Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (Seventh Horse of the Sun) is a 1992, Indian movie directed by Shyam Benegal and based on a novel of the same name by Dharmavir Bharati. It won the 1993 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. The movie has also been known for its a subversive take on the 'Devdas' syndrome [1].
This movie stars Rajit Kapur, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Pallavi Joshi, Neena Gupta and Amrish Puri.
Overview
In this movie, the narrator, Manek Mullah (Rajit Kapur) tells three stories of the three women, (Neena Gupta (the poor), Pallavi Joshi (the intellectual) and Rajeshwari Sachdev (middle class), he had met in his life at different times [2]. These three stories are nothing but a single story seen from stands of different characters of the film.
The lowest slowest or the weakest in a group or society determines the speed or progress of the whole. The title of the movie, a metaphor as the movie itself, draws this analogy with the seventh horse pulling the chariot of the sun. As a director of abstract meaningful cinema, Shyam Benegal pulls off another masterpiece that makes you think. Lightly laced with extremely subtle humor, this is a story of love that is markedly different from the many love stories on screen.
An interesting narrative approach adds to the abstractness - as the film is presented as a flashback of a contemporary artist (Raghuvir Yadav). He remembers the many stories of a born-raconteur (Rajit Kapur) during the gossip sessions of four young men with no better way to pass time. The neo-realism in the stories and the starkness of human character brings life to the narrative.
The film is narrated in a series of independent short stories. The brilliance of the director lies in tying these short stories with the same characters creating a complex matrix of humans and relations. The movie comes alive when the same events are depicted in the different stories. This is captured beautifully by showing the same scenes from different angles, emphasizing different personalities on screen, but the same dialogues.
All along the narrative, the movie amazes you with the realism of the stories - contrasted with the character of Rajit Kapur as a master storyteller. The audience to his stories add humor as well as an element of human nature to gossip about others.He plays an important role in each of the stories he tells yet he keeps himself aloof from the responsibilities and characters in his stories. At the same time, the personalities within the story portray a strong variety of human traits - positive and negative. Artistes like Amrish Puri, Samir Khakkar, K K Raina and others from the world of art cinema bring the stories alive. Rajeshwari Sachdev, Pallavi Joshi, and Neena Gupta play the love interests and vastly different characters. Any attempt to explain the narrative the movie or to divulge information about the characters would make the movie less interesting - as seeing the movie is an evolving discovery.
The music by Vanraj Bhatia plays a distinctive role. The direction is brilliant, and the performance of various lead actors is consistently superior. The script and dialogues are of the highest calibre.
However what strikes you at the end is the closeness between reality and the world of tell-tale; and the virtues and vices that exist in these worlds. How all this come together in the end is explained in a brief message in the end - but that still leaves a lot to thought. And indeed the movie is about thinking, and you leave the movie thinking about a host of issues raised throughout - from the virtues and demands of woman in love, the commitment of men in love - to more explicit and implicit elements of the human psyche.
Cast
References
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