Madhumati : Old Movie Review

Madhumati is an old Bollywood movie that released in 1958 and stars Dilip Kumar, Vyajantimala, Pran and Johnny Walker in pivotal roles. For me, this is a special movie since this is the first black and white movie that I ever saw. I saw this movie again today – probably for the second or the third time in my entire life so far. Seeing the movie after such a long time shed light on several features I did not pay attention to earlier.

Caution: This contains spoilers about Madhumati movie and Om Shanti Om (starring Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone) movie.

Why should you watch the movie?

It is a pretty simply movie with a lot of songs and the female lead – Vyajantimala breaks into a dance every often. If you enjoy old Bollywood songs, you will definitely enjoy it. It has some really beautiful songs such as Suhana Safar (which comes very early in the movie), Chadh gayo papi bichua, aaja re pardesi, dil tadap tadap ke keh raha and Toote huye khwabon ne, to name a few. Several great singers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Asha Bhosle, Mohammad Rafi and Manna Dey have given their voice to the songs of the movie.

The music is really good. If you enjoy Bollywood movie music then you will find several songs catchy.

Storylines

Have you seen Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone starrer Om Shanti Om? Well, the basic premise of both the stories is quite similar.

Dilip Kumar (character name: Anand) joins some firm in the hills as a manager. He soon gets attracted to a tribal village girl – Madhu (played by Vyajantimala) who enjoys singing. Their affection grows for each other. It takes some time for the tribal people to trust Dilip Kumar but eventually they accept them as a good man. Meanwhile, Dilip Kumar works for Pran who plays the former King/ now elected leader of the area. He is an ignorant, arrogant and rich person who does not believe in any hard work or doesnt even value people. Dilip Kumar is quite a self-made person. He just stays honest to his work and does not butter up Pran.

Feeling insulted by his behavior, Pran decides to deep a close eye on him. He finds out about his love interest but starts to desire her. He starts engaging Dilip Kumar in work after hour so that he is not able to meet Vyajantimala, who somehow always manages to escape getting captured by him. One evil day, Pran sends Dilip Kumar out of the city and sends news to Vyajantimala that Dilip Kumar met with an accident. Distraught, she comes to the Palace assuming his body is brought there. However it was just Pran there who starts to chase her.

Next day when Dilip Kumar returns, he is going crazy looking for Vyajantimala who is nowhere to be found even by her own father. He believes that some animal ate her. This is when Dilip Kumar meets Johnny Walker who informs him of the real deed. Dilip Kumar goes to the Palace to avenge Vyajantimala but Pran gets him thrashed and thrown. Johnny Walker saves him and nurses him to health. However, Dilip Kumar starts hearing and seeing a departed Vyajantimala everywhere. He was wondering in the forests when he meets Madhavi (again played by Vyajantimala). Madhavi initially freaks out when Dilip Kumar mistakes her for Madhu. Later he understands that they are different and goes back to being his lost self.

One day he sees Madhavi give a dance performance. He comes up with an idea to shock Pran into believing that Madhu is back as a ghost and trap him into confessing that he killed her. He goes to the Palace saying that he wants to draw a portrait of Pran. The weather is all lightening and heavy rains. Just then Vyajantimala enters the Palace and Pran runs. She narrates how he chased him to the terrace and then she decided to commit suicide rather than getting trapped by him. Pran gets caught by the Police for confessing.

Dilip Kumar feels liberated however, he is upset about Madhu not being with him. It then strikes him how would Madhavi know the details about what happened that night. He asks her and follows her up the stairs just when Madhavi enters. He realizes that Madhu’s spirit was the one present there who got Pran to confessing.

This is very similar to Om Shanti Om. Om is a struggling junior artist who loves Shanti Priya – a famous actress. He gets to save her during a shooting when the set accidentally catches fire. Shanti Priya appreciates how much he respects her and cares for her. She also agrees to go on a date (friendly date) with him. Om then tells her that she deserves so much and everything, hearing which she gets a bit hesitant. Later on a shoot Om follows her to a make up room where he hears her talking to a famous producer Mukesh that Shanti and Mukesh have been secretly married for two years and that Shanti is also expecting his child.

