People that recount Art house films from India ignore bazaar as if it were a minor achievement but it really was the first in the filmschool movies from india (which started as a movement with kumar saini and ritwick ghatak and has to date spawned such leading lights of cinema as shyam benegal, govind nihalani ketan mehta, Vidhu vinod chopra and many other big names in directing) that incorporated the aesthetic of the gazal and the sound of urdu(hyderabadi deccani) into social critiques made with handheld cameras and dramatic actors of great capacity. A cast that reads Naseeruddin shah, smita patil faouq sheik,sulabha deshpande, supriya pathak, javed khan, shaukat azmi is not one to shake a stick at , and sagar sarhadi's directing is supported by very stark cinematography in the streets of the old city secunderabad to recreate the present/recent past relalistically.
Bazaar is the story of many betrayals. tiny ones that happen unsung except in gazals. Najma(smita patil) has run away with Akhtar to mumbai and is waiting, he says for his parent's approval (but really for financial independance) to get married to him. His father supports a bombay flat in which najma lives, and akhtar visits (he stays with his mom?) to take the 12:35 bus back home every day.
One day, Akhtar's father visits from dubai and says he would like to marry again. He's in dubai, he's old(about 60) and he's vital and prosperous but he has noone to come home to. he's lonely. he wants a beautiful girl...like najma...from hyderabad for himself. he dangles a carrot ..akhtar gets his independance...(so najma can marry). Nagma decides to give him the wedding of his dreams.
Her brother (in a manner of speaking ) is an unemployed youth in hyderabad sarju (farouq sheik) who has a sweet tiny romance going with Shabnam(supriya pathak) the girl next door. Sarju writes letters dime a thirteen to nagma, giving her details of the family she left behind. Naseeruddin shah plays salim a poorly off writer of shers employed with a newspaper who has been pining away openly for Najma for the last eight years...that he's become some kind of joke in the Akhtar -Najma household. Najma calls him home for dinner and speaks very fondly to him...and lets him tell her how much he loves her.....very considerately...
So the Older Akhtar, the younger one, Najma and salim set off to hyderabad to find the old man a bride. Shabnam sings at the elaborate dinner charade organised for the occasion.
What happens next is the story in bazaar.
The film is at least as memorable as it's music. Khayyam(who made the music to Guddi ,another golden oldie) composes four gazals: Phir chedi raat (sung by lata Mangeshkar and talat aziz) , Dikhayi diye yun (Lata) , Karoge yaad to(bhupendra singh) and Dekh lo aaj humko(jagjit Kaur) (the songs are here :
http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000601.html ) All classics and every one of which work in the contest beautifully.
The combination of the gazal and cinema is a gener astrider. popular films such as pakeeza and Razia sultan(semi ghazals in Devdas and Parineeta) as well as arthouse films such as Gaman ,Nikaah, Sparsh and Chasme badoor have both had very popular gazals in them. It's been a while, though, since we have seen a really good arthouse release from muslim india. (MF Hussein's meenaxi does not count. A R Rahman doesn't really understand the gazal.)
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