DARD KA RISHTA – (A Relation of Pain)
GENERAL COMMENTARY 
A good film is indeed a rare
commodity these days. We live in a time period where economics and marketing
affect film plots as much as emotion and creativity. Dard Ka Rishta
however, is a refreshing break from this phenomenon and is one of those remarkable
films that is a gift to humanity. Dard Ka Rishta exhibits such strong
emotional energy that it almost forces the viewer to become more human. The
film brought together the talents of some of the most gifted actors, musicians,
writers, and cinematographers that have worked in the Hindi film industry. All
profits from the film were donated to furthering cancer research in India. The
film’s patriotic message is enough to make a true Indian viewer misty-eyed.
Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza, one of India’s most exceptional writers, created the dialogue of the film, which at times is nothing short of poetic. Rahul Dev Burman’s soulful scores are given life by such artistes as Kishore Kumar and Hariharan. Songs from the film are hummed even to this day. Smita Patil’s acting exhibited an excellent balance between clarity and emotion. Simi Garewal’s legendary grace and delightfully accented Hindi added a touch of elegance. Satyen Kapoo executed his role as an initially myopic patriarch perfectly. Iftekhaar does absolute justice to his steadfast and intelligent character. Finally, perhaps only an actor of Sunil Dutt’s genius could have supplied the depth of sensitivity demanded by the film.
QUICK
INFORMATION
|
GENERAL DATA |
CASTING DATA |
||
|
Production Year: |
1982 |
Sunil Dutt |
Dr. Ravi Verma |
|
Studio: |
Ajantaa Arts |
Smita Patil |
Dr. Anuradha Verma |
|
Production City: |
Mumbai (India) |
Ashok Kumar |
Mr. Bharadwaj |
|
Producer: |
Sunil Dutt |
Reena Roy |
Asha Bharadwaj |
|
Director: |
Sunil Dutt |
Khushboo |
Khushboo |
|
Music Director: |
R. D. Burman |
Satyen Kapoo |
Chaube Maharaj |
|
Dialogues: |
Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza |
Simi Garewal |
Dr. Mukherjee |
|
SONG NAME |
PLAYBACK
ARTISTES |
DESCRIPTION |
|
Pain is many a splendoured thing |
Usha Uthup |
Played during opening credits. |
|
Ae neend se who jaage |
Kishore Kumar |
Sunil Dutt reminisces about India in a party. |
|
So jaa…so jaa (happy) |
Kishore Kumar |
Sunil Dutt sings to his crying infant daughter. |
|
Kaun hoon mein kya naam |
Lata Mangeshkar |
Khushboo regales the crowd on her birthday. |
|
Ganapati bappa moriya |
Hariharan |
** Please see full description below... |
|
So jaa…so jaa (sad) |
Kishore Kumar |
Sunil Dutt sings daughter dying from cancer. |
Ganapati Bappa Moriya…Purcha
Varshi Lavkarya!!!!
One of my favourite songs in this
film is Ganapati Bappa Moriya. This song takes place during Ganesha
Chaturthi, which is a very big religious event in Mumbai. It is a
day of happiness, when hundreds of thousands of people take idols of the god
Ganesha to the Mumbai Harbour. Sunil Dutt, holding Khushboo’s favourite idol of
Ganesha in his hands, sings this song while walking. Hospitalised Khushboo does
not know she has leukemia. Her father, a renowned surgeon does, but can do
nothing more than watch her die away slowly. All conventional treatments have
shown little promise. The look of extreme pain in Sunil Dutt’s eyes is
counter-balanced by the jubilant dancing and singing of those celebrating Chaturthi
all around him. In all young girls, he visualizes his own daughter. In the
song, moments of pure Chaturthi ecstasy are followed by deep bouts of
despair. Sunil Dutt pleads with Lord Ganesha, and upon reaching the harbour
finally breaks down into crying in front of the idol. Rather than holding the
idol in happiness over his head, he almost holds it in his arms with a feeling
of complete and utter desolation in his eyes. The expressions on Sunil Dutt’s
face during the song exhibit perhaps the epitome of human anguish itself.
SYNOPSIS
Dr. Ravi Verma (Sunil
Dutt) is a renowned surgeon working in New York City. His wife Anuradha (Smita
Patil) is a pediatrician in the same hospital. Anuradha is also a researcher on
leukemia. Ravi’s dream is to return to his native India to use his skills to
help patients there. Anuradha has undertaken a personal battle with blood
cancer after watching her brother die helplessly as a result of it.