Om is heart-broken. Mukesh was producing a movie for Shanti for which he had built a huge set. He brings Shanti there. He tells her that he intended this to be the set for the biggest movie in the Indian cinema but now they would get married there and then the set will be dismantled. Om was there listening to this conversation. He leaves. Just then Mukesh reveals his true self. He doesnt intent to marry Shanti publicly or to return the money he had loaned for the movie. He has already had the set oiled and then he sets fire, locking Shanti inside.

Om sees the fire and tries to save Shanti but he gets stopped by the goons Mukesh hires to ensure Shanti remains locked. Om tries to free her but gets blasted off in the attempt. He flies to the road where he hits a car of a famous Bollywood actor (playing an actor in the movie). The actor was going to have a baby. he also brings Om to hospital. Om dies and the actor has a baby.

The baby grows up to be Om Kapoor (also played by Shahrukh Khan). He is arrogant and pampered. One day after he wins the filmfare award, he meets Mukesh in a party that his father organizes for himself. He remembers everything from his past life and decides to avenge Shanti. He meets his mother from the previous incarnation and friends. he then tells Mukesh that he wants to bring back the movie that was written for Shanti. While on the pretext of getting the cast and the film script ready, he finds Sandhya/Sandy (played again by Deepika) who is a look-a-like of Shanti. They all train Sandy to use her to trick Mukesh into confessing.

Mukesh starts getting spooky feeling and glimpses of Shanti during the inauguration, shooting and preview sessions. First he decides to leave and return to the states. Om stops him telling that he needs to be available for the music release where they had planned to get his confession. Reluctantly Mukesh decides to stay but he decides to investigate. He sees that indeed the reel contained Shanti’s image and he was not imagining it.

On the day of the Music release he keeps a lookout for Shanti. When he spots Sandy he decides to follow her. There is a song sequence at the end of which the large chandelier falls on Mukesh and he goes unconscious. When he wakes, there is Om and Shanti. Mukesh is careful not to confess anything and says that there was no body found and hence no one can convict him. Shanti says that she was alive when the fire got burned out and Mukesh returned. He buried her alive right under the chandelier. When Om comes to kill him, Shanti stops him. The Chandelier falls again and Mukesh dies. Sandy comes in from the main door when Om realizes that it was Shanti all along who had been with him. They both share a love filled smile.

Problem with Madhumati

The problem that I found with Madhumati, today when I saw it again, was that Madhu’s spirit was already travelling around. It was singing in the forest and even was being visible to Dilip Kumar. When she comes to the Palace, even Pran can see her. Why did she need to convince Dilip Kumar that Pran is responsible for her death and then wait for him to plan everything and enact everything, so she could come and get a confession? Since she freaked him out, she could have haunted him to a level that he would have committed suicide or confessed his crime. Would not that be simpler?

This was simpler in Om Shanti Om. Shanti dies in the set. Mukesh, her husband, leaves the country after murdering her. She needed him to come back to the same place to which she would be apparently tied to as a spirit. Hence once he is there, she starts haunting him.

However, for Madhumati, she was free to roam in the jungle and come in the Palace. She really did not need help from Dilip Kumar for anything.

Another problem with Madhumati was the name of the titular character. Even the girl’s own father kept calling her ‘Madhu’. Her love interest called her ‘Madhu’. Everyone called her ‘Madhu’. Then not sure why keep the name ‘Madhumati’. Simple ‘Madhu’ would have made the name of movie much simpler!

Recommendations

I would recommend you to see the Madhumati movie once – it won’t hurt. But if you enjoy old hindi songs then you can probably first catch the songs and tunes. You will enjoy them.

You should definitely watch Om Shanti Om. It is a good fun Bollywood movie with songs, music, drama, romance and little action.