnath flashbacks to the haveli's halcyon days.Īn unsure small-town youth, Bhoothnath arrives in Kolkata and finds employment in the Mohini Sindoor factory. To the haunting strains of Koi door se aawaz de. Like in the book Brideshead Revisited, the eerie fact that he has been to the place before sets him reminiscing.
Bhoothnath (Guru Dutt), a middle-aged architect, is working amidst the ruins of an old haveli. The film seduces you from the very first frame. She eventually crumbles due to a hopeless love and a debilitating addiction, but depicts that there can be dignity even in desperation. She plays a complex, flawed but spirited Chhoti bahu of a feudal era who chafes at the bonds constricting her. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam has Meena Kumari as its magnetic centre. Based on Bimal Mitro's novel Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, this is a fascinating mood movie made by people gifted with acute sensitivity.
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