Directed by Abrar Alvi, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam explores the longing and patience of an affluent woman for attention from his husband through the protagonist’s perspective. The Chhoti Bahu is the soul of the story. The plot runs in the flashback colonial Kolkata and the present 60s Kolkata. The protagonist is Atulya, who is also called Bhootnath. He lives with his acquaintance, who also works in the haveli. Atulya gets fascinated with the gossip about the haveli and the plight of Choti Bahu. Choti Bahu lives in the highest hierarchy of society. She has wealth, power, and beauty but lacks love and affection.
Her disloyal husband is always busy in the courtyard and never gives her any attention. She finds a soulmate and friend in the protagonist with whom she shares her sadness. Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam is a landmark film that pictured an alcoholic woman with an empathetic gaze. During a time when Madonna- Whore complex in Indian cinema was popular. The charming entry and screen presence of Meena Kumari as choti bahu is considerably huge for a female actress at that time. The film captures the essence of the feminine gaze through a very well-written screenplay.
Zamindari System
The film is about the timeline of the fall of the Zamindari system and the power collapse of the atrocious Zamindars. In the 19th century Kolkata, lower class workers endured exploitation through low delayed payments, debt burden, and humiliation. The offspring of the privileged inherit the wealth and remain rich. The wealthy zamindars controlled the farmers and other workers through loans, interests, and the cycle continued. Thus, the zamindari system broadens the gap between the rich and the poor. The film poetically captures the role reversal between the exploiter and the exploited after the abolishment of feudalism post-Independence.
The protagonist Bhootnath who hailed from the lower class returned to see the ruins of Haveli after his education. The workers are protesting for their payments from the Choudharys while they remain helpless in an empty haveli which consumes the echoes of their pain. The sahibs in the film are entitled brats who are not concerned about the problems of the less privileged. The manjhle babu is busy showing off his luxuries to his competitors, while the chote babu is addicted to his debauchery while his wife longs for him. Bhootnath is a spectator of their darker lifestyle that appears shinier from the outside.
Misery
In Guru Dutt’s classic, no Knight in Shining Armour rescues the ‘damsel in distress’. When Guru Dutt’s character Bhootnath tries to save Choti Bahu from her golden cage, her fate turns out to be like any woman who dares to break the boundaries made by society. Even though the Choti Bahu has an assertive demeanor and aura, she is conditioned to long for her unavailable husband. Her husband is engaged in adulterous flings with courtesans. With a mind of her own, she does not submissively oblige to be a trophy wife but demands her husband to fulfill his duties as a loyal spouse.
She finds a confidant in Bhootnath, who would sincerely listen to her despair and pain without judgment. Their nameless bond is beyond any forbidden norms of class or gender. Although, there is no clue that Ghulam is not fascinated with the breathtaking beauty and mystery of his malkin. In a haveli where an extended family appears to prosper, no one empathizes with the grief of their daughter-in-law. She faces internalized misogyny in a patriarchal house where she can not connect with either men or women in her family. Here, a marginalized Ghulam is an empathetic spectator and listener who tries to understand the misery of a person who has nothing in common with him except suffering.
Feminine Gaze
Guru Dutt films generally have strong female characters who have a mind of their own. He is the spectator of his marginalized female protagonists who fight for their place in society. Like A bar dancer Leena in Baazi, a prostitute Gulabo in Pyaasa, a rebel Nisha in Baaz, Shyama with a feminist mother in Aar Paar, and an ordinary girl turned superstar in Kaagaz ke Phool. In Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, the suspense and excitement before Meena Kumari’s (choti bahu) entry into the film is ignited by all the gossip about her among the servants, making her a larger-than-life mystery for the narrator as well as the audience.
At its release, the film faced criticism for showing an alcoholic woman, but the context of her addiction was a way of bonding with her alcoholic husband. The tragedy of the plight of Choti Bahu was she never came across as a submissive woman who would settle for any less. She demanded love and freedom, but when she crossed the boundaries to attain it, she faced the consequences of her actions.
Role Reversal
Dutt’s Magnum Opus is a combination of hope and misery. The tyrannical aristocrats face karma for their sins when the government snatches away power from their corrupt kingdom overnight. Their misfortunes are the curse of the power-class workers they have exploited for years. Choti Bahu, who has already suffered enough, never sees the bright light of the day. She destroys herself to become the company of her husband’s despair. She is further murdered by her brother-in-law and buried under the ruins of Haveli.
Guru Dutt’s Bhootnath enters as the relative of one of the servants who work in the mansion. He never thought that his world would ever cross paths with the grandeur of the zamindars. He worked under a local factory and listened to the fascinating stories about the affluent and privileged brats. He slowly enters their world when he meets Choti Bahu and becomes her closest confidante. When Bhootnath returned after attaining his higher studies, the Choudharies were struggling to survive in the ruins of their empire. The evergreen glow of heavily ornamented choti bahu eventually faded after their downfall. The protagonist gradually breaks the cycle of class divide through his education and hard work, while the malkin meets the fate of a tragic death.
