A Time To Wake Up To The Grim Reality Of Triple Talaaq

Content is back” and “Melody returns” are indeed catchy captions which entice cinegoers to view the legendary director Late Lekh Tandon’s swan song”Phir Ussi Mod Par”and the film does live upto the expectations.

The veteran director with popular hit pictures like “Professor”,”Amrapali”,”Jhuk Gaya Asmaan”,”Jahan Pyar Miley”,”Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaaye” and “Agar Tum Na Hote” et al to his credit nostalgically takes you back to the era of straight forward engrossing story telling punctuated with melodious songs —a hark back to the by gone days  by.

Choice of a much debated contemporary subject of triple Talaq for the film imparts the narrative with the advantage of debating the hot issue threadbare and discussing the merits and demerits of the archaic practice.Placing the associated religious connotations in perspective the director deftly and forcefully espouses the cause of doing away with the unjustifiable  cruel practice of triple talaq in no uncertain terms.Tackling such a bold subject head on demands courage and the film succeeds in displaying an intrepid approach of calling a spade a spade in unfolding the scenario.The sure footed sensitive handling of the contentious issue by the director is truly commendable.

The story centres around the trials and tribulations of a much wronged woman Naaz who is duped by her lover into a sham marriage and subsequently shunned by subjecting her to “Talaq Talaq Talaq” when she is an expectant mother.Sheltered by a Good Samaritan ,Naaz bravely battles all odds to prove triple talaq to be an inhuman chauvinistic practice which ought to be discontinued.When her own son applies triple talaq on his wife (a childhood sweetheart) enticed by a conniving voluptuous secretary Naaz takes cudgels against her own son, drags him to court and strongly advocates justice for her wronged daughter-in-law. The climatic court scenes are the high point of the dramatic narrative.naaz

A hand picked cast of Lekh Tandon regulars render utterly credible performances imparting rare Sensitivity and subtlety of expression laced with ample doses of understatement to their portrayals.Kanwaljit Singh is utterly brilliant in delineating the character of Rashid the benefactor and performs with noteworthy aplomb with his face mirroring his inner turmoil without shedding a tear.Jividha as the protagonist Naaz performs with commendable gusto as do Parmeet Sethi,S.M. Zaheer, Vineeta Malik,Hyder Ali eat al.

 Kanika Bajpai in a special appearance steals the show with the punch line “Yeh kya Hindustan Pakistan laga rakha hai, Islam Ka rang har mulq mein Ek hai”.The newcomer playing Rashid Junior is the only weak link in the performers ensemble.

Lekh Tandon films are known to be embellished with super hit music. He made a surprise choice of the Technocrat Producer of the film, Trinetra Bajpai (co-author of the celebrated coffee table book “Those magnificent music makers”,who has an affinity to classical music) as the music director to recreate the musical patterns of the golden age. Bajpai created an eclectic medley of compositions reflecting old world charm tuning the lyrics of late Naqsh Lyallpuri,Ahmad Wasi and Irshad Kamil.Haunting melodies viz.”Sehmi sehmi hain gulshan ki ranaiyan”, (picturised on the director Lekh Tandon), the sprightly qawwali  “Rakh le iskanaam koi” both sung soulfully by Javed Ali Take the cake among the lilting congregation.Then there are the poignantly rendered sad songs(rarely heard these days), “Hum Kya dil ka haal sunayein”, and “Jab se tum badal gaye “ soulfully sung by Kanika Bajpai and the foot tappingly tuned lyrical duet “Apni zulfon ko”(Kanika Bajpai /Javed Ali).

In general the credits have more than filled the bill with opulent cinematography by Jahangir Choudhary and a taut screenplay coupled to pithy dialogue.

Adieu Lekhji ,your last cinematic hurrah is a thought provoking cinematic essay worth watching.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Lekh Tandon, Triple Talaaq