Kanyadaan is a movie that needs to be watched keeping in mind the time in which it was made. Starring Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parekh, this 1968 film was directed by Mohan Segal, and it has been directed so beautifully that I cannot praise the direction enough.
That being said, Kanyadaan is not for everyone. It does not reflect our changed times. Its story comes from a world in which child marriage was treated as an accepted ritual, and the people bound by those customs took them very seriously. To understand the movie, you have to understand the weight those beliefs carry for its characters.
Plot of Kanyadaan
Rekha, played by Asha Parekh, falls in love with Shashi Kapoor’s character, Kumar. Her mother then reveals that she was married as a child to someone named Amar. In Rekha’s mind, that childhood marriage is still binding.
Kumar has already helped his friend Amar marry the woman he loves. To marry Rekha, Kumar pretends to be Amar, hiding the truth from her. After their marriage, he leaves for town for a week under the pretext of his drama work.
The drama is beautifully depicted, by the way. Kudos to the director once again. In fact, the plays and little musical presentations throughout the movie are very poetic. The screenplay is absolutely amazing, something I will come to later.
One of these plays shows a woman trying to continue her life after being thrown out by her husband. It presents her decision to marry again in a very positive light. Kumar, still pretending to be Amar, asks Rekha whether she likes it.
But Rekha does not accept that the woman should have married a second time. She believes that the woman was already married, that this was her fate, and that she should have accepted it. Rekha is still deeply rooted in customs. For her, certain things are a woman’s dharma, even when those beliefs go against the more profound thinking Kumar is trying to introduce her to.
Her blunt rejection begins to bother Kumar, and he finally lets out the truth. Rekha loses it and immediately leaves his house.
An accident then brings her to the very house in which Amar, the man she was married to as a child, lives with the woman who is now his wife. The movie begins to oscillate between what is considered right and what should be right, trying to break the societal and patriarchal bondage that has become a patthar ki lakeer in Rekha’s head.
Rekha’s beliefs and the tug of war in her head
As an audience, you might find Rekha’s beliefs foolish. You might not agree with her at all. But you also have to watch the movie with an understanding of the period it depicts, a world in which whatever was taught to people and passed down from generation to generation was held in the highest regard.
Rekha is simply doing that. In her head, she is already married. Continuing to live with Kumar would mean breaking her dharma.
It is a tug of war in her head, an attempt to juggle a situation that seems impossible. Yet she is very clear about what she believes she is supposed to do. She even tries to take her own life. When she finds an opportunity to keep living, she is prepared to remain under the roof of the man she considers her actual husband.
That situation becomes more difficult, slowly and gradually. Eventually, Amar’s wife reaches her limit. She begins finding things that are not there, blaming Rekha for being a bad influence and accusing her of trying to steal her husband.
Meanwhile, Kumar sinks into his own despondency and begins drinking. He understands Rekha’s plight, but his hands are tied. He cannot convince her to come back after her understandable reaction to his deception. He also agrees to her demand that Amar must never be told about any of this.
As a love story, the movie is really painful for Kumar. Being a poet, he feels all the pangs of separation, and that pain takes form in his poems, his music and the songs he sings. Once again, Mohan Segal depicts all of this beautifully.
Music and Kumar’s poetry
Kanyadaan also has some very popular songs. The first that comes to mind is Mohammed Rafi’s “Likhe Jo Khat Tujhe,” which still plays on so many occasions even today. It is not only poignant but very romantic as well. Rafi’s beautiful voice makes it all the more moving.
Then there is Lata Mangeshkar’s “Parai Hoon Parai Hoon,” such a beautiful song. “Meri Zindagi Mein Aate To,” another song by Mohammed Rafi, also deserves a mention. His beautiful voice is one of the joys of listening to this movie’s music.
The movie shows us Kumar’s work as a poet on various occasions. All this poetry from Shashi Kapoor’s character is absolutely amazing. It deserves to be read properly and listened to with attention.
Direction, screenplay and poetic writing
The writing by Bhakri and Sarshar Sailani is absolutely amazing. You can feel it right from the beginning, when those wonderful lines of dialogue start coming your way.
This is one of those movies that immediately makes you pay attention because of how beautiful the writing is. There are so many lines worth remembering, so many quotes that could come out of this movie.
The direction, editing and screenplay work so well together. The humour is amazing, the direction is spot on, and the writing feels like powerful line after powerful line hitting you, making you pause and think.
The plays and musical presentations are not merely there to fill time. Through poetry, music and rationalisation, the creators keep laying out hints about the way they want the audience to think. The extended drama sequence does this, and so does the entire movie.
They are trying to help people think rationally instead of simply accepting whatever they have been fed.
The ending of Kanyadaan
The climactic scene is beautifully done. As a writer, I could understand what the creators wanted to do. However, the ending does feel a little rushed.
Rekha’s mother arrives and explains that she did not know Amar had already married someone else. In that situation, Kumar would have been the right person for Rekha. She dismisses the very belief that she had helped create.
But it is difficult for a person to simply abandon beliefs they have held so strongly. Since the movie is already moving towards a happy ending, it rushes to the finish line. Rekha accepts Kumar as her husband.
Her explanation is pretty amazing, though. You can understand how the director and writers wanted the movie to be an eye-opener for people bound by these narrow ideas.
My reservation is with how quickly the resolution arrives, rather than with what the ending is trying to convey.
Final verdict
Kanyadaan should be watched with an open mind, and with an understanding of the time in which it was written. You have to empathise with the little girl who was made to believe that a ritual could take precedence over her happiness.
Even if you cannot accept the situation exactly as it is presented, there is still something to take away from it. So many little thoughts find their way into our heads. We begin believing them to be true and hold on to them so strongly that anything challenging them feels like a challenge to our usool.
It becomes very difficult to free ourselves from that narrow way of thinking.
This movie tries to liberate us. It conveys that we can think differently, accept what is more reasonable and choose what makes sense, instead of blindly following customs and rituals.
While Kanyadaan might not be for everyone, I absolutely loved its direction, editing and screenplay. Of all the movies I have watched, this one was immediately captivating, through its humour, its direction and the sheer power of its writing.
Also read: Amar Prem Movie Review (1972): Empathy Over Prejudice.
Kanyadaan
