Dholak (1951)

Directed by: Roop K Shorey
Music: Shyam Sunder
Lyrics: Aziz Kashmiri
Starring: Meena Shorey, Ajit,
Shyamlal, Ved Puri, Shakuntala,
Yashodhara Katju, Majnu,
Tun Tun, Manmohan Krishna,
Rajni, Amir Banu

The lockdown period and my ill-health were only made bearable by a series of ‘watchalongs’ with Shalini. We rewatched our favourite Shammi, Dev and Amitabh movies, watched some new films and many old ‘new’ films – older films that either one, or both, hadn’t watched before. So, on one of those occasions three years ago, we watched Dholak. Once we realised that the story was by IS Johar and that the film was a Roop Shorey production (heroine Meena Shorey’s husband), we settled in watch a film that promised to be both entertaining and thought-provoking). As is always the case with our ‘watchalong reviews’, there will be many comments on the film, and many, many comments on just about everything that crosses our mind. Be warned.

The story begins with Diwan Ganpat Rai (Ved Puri) and his wife (Shakuntala) receiving a letter from their daughter, Mona (Meena Shorey, though we don’t know that yet). She is graduating soon and will be returning home.

 

 

 The landlord, Rai Saheb, who arrives shortly thereafter, is pleased to hear the news. From the conversation that follows, we learn that Mona is in college in Shimla. Also studying at the same college is Manohar (Ajit), the son of Ganpat Rai’s best friend, whom he has brought up after the latter’s demise. It transpires that Ganpat Rai has borrowed a huge sum of money from Rai Saheb to pay for his daughter’s education. He assures the landlord that he will repay the loan as soon as possible. The landlord demurs – ah, where’s the hurry?

Shalini: Ah, yes, if I remember right, Rai Saheb has romantic designs on the young-enough-to-be-his-daughter Mona.
Me: Rai Saheb talks in third person?

 Shalini: Apparently so.

The scene now shifts to Shimla College where Mona (Meena Shorey) and Manohar (Ajit) have passed with flying colours. Sheila (Yashodhara Katju) and Birju (Majnu) have failed but seem totally insouciant about it. In any case, they are soon celebrating their impending farewell from college. We both love that the song isn’t choreographed to bits – everyone moves around like normal people would. We also love that Mona and Manohar are always squabbling.
 

Sheila, who is in love with Manohar, tells him that she’s going to open a music school. Perhaps he would like a job there? 

 

Manohar demurs politely and Mona, who’s watching rather jealously all along, whisks him away (much to Sheila’s disappointment). Manohar and Mona return to their village where the Rai Saheb has organized a huge welcome for the first graduates of the village. 

 

Shalini: Rai Saheb is instructing the villagers when to applaud?
Me: He doesn’t seem too sure they will, otherwise.

Of course, his speech (and some unintended consequences to his exhortation to the villagers) is the highlight of the programme. We are amused that the background music is ‘Lara lappa’.
 

Soon, Mona and Manohar are settling back in, and applying for jobs everywhere they can, without much success. And upon realizing Rai Saheb's real motives, Mona is now desperate. She needs a job, and soon. Manohar comes up with an idea – sitting at home and sending applications is all very well, but perhaps it would be better to go personally? He suggests that he go to Delhi to scope out opportunities for both of them.
Me: You know what I like about this? There’s no question of the girl not working. It’s taken for granted, encouraged even, that she will.
Shalini: And, this is a great example of people who have grown up together but don’t regard each other as siblings.
Me: Yes, but neither are they childhood sweethearts. Just good friends, though it is clear there is an attraction there.

 

We both swoon a little bit over how handsome Ajit looks here: tall, broad-shouldered, square-jawed. Sigh!
 

While we were swooning, poor Manohar is wearing out his shoes searching for jobs. Everywhere he goes, he only sees 'No Vacancy' boards. Until, one day, he passes a music school. Where he overhears a choir singing, led by a teacher who’s very off-key. 

 

Finally, Manohar cannot take it anymore; he jumps over the window sill and takes over the class, much to the teacher’s annoyance. Devi (the teacher – Amir Banu) summons the School Board to throw Manohar out and is very annoyed when they decide to hire him instead. 

 

So, Manohar has landed a job. But, there’s one condition – he must be married; is he? Of course, says the desperate Manohar. And so, he summons Mona to whom he does not divulge the fact that she’s meant to be his wife. 

 

Meanwhile, he also has to find excuses for why a supposed couple needs two separate rooms.  Soon, Mona is appointed as the dance teacher in the school, much to Devi’s chagrin. She’s very suspicious of the couple, and eventually, circumstances force Manohar to tell Mona of the charade. When she flares up, he reminds her that it’s a question of retaining their jobs. Reluctantly, she agrees to go along. 

 

We are thrilled that Manohar seems to have a healthy fear of Mona.
They stumble along though Devi is still suspicious of them. And then, complications arise. Everyone believes that Mona is pregnant. One of the school’s directors even wants her to have a boy.
Me: Are these three directors of the board or prospective grandfathers?
 

Though Mona gets a raise because of this misunderstanding, she has an unholy row with Manohar when she realizes why everyone is being oh-so-kind to her. 

 

And Devi, still suspicious and spying on the couple, overhears their argument and that they are only pretending to be married. Off she goes, threatening to have them dismissed. And perhaps even arrested for fraud.
 

Meanwhile, Mona and Manohar have stopped squabbling long enough for Manohar to offer a way out for them – they could actually get married before the Board meeting. That will save them from dishonour and arrest. Besides, he’s loved Mona for ages.

 

Shalini: Ajit’s speech is quite romantic.
Me: True. But I like that she laughs and cries simultaneously – the situation is definitely farcical.   

