The hall of the grandest hotel in Colaba sparkled with women in silk sarees and glittering gowns. The waiters went about balancing silver trays with glasses of sherry and canapés. Red Christmas stars along with hundreds of silver crystal spheres that covered the ceiling of the large room danced to the track that was playing in the background. ‘Har taraf husn hae jawani hae’ from Trishul was followed by ‘Aati rahengi bahaarein’ from the film Kasme Vaade . It was 1978, the year both the films had got released. My mother, young and wide-eyed, invited to one of the year-end parties remembers: “It was so beautiful and grand… A party scene just like we had seen in cinema.”
Like her, Hindi cinema has taken its viewers to many parties. In most of them we witness social relations, intimacy and, at times, even unfolding crime, almost always accompanied by a song. The party is a curious space, one that presents surprises and juggles sociability and revelry. It could also be a study in class and individual relations. We have had our share of busy party evenings through our cinema, intoxicating us with the sets, their elaborate design, grandeur, costumes, champagne and the songs.
Back in the day
The 50s were the age of the clubs, the culture of the colonial era, where suited men sang ‘ Bholi surat dil ki khotey’ ( Albela 1951). The genre of club party song had a style and narrative of its own using western orchestra and instrumentation referring to the jazz age. The club and cabaret songs of the 50s and the 60s were often used to build the mystery in the plot as with the singer protagonist of Teesri Manzil (1966) and in ‘ Baar baar dekho’ in the noir film Chinatown (1962).
The party scene strewn with unfamiliar faces, cultural differences and a sense of anticipation was often an analogy for the individual and his/her unresolved relationship with the world around. In Anari (1959) the song ‘ Nineteen Fifty Six’ ushered the next year while Raj Kapoor looked visibly uncomfortable caught in a place and attire in which he can’t quite be himself.
In Anupama (1966) the party scenes brought out Sharmila Tagore’s character, an introvert owing to years of being an unwanted child, who is unable to adjust to social events. The film also had Dharmendra singing ‘Ya dil ki suno’ at a party where Tagore, away from the crowd, finds her herself echoed in the words of the song. An interestingly shot sequence in Purab Aur Paschim ( 1970) had Manoj Kumar, the guests, the tables at a party in a revolving stage and everything in a dizzy swirl in the song “Hai preet jahan ki reet”.
Reflections of an era
In 1971, Basu Bhattacharya in his film Anubhav took us to the house s of his characters and reminded us that a party can be seen through a distinct eye making it visually stunning and interesting. Anubhav ’s house party was set in the Bombay flat of Sanjeev Kumar, a newspaper editor. Here a set of guests are caught against light and shadows with the murmur of conversation as his wife Tanuja plays the gorgeous host. The city entered the house party and Anubhav ’s party scene was a stylised one, different but reminiscent of the Parisian party beginning of Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierre Le Fou (1965).
Set in the 70s around the emergency and Naxalite movement, the bungalows of Lutyens Delhi hosted parties that showed the anxieties and changing ideals of a group of students in a later film, Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003).
Around the 70s the errant hero entered with ‘Arey Deewanon mujhey pehchanon’ in Don (1978) and went from one party to the other with his courage and charm in tact. ‘Jahan teri yeh nazar hae’ from Kaalia (1981) was actually a guarded conversation about a theft between the hero and the villain. The angry young man played by Amitabh Bachchan in almost all his films had a party scene where the song was used as a direct confrontation and rejection of order. He often interrupted the party with his audacity and made the scene dramatic as in ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves’ from Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), ‘Dilbar mere’ (Satte Pe Satta 1982) ‘John, Johny, Janardhan’ ( Naseeb , 1981), ‘Tum saath ho jab apne’ ( Kaalia , 1981) and in the party scenes in Sharabi (1984), Lawaaris (1981) and Namak Halal (1982) The parties and the songs were necessary to bring out the energy and the triumph of the angry hero of its time just as in Sholay the iconic ‘Mehbooba’ , complete with dancers is a private celebration of the infamous Gabbar Singh, is one that ends in an ambush.
Emotional encounters
Love, strangers and betrayal have often crossed paths in dressed up evenings. Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi are regulars at the evenings hosted by Saeed Jaffery, Shah recites Urdu verses and flirts with Azmi, his wife in ‘Huzoor is kadar’ from Masoom (1983). At one such do the strained relations between the couple come to fore as Shah reveals the truth about his illicit son: his meeting with Supriya Pathak at school reunion party, a quiet woman at a boisterous gathering. The tale of a party within a party.
Then there have been parties which were all about sudden meetings. In Arth (1982) the estranged wife Shabana Azmi meets her husband with his girlfriend Smita Patil at one such gathering. The guests at the party speak in hushed voices judging Shabana as she walks in. Alone, following her recent separation, she meets the singer Raj Kiran brought to fill in the evening where eclectic people, many unknown to each other, have gathered. In this situation, the song—‘Koi Yeh Kaise Bataye’— fills the hours and undesired silences that sometimes make parties awkward.
However, the most iconic narrative around a party has been in Govind Nihalani’s 1984 film Party based on Mahesh Elkunchwar’s 1976 play of the same name. Here patron Damyanti Rane hosts a party at her residence in honour of Diwakar Barve, a celebrated playwright. The film unfolds in a single evening through conversations telling of aspirations, resentment and social interactions in the cultural circle. The entire film is a scathing critique of urban apathy through the absent hero Amrit, a poet who chose radical politics. Against the empty conversations of the other attendees of the party, his absent presence finally shakes the equilibrium of the evening.
Meanwhile, the dance party had a mood of its own right from the disco years of the 80s. The 90s too had their share of marriage celebrations that brought unlikely people together. The party scene accompanied by the song was now about weddings and delirious happy families. And a separate narrative would be required to trace the item song replacing the club or the dance party numbers in contemporary cinema.
Even while the cinema party changes costumes, characters and soundtrack, an early song from Waqt (1965) captures the transient nature of things and the intoxication of the present that a party can evoke. ‘ Aagey bhi jaaney na tu’ is sung while the characters separated at childhood, and struggling with their destinies, face the uncertainties of time. The song binds eclectic emotions together and remains an ode to the immediacy and momentariness of parties that we all love to go to.
The writer is an assistant professor in English literature at Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University.