One day, Ravi gets a letter of
appointment as head of surgery from the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Mumbai
(Parel District), India. He tells Anuradha, who says she simply cannot move all
her research to Mumbai and therefore cannot go with him. Neither of the two had
realized how strong each other’s commitment was to their causes. Anuradha’s
infuriated father tells Ravi to divorce her, which he half-heartedly complies
with.
Ravi goes to Mumbai, and a few months later, Anuradha finds out she is pregnant. She turns down her parents’ suggestion to undergo an abortion. In Mumbai, Ravi has a household full of a domestic staff that are more like his family members. We have the pure Hindu-Brahmin cook Chaube Maharaj (Satyen Kapoo), the Muslim security guard Khan Chacha, the Christian assistant, the laundry person, and the milk deliverer. All of these people care very deeply about Ravi, since they have served him since he was a baby. Ravi also treats the men with implicit respect, leaving his house open to them day or night.
At TMH, Ravi encounters a staff of friendly, intelligent doctors and quickly gets used to serving about four times as many patients as he did in the US! He discovers that as hard working as he and his colleagues are, they face serious problems. Operating theatres are constantly filled, hospital corridors are overcrowded with queued patients, and few X-Ray plates are available, as the factory is on strike. In a series of conversations, Ravi tells his boss (Iftekhaar) that all he can prescribe for many of his patients is food and hope, neither of which is under his control. One of Ravi’s most memorable lines is where he tells Iftekhaar that patients will continue to suffer until India’s egalitarian socialism refuses to mix with the dust and grit of her everyday life. Iftekhaar, an intelligent head doctor can only listen patiently and looks at Ravi with a mix of fascination and marvel.
One day a Mr. Bharadwaj (Ashok Kumar) is admitted to TMH. He was a former freedom fighter, who along with tens of millions of other Indians helped their nation achieve freedom from British rule. Mr. Bharadwaj is a heart patient who also has lung cancer. One day his daughter (Reena Roy) visits Ravi to ask about her father’s prognosis. All members of Ravi’s domestic staff (except Chaube Maharaj) are very impressed by her gentle grace and mannerisms, and write a letter to Ravi asking him to marry her. Once Chaube Maharaj discovers that the lady is a Brahmin, he too fully supports the marriage. This letter falls into the hand of Mr. Bharadwaj, who as his dying wish asks Ravi to marry his daughter also. The two get married, and after some time, Ravi’s wife becomes pregnant. Her doctor (Dr. Mukherjee) tells Ravi that the delivery could get complicated. Ravi is a bit uneasy, but Dr. Mukherjee assures him that everything will be alright. During childbirth, Ravi’s wife passes away, however. A girl, Khushboo is born to a devastated Ravi.
Everyone in the house (Ravi included), redoubles their efforts to care for Khushboo, so she does not feel the loss of her mother. Ravi devotes his entire energy to his work, his daughter, and the memory of his wife. Eventually Khushboo grows up to become a smart, pro-active young lady with everyone in the house at her beck and call. Shortly after her 11th birthday, she falls ill. At first Ravi thinks its due to a simple change of weather. After some days, he takes her to TMH for a complete blood work. Ravi’s boss, Iftekhaar personally hand delivers the report to Ravi, which indicates Khushboo has blood cancer. Everyone is simply devastated at the news. In the sadness, Chaube Maharaj realizes that religious and caste differences are meaningless, and those human beings are the same the world over. After Khushboo’s vision begins to deteriorate, Ravi admits her to TMH, where doctors immediately start her on the most advanced forms of treatment available at the time (blood platelet drugs, radiation, etc.) Back in 1982, treatment of blood cancer was still in its infancy, however. Despite concerted effort and personal involvement by Iftekhaar, Khushboo continues to deteriorate. Iftekhaar scours the medical library and finds that a hospital in New York conducts bone marrow transplants for blood cancer patients that offer a 25% chance of survival. He immediately informs Ravi, and arranges everything for them to travel to New York.
