Animal Instincts

  

The continuing limelight hogged by the meekest of the four-legged animals (the holy cow, pun intended) makes interesting and disturbing reading, alternately.

A series of events,announcements and demonstrations have kept all of us interested in their outcomes.We may like it or not, we can't ignore it.

Just as we can not ignore the four-legged animals which have played "meatier" roles in our films, compared to the main lead. The narrative, however, excludes the reptiles (naag-naagin) and birds (eagles, pigeons etc.) and other species.

This is the topic of today's blog ( some call it research,gratifyingly !)

 

The masses of India have been living in the rural parts and one of the most authentic story-tellers of this India was Munshi Premchand. On his story, "Do bailon ki jodi", a Hindi film was made, titled Heera Moti. The film showed that cattle was an integral part of the lives of farmers, one they would not like to part with , at any cost.

The story was written by Premchand and the film was directed by Krishan Chopra . Keeping the oxen in focus throughout the film, the director and composer were able to weave songs around the animals,too.

The historical films made in the yesteryears meant a lot of animals used in scenes of war. However, a special place is reserved for Chetak, the horse of Maharana Pratap. According to tradition, Chetak, although wounded, carried Maharana Pratap safely away from the battle, but then died of his wounds. The story is recounted in court poems of Mewar. However, the name Chetak is not mentioned in any historical documents. The film Jai Chittod depicted Chetak as great a hero as Maharana Pratap. The song dedicated to the warrior's carrier is sung by Lata Mangeshkar , written by Bharat Vyas and composed by S.N.Tripathi.

In the 60s and 70s, there were films in which songs featuring the animals and even focussed on animals.One can recall Mehmood's donkey being the cynosure in a song "Mera gadha gadhon ka leader" from Meherban( 1967) and Nimmi's  cat in the song meow meow meri sakhi  from Pooja ke Phool ( 1964).

Cut to 1971... and we come across one of the most popular characters of Hindi cinema...not the Ramu Kaka , but Ramu with Kaka !

The elephant in the film Haathi Mere Saathi was named Ramu and he got the top billing with Superstar Rajesh Khanna ( fondly known as Kaka).

There is an interesting  story about the film getting made. Rajesh Khanna was zooming ahead in popularity after Aradhana and Do Raaste. Sandow M.M.A.Chinappa Devar, a South Indian producer offered the film to Khanna. The superstar did not want to get shadowed by antics of an elephant on screen, so he quoted an astronomical price to get out of the situation. Such was the craze of Kaka that Devar agreed readily. Kaka then asked Salim-Javed to get the script tweaked and the final product saw to it that  both Ramu and Kaka get appropriate footage. The film broke records throughout  the country making Rajesh Khanna a darling of kids ! Those days  Kaka fans ranged from 6 to 60.

The song in which Kaka gets Tanuja's car towed by the pachyderm became

a chartbuster, obviously

And so we come to the cow and the film representative of the importance was Gai aur Gori 1973. The film, also directed by M.A. Thirumugham, the director of Haathi Mere Saathi ,showed the attachment of the heroine and her cow and the diabolic hero/villain marrying her to teach her a lesson by harming the meek animal. Interesting storyline,but marred by bad script and sloppy handling. The song restores the cow as the mother of all and covers it in the glory it deserves. The film is 44 years old, but the sentiments are quite visible, as mentioned in the beginning of the blog.

In Sholay (1975),  Hema Malini, as Basanti and her mare Dhanno gave Jai-Veeru bromance a run for their money !

Like all other characters of the film, Basanti and Dhanno carved out a niche for themselves.
Remember "Chal Dhanno aaj teri Basanti ki izzat ka sawal hai…" ?...And Dhanno, the ghodi ran so fast that Hema Malini could escape from  the boys of Gabbar.

Animals setting an example for humans was eloquently expressed by Hema malini: " Dhanno ghodi hoke agar tanga kheench sakti hai to Basanti ladki hoke tanga kyon nahin chala sakti "-Golden words, indeed !

Dhanno featured in the "koi haseena" song getting a big share  of the footage compared to the love birds Veeru - Basanti !

Now, to Maa ( 1976). This is probably the only Hindi film to have dealt with Animal rights. You guessed it right...again a Chinappa Devar- M.A.Thirumugham venture. The producer-director duo specialised in Animal films, just as Ramseys for Horror and Hrishikesh Mukherji for comedy!
 The film depicts   Dharmendra as an unscrupulous hunter ( a rare negative role for Dharam paaji )who poaches animals and sells them to circus. The young ones are his prime target.Till the time, an enraged mother elephant decides to take revenge and goes on a rampage, which endangers his mother ! 

There have been numerous instances of cameos played by animals.The dog in Sachcha Jhootha was called upon by the Judge to identify the villain, who was the look-alike of the hero. Raj Kapoor's "magnum flopus" Mera Naam Joker, apart from the circus animals,  also had a dog in the third chapter.
In Minoo( 1977), there was a song,   Kali re kali re, sung to a black goat by the kid who wanted   a "gora-sa ek bhaiya", a desire  deeply embedded in  the Indian psyche.

                                          

The 80s had its own share of Animal-based films. There were films such as  Betaab, Mard, Khoon Bhari Maang , all having dogs as integral part of the plot. But the icing on the cake was the  a dog-oriented film, in which the  author-backed role of  the dog had  many stars of the industry drooling. An apt example of the adage :  Human's envy, animal's pride !

Teri Meherbaniyan showed the hero Jackie Shroff dying just after the interval and his dog Moti taking the revenge , after reminiscing his master. it is said that the histrionics by the dog was much better than that by both Jackie and Poonam Dhillon.

In fact, Moti has been the most popular name of "filmi" dogs. Sachcha Jhootha, Mera Naam Joker, Mard and Teri Meherbaniyan, all had dogs named Moti !

The Nineties had its own canine  icons of the film industry. 

 In the 1992 film, Maa, Jaya Prada avenged her death with help from her pet dog, Dobby, who could see her spirit.

And then there was the dog  who could be the umpire, friend,accomplice and  messenger all rolled in one.

The film was Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, the story of Salman, Madhuri and Tuffy !

It seemed like a wedding video film, with the feel-good factor. However, without  Tuffy the dog, the film wouldn't have had a happy ending !

This iconic dog not only received the blessings of Lord Krishna in the film, but also millions of ultra-emotional Indian movie buffs.

Post 2000, one of the most sensitive films having a dog as a mirror of helpless individuals was Water ( 2005).In the melancholic landscape that Deepa Mehta’s film paints,  Kalu the puppy is the only colour of hope. Devoid of basic human rights, Kalyani(Lisa Ray) discovers love and friendship with the stray puppy she hides in her room.

In the current decade, there have been many films showing animals such as Entertainment ( 2014), which is about a dog named Entertainment ( wow !)  hogging all the limelight and Akshay Kumar competing with it for the property, Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho ( 2015) , in which a pageant for buffaloes is held,  and Life of Pi, based on the relationship between " digital" tiger Richard Parker and a boy named Pi, stranded on a boat in the ocean.

  

Which brings me to the contentious issue of Animal rights.

The disclaimer about "no animals being hurt" is a fairly new phenomenon. The films mentioned in this blog have indulged in tormenting the voiceless animals while extracting stellar performances. The animal right activists and PETA, armed with the Animal Welfare Act 2011, replacing the toothless Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960,have succeeded in bringing an end to this practice and this is a healthy sign.

The recent satirical film Ye hai Bakrapur ( 2014) tells the story of an 8-year old boy and his pet goat named..... Shahrukh !


                                 

 

                                          This actually got my goat !