Madhumati

1958 film by Bimal Roy

Madhumati is a 1958 Indian Hindi language paranormal romance film directed and produced by Bimal Roy, and written by Ritwik Ghatak and Rajinder Singh Bedi. The film stars Vyjayanthimala and Dilip Kumar in lead roles, with Pran and Johnny Walker in supporting roles. The plot focuses on Anand, a modern man who falls in love with a tribal woman named Madhumati. But they face challenges in their relationship finally leading to a paranormal consequence. The film was ranked 11th in the Outlook Magazine's 25 leading Indian directors' poll for selecting Bollywood's greatest films in 2003. Madhumati was filmed in various Indian locations, including Ranikhet, Ghorakhal, Vaitarna Dam and Aarey Milk Colony. The soundtrack album was composed by Salil Chowdhury and the lyrics were written by Shailendra. The film was released on 12 September 1958. It earned ₹40 million in India and became the highest grossing Indian film of the year, and one of the most commercially successful and influential Indian films of its time. It received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised the technicality, soundtrack, and performance of the cast. Madhumati was one of the earliest films to deal with reincarnation, and was described by analysts as a potboiler that has a gothic and noir feel to it. It inspired later regional and international films that have reincarnation based themes. It led the 6th Filmfare Awards with 12 nominations and won 9 awards including Best Film, Best Director for Roy, Best Music Director for Chaudhary, Best Female Playback Singer for Mangeshkar—the most awards for a film at that time—a record that it maintained for a record 37 years. It also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

On a stormy night, engineer Devendra drives down a hill road with his friend to fetch his wife and child from a railway station. A landslide blocks their path and they take shelter in an old mansion. Devendra finds the house eerily familiar. In the large front room, he finds an old portrait, which he recognizes. He’s joined by his friend and the old caretaker. Devendra, experiencing flashbacks of another life, sits down to tell his story while the storm rages outside. Anand is the new manager of Shyamnagar Timber Estate. An artist in his spare time, he travels to the hills and falls in love with Madhumati, a Kumaoni tribal woman whose songs have haunted him from a distance. Anand's employer, Raja Ugra Narain is a ruthless, arrogant man; Anand, who refuses to bend to his will unlike others, is on the receiving end of his wrath. Anand has enemies among his staff. After he’s sent away on an errand, he returns to find that Madhumati has disappeared. He learns that she has been taken to Ugra Narain and confronts him, but his men beat him unconscious. While taking Anand's body out of the palace, they come across Madhumati's father, who fights to stop his own daughter's death. Although he comes out on top in the fight, he dies on the road shortly after, while Charandas hides and takes Anand's body to a hospital. Anand lives but his mind wanders. One day, he meets a woman who looks exactly like Madhumati. She introduces herself as Madhavi but Anand refuses to believe her. He tries to reason with her and is beaten by her companions. Later, Madhavi finds a sketch of Madhumati and realizes Anand was telling the truth. She takes the sketch with her and tries to learn his story. Meanwhile, Anand is haunted by the spirit of Madhumati, who tells him Ugra Narain is responsible for her death. He appeals to Madhavi, who agrees to pose as Madhumati before Ugra Narain and make him confess to her murder. Anand returns to Ugra Narain's palace and seeks permission to paint a portrait of him the next evening. The day after, at the stroke of eight, Ugra Narain sees Madhavi posing as Madhumati in front of him. Ugra Narain is shaken; he confesses his part in her death and is arrested by police waiting outside the room. Anand realizes that the questions Madhavi posed to Ugra Narain, especially about Madhumati 's burial place, were things she could not have known; even Anand did not know. Madhavi smiles and moves towards the stairs. The real Madhavi, dressed as Madhumati, then rushes into the room. She is late because her car broke down on the way. Anand realizes he saw Madhumati's ghost and not Madhavi. He runs to the terrace, where the ghost beckons to him. Madhumati had fallen from the same terrace, trying to escape Ugra Narain. Anand follows the ghost and falls to his death. After telling the story of Anand and Madhumati, Devendra receives news that the train on which his wife was traveling has met with an accident. The road is cleared and they rush to the station. Devendra walks through the station fearing the worst but is relieved to see his wife Radha, emerging from the train unharmed. Radha is the reincarnation of Madhumati, and Devendra informs her, based on his recent recollections, that they have been partners through several births.

Bengali filmmaker Bimal Roy's 1955 film Devdas was commercially unsuccessful, jeopardising his company Bimal Roy Productions; he needed a commercial success to survive. The story of Madhumati was written by the Bengali filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak. He shared the story with Roy, who immediately liked it and started developing the film with Debu Sen as the assistant director. Manohari Singh was selected for composing the film's music after Roy heard him playing in Kolkata. Unlike another film noir, which was mostly filmed indoors, Roy decided to film Madhumati outdoors and at a hill station. It had a six week schedule at a location in Ranikhet, Nainital. Some scenes were filmed in Ghorakhal near Nainital. The art direction team, led by Sudhendu Roy, created fake pine trees, which were planted to match the location in Nainital. The actress had also hurt her foot while dancing. Due to Madhumatis extensive outdoor shooting, the film went over budget by 8.1 million,

Analysts from the University of Iowa compare the initial meeting of the main characters, stating that it resembles the meeting in Raj Kapoor's film Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1984), where the woman "stands in for nature and unspoiled folk tradition and the villain for exploitative (capitalist) culture, with the hero as an intermediary". Rajadhyaksha said the imagery is similar to that of the film Ajantrik (1957), writing that Madhumati links "the beautiful Madhumati with nature and tribal cultures beyond the grasp of capitalist appropriation". Film critic Bharati Pradhan said Madhumati stepped away from "the standard Roy themes of social realism as seen in his Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Biraj Bahu (1954) and Devdas (1955)".

