Baiju Bawra

Baiju Bawra (1952) : Brief Review -

Baiju Bawra tumbles due to supernatural events and serveral flaws in writing but Immortal Music and Meena Kumari & Bharat Bhushan's performances sails it safely to the shore. Baiju Bawra often known as first big musical in Bollywood to recieve immense praise and commercial success is based on myths and historical refrences from Mughal era. In Mughal Emperor Akbar's court, young musician Baiju challenges maestro Tansen to a musical duel in order to avenge the death of his father, which he holds Tansen responsible for. But this anger is often forgotten by him because of love interest of his life, Gauri. His mind battles with two opposite aims of his life love and revenge and it leads him towards tragic incidents. The film is set in Mughal Era and therefore follows very outdated story, i mean even for its time i.e 16th century. It often misbehaves with its own target and so the character looks completely clueless. However, the immortal music and ornamental lyrics keeps it interesting. Even after that, it was supposed to loose some sense sooner or later but sadly it happens just when it starts looking reasonable and the well built scenario gets spoiled. Nevertheless, the tragic ending and decent melodrama still gives it enough space to show us brilliant outing of musical battles. Meena Kumari and Bharat Bhushan makes a solid chemistry that can be enjoyed every single time you watch the film. Supporting cast is fantastic too. The music album composed by Naushad is truly legendary. Vijay Bhatt's direction is pretty good but could have been better, especially in the ending portion. Those last 40 minutes goes over the top, otherwise Baiju Bawra would have been an outstanding film. I'm not sure but lacking historical accuracies might be the issue here.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Baiju Bawra is a divine concoction of heavenly music and romanticized emotions. The movie is about the life of a dhrupad musician and understandably, Hindustani music lies at its heart. The album composed by Naushad got him his only Filmfare award and with a cast comprising of Shakeel Badayuni as the lyricist, Mohd.Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Ustad Amir Khan and Pandit D.V.Paluskar as the singers, it is no wonder that the movie gifts the world with a timeless masterpiece.

Bharat Bhushan perfectly portrays the diverse sides of Baiju's character ranging from a romantic to a troubled revenge seeker although at many a times his emotions seem exaggerated and forced . Meena Kumari takes the limelight for her depiction of Gauri, a bubbly village girl with a pure heart and an undying devotion to Baiju. The character of Gauri is further embellished by the voice of Lata Mangeshkar and the result is simply magical.

Beneath all the layers of music and drama,the movie tries to show how big names exercise excessive power and try to overshadow the lesser known figures. It also depicts the rigidity of the caste system and how the lower income groups can be in such a setting.

The movie is a gem in the the crown of Bollywood and one that should not be missed.

Hindi films typically use music as an interlude that obscures the plot and often just feels tacked on, destroying the experience. This is one of the few exceptions. Naushad has composed excellent music for this film with some excellent tunes like "Tu Ganga Ki Mauj" and "Oh Duniya Ke Rakhwale" rendered beautifully by Mohammed Rafi. And the classical duet is just the right topping that this film feeds.

Bharat Bhushan plays his role quite well; it is the first film in which I have seen him. I have seen Meena Kumari act more brilliantly in later films but here she plays rather melodramatically. Still, it's not the story that pivots a viewer's attention towards the film but the excellent sound score that underscores this cinematic experience.

I have seen this movie many many times and will do so in future. Naushad, in my books, was the greatest composer of Hindi film Sangeet (runners up being C. Ramchandra and Shankar Jaikishan).To bring out the innermost emotions of a Raaga into a 3 or 4 minute song is the accomplishment of a genius. If you want a child to learn Raagdari, just let him listen and learn to play these songs. Then you don't have to force him to learn music. By the way, one of the greatest Bhajans "Man Tarapat Hari Darashan Ko Aaj" shows that the only religion of the artists (song writer Shakeel Badayuni, composer Naushad, singer Mohamad Rafi) is their art.