Upon reaching New York, Ravi finds that the doctor conducting this novel procedure is none other than his ex-wife, Anuradha. Ravi tells her that the death of Khushboo will be the death of him and his career. Initial treatment is met with some success, though Khushboo’s white blood cell count continues to plunge as before. The search for a bone marrow donor for Khushboo leads to a dead-end. Aside from blood group, the donor and recipient have to have a similar genetic makeup. Anuradha and Ravi test themselves but do not match both criteria. Anuradha finally asks her son (the one born 11 years ago after her divorce), who agrees readily to get tested. He is found to be a match, and Anuradha conducts the transplant herself. Up till this point, she has not even told Ravi about the boy, afraid that he may want to take the child away from her. Ravi only finds out the truth when he visits the boy to thank him. Ravi is taken aback, but assures Anuradha that he would never take the child away from her. But he asks her permission to take the boy to Mumbai for his summer vacations. As Ravi, his son, and Khushboo, are about to board the flight, Khushboo runs to Anuradha urging her to become the mother she has never had. Anuradha in turn is taken aback, and the movie ends with her agreeing to Khushboo’s request.
Mr. Sunil Dutt has traditionally been an ardent Indian patriot.
Since the early 1980’s, he has been a public servant who has fulfilled his
duties with exceptional ability and keenness. Today, Mr. Dutt is a member of
the Indian Parliament representing his constituency of the City of Mumbai
(North-West). Mr. Dutt is a dedicated member of the Indian National Congress
(INC) political party. Mr. Dutt now serves his country as the Youth Affairs and
Sports Minister in the new Union cabinet of the central government headed by
the INC. Even before Mr. Dutt started serving the public, his films embodied
his secular, progressive, and nationalistic outlook. This is clearly evident in
many parts of Dard Ka Rishta:
·
Ravi endures giving up his promising
career in New York, and separating from Anuradha to serve his patients at Tata
Memorial Centre In Mumbai.
·
When Anuradha’s father warns Ravi that
Indian bureaucracy will reduce him to dust, Ravi counters that at least that
dust will be Indian also!
·
Mr. Bharadwaj is portrayed as an old
freedom fighter who fights tooth and nail with the extreme pain due to his
heart condition.
·
Mr. Bharadwaj writes in a letter to the
Indian Prime Minister that he has the money to fly to any country in the world
to receive treatment. But hew will not do so under protest. Rather he
will die in India, and his spirit will circulate the Indian Parliament
building until patients in India do not receive the same treatment available in
developed nations.
·
When Khushboo refuses to take her
medication protesting Chaube Maharaj’s rule that does not let the Muslim
security guard enter the kitchen, Chaube Maharaj realizes his folly, and gives
up his myopic outlook. He realizes that religion ought not to divide people.
OBTAINING THE FILM
Only an authorized
copy of a film of Dard Ka Rishta’s calibre can do it justice. Many film rental
places that lend Hindi material have the film available on original VHS (video
cassette). I have not been able to find any way of purchasing the
original print on VHS anymore though. But there is good news for those wanting
to purchase an authorized copy! J
An Indian
media company named Shemaroo, in partnership with Sony (India) released the
film on Video CD (VCD) in 2003. A few scenes unfortunately have been cut from the
original film in order to fit it onto the nicely designed, menu-driven 2-VCD
pack. But otherwise the film is by and large now available on permanent digital
VCD media at a very reasonable cost.
For viewers within India:
Aside from
your local music shops, you can now buy the VCD set directly from Shemaroo. (Shipping within Mumbai is FREE, and
very reasonable for elsewhere in India.) Cost of set: INR 88/-
For viewers outside India:
I bought my
VCD's from AnyTamil, which airmailed the title incredibly
fast from Chennai. AnyTamil accepts payment via the Yahoo shopping gateway, so
your transaction is completely secure. Cost of VCD's (w/shipping): $11.00
Alternatively,
you can purchase the set from Ultra India, which will airmail the title directly
from their distribution centre in Mumbai.
RELEVANT LINKS
The following URL’s can provide a storehouse
of knowledge. I urge visitors of this site to also visit these wonderful
resources:
- Ganesh Chaturthi Greetings, Ecards
and Cards - Ganesh Chaturthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesh, the son
of Shiva & Parvati. Reach out to all your fellow Indians on this
auspicious occasion with these religious greeting cards.
- The Indian National Congress – India’s
largest political party committed to the ideals of secularism, economic
prosperity and national unity.