Musafir

Released in 1957
10/10
Genre- Anthology, Drama
Main Cast- Ch 1: Suchitra Sen, Shekhar
Ch 2: Nirupa Roy, Kishore Kumar
Ch 3: Dilip Kumar, Usha Kiran
Supporting Cast: David, Bipin Gupta, Durga Khote, Nazir Hussain,
Paul Mahindra, Daisy Irani, Mohan Choti, and Keshto Mukherjee
Music- Salil Chowdhury
Story- Hrishida
Screenplay: Hrishida and Ritwik Ghatak
Dialogues- Rajinder Singh Bedi
Direction- Hrishida (Hrishikesh Mukherjee)

BRIEF INTRODUCTION The film is divided into three chapters…
Overall, the story tells about some specific events from different people’s lives that take place in a house rented by them at different times. Mr. Mahadev Chaudhury (played by David) is the original landlord of the house.

LONG INTRODUCTION
Ch 1: Marriage Chapter one of the story revolves around an almost married couple, Shakuntala & Ajay (played by Suchitra Sen, Shekhar) and Shakuntala is not yet approved by Ajay’s family. Ajay’s parents approve of the alliance or not concludes the first chapter.

Ch 2: Birth Chapter two is about old Mr. Madhav (played by Nazir Hussain), his recently widowed elder daughter-in-law (played by Nirupa Roy) who is also pregnant, and his younger son Bhanu (played by Kishore Kumar). With Madhav’s elder son gone, he takes care of the finances of the family but for how long after all he is a retired old man and this situation makes it very important for Bhanu to start earning as soon as possible. Whether Bhanu gets an earning job or not concludes the second chapter.

Ch 3: Death Chapter three starts with Advocate Mr. Suresh Chandra, his widowed sister Uma (played by Usha Kiran), and Uma’s small handicapped son Raja. Despite all the efforts the mother could afford with her brother’s help, doctors declare there is no hope for Raja to recover from his handicapped leg. Meanwhile, somehow Raja hears the sound of a violin from somewhere outside, and he enquires Mohan (the tea boy) (played by Mohan Choti) about the violin player. And this is how the audience is finally introduced to the much-in-question violin player, “Pagla Babu” (played by Dilip Kumar). It is revealed in the next scene that Uma and Pagla Babu know each other from before in fact, also had a relationship in the past. The two obvious questions, first, what is Uma & Pagla Babu’s past, and second, will Raja ever be able to walk or not conclude the third/final chapter.

Structure I feel very proud while writing this, and I want to appreciate that such an organized and precisely structured anthology belongs to the great Indian Cinema of the 50s. In a very understandable way, the narrative consisting of three different stories is woven around a common rented house. And every time, someone shifts in or out of the house, the landlord changes the “TO LET” signboard on the front.

The Dream Crew From the writing part to the direction, everything is special about Musafir. Ritwik Ghatak, Hrishida, and Rajinder Singh Bedi served as dialogue and screenplay writers. The camera work was done by the ace cinematographer Kamal Bose, the master of Black & White cinematography and a long-time collaborator of Bimalda (Bimal Roy) in some of his biggest classics. Shailendra penned the lyrics, and the music was composed by Salil Chowdhury. And this is how the first film to be directed by Hirshida was put together.

My Journey with Musafir Although I got introduced to the Anthology genre through 21 Grams belonging to the Trilogy of Death by Inarritu consisting of Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006), I feel sad that I missed the first Anthology from Indian cinema, yes you heard it right, “Musafir (1957)” is probably the first anthology film of Indian Cinema and also the simplest, most understandable anthology that I have seen so far. Musafir is special for a lot of reasons, the primary reason being, Musafir was Hrishida’s directorial debut, secondly, it was way ahead of its time, an anthology that too released in the late 50s. The third reason is the casting, it’s almost an ensemble, a dream cast, the biggest stalwarts of Indian and Bengali Cinema featured in this film, including my favorite and one of the most beautiful actresses of all times, Suchitra Sen, the greatest Dilip sahab (Dilip Kumar) and Kishoreda (Kishore Kumar) in an important role. Other than Suchitra Sen, the actresses included Nirupa Roy and Usha Kiran in pivotal roles. The supporting cast had David, Bipin Gupta, Nazir Hussain, Mohan Chhoti, and Keshto Mukherjee.

P.S. “Musafir (1957)” won the 1957 National Award for the Third Best Feature Film in Hindi.