So, off they go to the courthouse to get married. Where, even if Mona is a little sad that the ceremony is so small and all she gets is a certificate, the magistrate assures them that they are well and truly married. 

 

Only, as it turns out, they are not!
Shalini: Ah, this plot point is taken from Mr & Mrs Smith!
Me: Yes, there, it was the jurisdiction; here, it’s his retirement.
 

For, the court clerk has just informed the magistrate that according to the court gazette, he was retired (and therefore, ineligible to conduct the marriage.) The flustered magistrate sends his clerk off to tell the couple they aren’t married after all. But by then, Mona and Manohar have been dismissed and the ayah (Tun Tun) has been instructed to bar them from entering the school.
 

Meanwhile, Mona’s parents are getting ready to leave their home in the village. But Rai Saheb wants his pound of flesh. Or, he says, he will be forced to take legal action. Of course, there are other ways to repay the debt… his late father had said, etc., etc.
Me: The Bade Rai Saheb seems to have said a lot of things before he died.
Shalini: With his last breath too.

I’m pleased that the mother absolutely refuses to let her husband marry their daughter off to an old man. Shalini agrees.
 

Back to where we left Mona and Manohar: the two are – as usual – squabbling loudly, each blaming the other for the loss of their jobs. 

 

And even when the magistrate’s clerk catches up with them to inform them that they are not married, the two are so engrossed in their argument to pay him any attention. Finally, they go their separate ways, still unaware that they aren’t legally married. But, Manohar soon gets another job – in Sangeet Mahavidyalay, run by Professors Anand) Manmohan Krishna) and Krishna (Rajni).   

I am pleased to see Manmohan Krishna in a role other than benevolent father. Shalini is trying to figure out who Krishna is, who is making eyes at Ajit.
Shalini: Not that I blame her!
 

Prof. Anand is orating about how married people only focus on their marriage to the detriment of their jobs. Manohar hurriedly informs them that he’s unmarried.

 

We are in splits! This is a reversal indeed, and since both Manohar and Mona think they are married, it’s all leading up to a nice comedy of errors. And of course, who should be in the room next to his? 

 

Why, Mona, of course, who has also been appointed in that music school, and who’s also pretending to be unmarried!
Me: I love how both are so dismissive of their marriage!
Shalini: These two crack me up! There’s no ‘Bharatiya naari’ ‘Pati Parmeshwar’ nonsense.

 
Both Mona and Manohar are very happy in their new job and Mona has even written to ask her parents to come live with her. But pretending to be unmarried also means that they are attracting unwanted attention – Prof. Anand is besotted by Mona and Prof. Krishna is openly flirting with Manohar.
 

Which leads to a humorous argument between Manohar and Mona on who’s being unfaithful to whom. In song.
Me: I like that the tone is still humorous. I love the irreverence shown to the ‘sacred’ institution of marriage.
Shalini: Yes, so different in tone from Mr & Mrs 55, no?
Soon, Prof. Anand is asking Manohar advice – on how to woo a woman. "Yahan shaadi mana hain, mohabbat nahin!" he tells the stupefied Manohar. I chortle.
Shalini: How quickly Manohar changes his advice when he realises the woman is Mona!
 

Meanwhile, Mona is giving Krishna the same advice on how to attract men, until she realizes that the man in question is Manohar. She, too, rapidly changes her tune.
 

Why do we get the feeling that they are both enjoying the thought of what will happen to the other? We are definitely enjoying ourselves.

 

Dholak is a very 40s-Hollywood-style romantic comedy, and the director keeps the tone very light and frothy throughout.  There’s no moralising about a young couple who first pretend to be married, and then discover they are unmarried.  (The two of them burst out laughing when they learn the truth.) Most of the humour comes from the dialogues, which are light, flippant and intelligent. But there is some situational comedy, especially when the directors of the Modern Music School call for a 'Meeetinggg!" and huddle together to discuss whatever the topic du jour is.

 

 

Shyam Sunder gives us a delightful score; my personal favourites are the delightful Aise rasiya ka aise balma ka kya aitbaar, Magar ae haseena-e-bekhabar, Ik pak ruk jaana sarkaar and Mausam aaya hain rangeen.

 
Mona is a unicorn in the world of Hindi film heroines – a young woman with a mind of her own and the agency to make her own decisions. She takes the responsibility of repaying the loan her father took for her education, and it is wholly satisfying to see her throw the money in Rai Saheb’s face at the end. Mona’s parents not only repose their trust in their daughter but are open with her about their decisions concerning her future. When she agrees to marry the Rai Saheb, it is because she sees no alternative at that point; yet, even then, she’s smart enough to negotiate a loophole. What was even more refreshing is that Mona is just an ordinary woman – educated, intelligent – exactly like Sheela or Rajni. She’s not particularly ‘modern’ or controversial.
 

Manohar, too, is an unusually ‘normal’ young man for all that he’s the hero. The relationship between him and Mona is that of equals, and it remains so throughout the film. It is fascinating to see how ‘normally’ it is treated in the film as well. Both Ajit and Meena Shorey show a definite flair for comedy, and are a treat to watch on screen.
 

Dholak has no other agenda than providing some light, intelligent entertainment, but it gets the message across that women are neither ‘special’ nor ‘less than’; there’s no social commentary about male privilege or women empowerment; it’s just about two young people in the same circumstances, trying to find and keep their jobs. It would be impossible to find a woman like Mona, or a relationship like hers and Manohar’s, or even that attitude towards marriages today.

For how these two will unentangle themselves and get together (or not), what happens to the Rai Saheb, or the unrequited love stories of the besotted professors, do watch the film. [Tom Daniels has cleaned the print up, here.]