Love Triangles and Misunderstandings Have Never Been So Convoluted
Today's review: Bahu Begum.
I haven’t had a lot of exposure to Bollywood movies, but that’s just because they haven’t popped up on my radar very often. So when I stumbled across Bahu Begum and liked what I saw on the IMDB summary, I was happy to give it a shot. And while I’m not sure how I feel about the movie as a whole, I did find it an interesting viewing experience.
While the movie was made in 1967, I think it was supposed to be a period piece, though I’m not entirely sure on that. Regardless, the story revolves around Zeenat (Meena Kumari), the daughter of a once noble house that’s fallen on hard times but tries to keep up appearances. She has an admirer named Yusuf (Pradeep Kumar), though they have to contrive excuses to see each other, presumably due to Indian rules of conduct for unmarried ladies. Yusuf has a fair bit of money, but it’s in the care of his uncle (Balam) until Yusuf gets married, so on the surface, he’s not a promising prospect. He nevertheless asks his uncle to ask Zeenat’s father for her hand. Unbeknownst to him, though, another man, Mirza (Ashok Kumar) caught a glimpse of Zeenat and was immediately smitten, and thus asked her father first. Since he’s very wealthy, her father agreed. Yusuf has a friend, Achchan (Johnny Walker) who lives with Zeenat’s family, and overhears the discussion of the marriage plans, assuming the plans are for Yusuf and Zeenat’s wedding, something the uncle encourages (he’d like to keep spending Yusuf’s money). It’s the “big misunderstanding/talking at cross purposes” trope, but taken to a massive extreme, because nobody finds out until the day of the wedding what’s really going on. Then it gets even more complicated, because Zeenat sneaks out of her house during her wedding in the hopes of meeting Yusuf and learning what’s going on (the uncle sent him out of town on business to keep the deception going), and thanks to complications, isn’t back in time to complete the ceremony, so Mirza leaves with an empty bridal palanquin, which leads to its own set of problems. All this, and there are musical numbers scattered in there too.
What makes this movie fascinating is seeing how another country and culture interprets some of the classic (or depending on your point of view, cliché) tropes. I personally don’t particularly like the “big misunderstanding” trope, but I was more tolerant of it here because I was amazed at how long the story was able to keep the deception going. Now, maybe this is a case of Admiral Plot Device, but I’m very inclined to believe that there was a period in India’s history where the bride and groom not only didn’t see each other until the wedding, they didn’t even perform the ceremony together and only truly met each other once the bride was taken to the groom’s home. It makes the conflict more interesting, especially given how the various characters react to what happens. There are still predictable moments, not the least of which being that both Zeenat and Yusuf end up thinking the other betrayed them, but it’s all pretty original, at least from my American perspective, and thus I was curious to see how it all played out. Though I did wind up a bit taken aback by the ending, because while it did end the way you’d expect on the one hand, the way the movie got to that ending wasn’t what I was expecting, both because that’s just not how things are done in Hollywood movies and because I didn’t think Bollywood movies tended to go that route either. Live and learn, I guess.
There are a few other minor things worth discussing. I was under the impression that Bollywood movies tend to have big, elaborately choreographed musical numbers. Well, there are definitely musical numbers, but only the first one was anything close to being what I’d been expecting, and the rest seemed to fluctuate between being at least somewhat relevant to developing the plot or characters or being completely superfluous. It increases the runtime, and while this is probably perfectly normal for Bollywood, it does make the movie drag in places. Next, I’m a bit torn on the character of Achchan. He’s a bit annoying, but clearly cares for Yusuf and knows when to be serious, so I overall grew to like him. The problem is, his primary purpose in the movie is to be the comic relief, and while that works in some moments, it can be jarring in others, especially once the plot really takes off. Furthermore, some of his scenes involve cartoon sound effects, which come out of nowhere and make the humorous beats extra jarring, especially if they happen after a dramatic moment. This may be a cultural thing, and goodness knows American movies sometimes struggle with tone, but the sound effects made the difference particularly glaring. Finally, I have to admit that I didn’t really see the chemistry between Zeenat and Yusuf initially, which made it a little harder to root for them. I’m guessing the script was trying to go for “she pretends to dislike him but actually wants to see him”, but it felt more like he kept annoying her and she only agreed to see him because he ground her down, or just so he’d go away. It does get better a little later, but I think it could have been handled better. Even a closeup on her face after he left where we see her smile and blush would have been enough. Again, though, this may be a cultural thing, and I’ll just have to roll with it.
While the movie is a bit of a time investment (two hours and forty-seven minutes to be precise) and I don’t know if I’d make this someone’s introduction to Bollywood, it may be worth checking out if you like seeing different takes on tropes. I certainly don’t regret seeing it, though I don’t think I’d ever be inclined to watch it again. Especially if I want to check out other Bollywood movies to see if they go against my expectations too.