The Madhumati soundtrack features 11 songs composed by Salil Chowdhury. Shailendra wrote the lyrics and Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi, Mubarak Begum, Asha Bhosle, Sabita Chowdhury, Ghulam Mohammed, and Dwijen Mukhopadhyay provided the vocals. Folk music sung in the tea gardens of Assam was used in the soundtrack and Polish folk music was used for the song "Dil Tadap Tadap Ke Keh Raha Hai", The song "Aaja Re Pardesi" was adapted from the background score of Jagte Raho (1956). Salil Chowdhury won his first Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. Suhana Safar Aur Yeh Mausam Haseen is one of the most popular songs by recording artist Mukesh and is regularly played at dandiya functions. Filmfare started giving the best playback singer award in this year and Lata Mangeshkar won this award for the song "Aaja re Pardesi". She thus became the first singer ever to win the Filmfare award for a playback singer since, in the beginning, there was only one award given to a playback singer, male and female singers included.

Madhumati premiered at the Roxy Cinema near Opera House, Mumbai on 12 September 1958; the film was a huge blockbuster and helped Bimal Roy Productions recover its losses. According to Gowri Ramnarayan of The Hindu, "Dilip Kumar faced the camera, while Soviet actress Tatyana Konjuchova, switched on the camera. Polish actress Barbara Połomska acted as clapper boy." Madhumati was the highest grossing Indian film of 1958. It grossed 40 including a net income of 20.

Writing for Rediff. com, Dinesh Raheja noted how Madhumati "beguile[s] the senses" while describing it as "the grandmother of such famous reincarnation films Milan (1967), Mehbooba (1976), Karz (1980), Kudrat (1981), Janam Janam (1988), Karan Arjun (1995)" and Om Shanti Om (2007)" Writing for Filmfare, Meghna Gulzar calls Madhumati "poetry in black and white" and praises Roy, writing "the songs and their picturization – Bimal Da's mastery exudes in every frame". She described the song Aaja Re Pardesi as "mysterious and melancholic". According to Philip Lutgendorf of The University of Iowa, the film sustains its suspense even with the flashback within the flashback frame story, has socio realistic themes, and is similar to the Alfred Hitchcock films Rebecca (1940) and Vertigo (1958). Lutgendorf praised the performances of Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, and said, "Kumar gives an appropriately haunted performance as the two incarnations of Devendra / Anand, and Vyjayanthimala is alternately earthy and ethereal in the various permutations of the title character". Writing for Upperstall. com, Karan Bali commended Roy's ability to "recreate just the right mood and ambiance", especially praising few scenes as "luscious romantic interludes outdoors or the swinging chandeliers", "dark shadows within the haveli" and "several documentary like establishing shots".

Madhumati led the 6th Filmfare Awards with 12 nominations and won 9 awards, a record it held for 37 years. Since its release, it had multiple screenings at the Tenth Bite – The Mango Film Festival (2004), the 4th Pune International Film Festival (2006) and the Toronto International Film Festival (2011). The film got music director Salil Choudhary and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, their career first Filmfare awards respectively. Before this there was no Filmfare award for female playback singers. Madhumati was selected as India's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 31st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. +Awards & Nominations for Madhumati Awards Category Nominee Result Ref. (Reference(s))6th National Film AwardsBest Feature Film in HindiBimal Royrowspan="3" 6th Filmfare AwardsBest FilmBest ActressVyjayanthimalaBest Supporting ActorJohnny Walkerrowspan="3" Best Art DirectionSudhendu RoyBest CinematographerDilip GuptaBest EditingHrishikesh Mukherjee

Madhumati became a source of inspiration for many later works dealing with reincarnation in Indian cinema, Indian television, and perhaps world cinema. According to Javed Akhtar, Madhumati is one among the top three or four romantic films ever made in Hindi cinema. He was quoted by Akshay Manwani of Daily News and Analysis as saying, "Even after Bimal Roy's death, Madhumati'''s success provided for his family. The earning from this film continue[s] even today. It is a terrific film." According to Vyjayanthimala, who played the film's titular character, Madhumati was one of the "most memorable films" of her career. Wendy Doniger believes that Madhumati may have inspired the American film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), both of them dealt with reincarnation and have been influential in their respective cultures. Karan Bali notes that the famous "crossing of paths" in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), where Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol cross each other's paths without noticing the other until the end of the sequence, is present in Madhumati, which was produced 37 years earlier. Parts of the Hindi film Om Shanti Om (2007) including the whole climax sequence were heavily inspired from Madhumati, which led to Bimal Roy's daughter Rinki Bhattacharya accusing the latter film's producers of plagiarism and threatening them with legal action. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the film, the Bimal Roy Foundation, headed by Roy's daughter Rinki Bhattacharya, hosted a screening of Madhumati at the Globus Cinema in Mumbai on 11 April 2008. The occasion saw the reunion of the film's cast, including Vyjayanthimala. Subsequently, Bhattacharya published a book about the making of the film, titled Bimal Roy's Madhumati: Untold Stories from Behind the Scenes''.