I haven’t had a lot of exposure to Bollywood movies, but that’s just because they haven’t popped up on my radar very often. So when I stumbled across Bahu Begum and liked what I saw on the IMDB summary, I was happy to give it a shot. And while I’m not sure how I feel about the movie as a whole, I did find it an interesting viewing experience.
While the movie was made in 1967, I think it was supposed to be a period piece, though I’m not entirely sure on that. Regardless, the story revolves around Zeenat (Meena Kumari), the daughter of a once noble house that’s fallen on hard times but tries to keep up appearances. She has an admirer named Yusuf (Pradeep Kumar), though they have to contrive excuses to see each other, presumably due to Indian rules of conduct for unmarried ladies. Yusuf has a fair bit of money, but it’s in the care of his uncle (Balam) until Yusuf gets married, so on the surface, he’s not a promising prospect. He nevertheless asks his uncle to ask Zeenat’s father for her hand. Unbeknownst to him, though, another man, Mirza (Ashok Kumar) caught a glimpse of Zeenat and was immediately smitten, and thus asked her father first. Since he’s very wealthy, her father agreed. Yusuf has a friend, Achchan (Johnny Walker) who lives with Zeenat’s family, and overhears the discussion of the marriage plans, assuming the plans are for Yusuf and Zeenat’s wedding, something the uncle encourages (he’d like to keep spending Yusuf’s money). It’s the “big misunderstanding/talking at cross purposes” trope, but taken to a massive extreme, because nobody finds out until the day of the wedding what’s really going on. Then it gets even more complicated, because Zeenat sneaks out of her house during her wedding in the hopes of meeting Yusuf and learning what’s going on (the uncle sent him out of town on business to keep the deception going), and thanks to complications, isn’t back in time to complete the ceremony, so Mirza leaves with an empty bridal palanquin, which leads to its own set of problems. All this, and there are musical numbers scattered in there too.
What makes this movie fascinating is seeing how another country and culture interprets some of the classic (or depending on your point of view, cliché) tropes. I personally don’t particularly like the “big misunderstanding” trope, but I was more tolerant of it here because I was amazed at how long the story was able to keep the deception going. Now, maybe this is a case of Admiral Plot Device, but I’m very inclined to believe that there was a period in India’s history where the bride and groom not only didn’t see each other until the wedding, they didn’t even perform the ceremony together and only truly met each other once the bride was taken to the groom’s home. It makes the conflict more interesting, especially given how the various characters react to what happens. There are still predictable moments, not the least of which being that both Zeenat and Yusuf end up thinking the other betrayed them, but it’s all pretty original, at least from my American perspective, and thus I was curious to see how it all played out. Though I did wind up a bit taken aback by the ending, because while it did end the way you’d expect on the one hand, the way the movie got to that ending wasn’t what I was expecting, both because that’s just not how things are done in Hollywood movies and because I didn’t think Bollywood movies tended to go that route either. Live and learn, I guess.
There are a few other minor things worth discussing. I was under the impression that Bollywood movies tend to have big, elaborately choreographed musical numbers. Well, there are definitely musical numbers, but only the first one was anything close to being what I’d been expecting, and the rest seemed to fluctuate between being at least somewhat relevant to developing the plot or characters or being completely superfluous. It increases the runtime, and while this is probably perfectly normal for Bollywood, it does make the movie drag in places. Next, I’m a bit torn on the character of Achchan. He’s a bit annoying, but clearly cares for Yusuf and knows when to be serious, so I overall grew to like him. The problem is, his primary purpose in the movie is to be the comic relief, and while that works in some moments, it can be jarring in others, especially once the plot really takes off. Furthermore, some of his scenes involve cartoon sound effects, which come out of nowhere and make the humorous beats extra jarring, especially if they happen after a dramatic moment. This may be a cultural thing, and goodness knows American movies sometimes struggle with tone, but the sound effects made the difference particularly glaring. Finally, I have to admit that I didn’t really see the chemistry between Zeenat and Yusuf initially, which made it a little harder to root for them. I’m guessing the script was trying to go for “she pretends to dislike him but actually wants to see him”, but it felt more like he kept annoying her and she only agreed to see him because he ground her down, or just so he’d go away. It does get better a little later, but I think it could have been handled better. Even a closeup on her face after he left where we see her smile and blush would have been enough. Again, though, this may be a cultural thing, and I’ll just have to roll with it.
While the movie is a bit of a time investment (two hours and forty-seven minutes to be precise) and I don’t know if I’d make this someone’s introduction to Bollywood, it may be worth checking out if you like seeing different takes on tropes. I certainly don’t regret seeing it, though I don’t think I’d ever be inclined to watch it again. Especially if I want to check out other Bollywood movies to see if they go against my expectations too.