Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha both share October as their birthday month. The two also shared a personal relationship in the past and a solid professional one, having starred in the likes of some memorable films, and giving iconic performances. As the two legends turn a year older this week, we look at one of their classics together : 'Alaap' by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.


New Delhi: 'Alaap' is a lesser known Hrishikesh Mukherjee gem starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha in the lead. 


The musical drama was released in 1977 at the peak of Amitabh Bachchan career, when he was ruling Hindi cinema as the 'angry young man'. 


However, unlike most of his films that banked on that image, Amitabh Bachchan's performance in 'Alaap', like most of his collaborations with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, was restrained and controlled. 


Yet, despite the bankability of the mahanayak in the 70s, 'Alaap' did not do so well at the box office. 


However, 'Alaap' seems to have aged very well. 


This Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha starrer throws light on the 70s Indian societal cultural fabric in a manner of a social text. 


The use of Hindustani classical music in 'Alaap' to underscore emotions, melodrama, love-loss, happiness-sadness all wrapped in simplicity, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was so well-known for it, is a great example of the musical film genre.


Intelligent use of camera while choreographing classical Hindi songs rendition


In fact, one of the highlights of 'Alaap' is also the clever use of camera and framing when difficult passages to sing come in the picture. 


In scenes, where Amitabh Bachchan or Asrani sing a mukhda or the chorus which requires a rather polished and natural movement of facial expressions, the camera work blends closeups with mid shots or jump shots.


Or, the camera is held below the subject's face or at a distance so as to not reveal discrepancy between the sound being produced and the facial expressions that produce it; even when such performances by Amitabh Bachchchan are top-notch, Hrishikesh Mukherjee seems like a perfectionist, who leaves nothing to chance or a failed missed beat and an empty expression.


Interlacing scenes with music and lyrics in the backdrop to convey a certain emotion is also so organically done in 'Alaap'.


A notable sequence includes the love and the happy song, both filmed on Rekha. 


The simplicity of catching  a beam of sun in her palm, when her dream, which was to capture the moon in the palm of her hand, is so well-layered and shot.



 Alaap Context


'Alaap' is more than just a film. It is a historical prelude that sheds light about the socio-cultural fabric of a segment of Indian society in the 70s. 


Like many films of the time, including those of the parallel movement in Hindi cinema, 'Alaap' is riddled with questions of class inequality, poverty, status, old money, rigid fathers with their honour and headstrong sons who want to make their own.


In 'Alaap', Amitabh Bachchan( Alok) plays an aspiring Hindustani classical singer while his rich lawyer father Om Prakash( Triloki Prasad) uses everything in his power to foil his attempts to become one. 


Rekha( Radhakumari) plays Asrani( Ganesh)'s sister, both of whom belong to the lower class.


'Alaap' also comments very briefly on the plight of Hindustani classical singers and the waning culture of patrons and patronizing artists. 


However, this is treated very peripherally as the focus from music soon shifts to socio-cultural commentary that also involves generation-gap, iconoclasm and more.


For audiences of today, many would not relate to the parent-kids relation that is shown in 'Alaap' or the way people are addressed, courtesies given and the nitty-gritties of social conduct and mannerism where family and values of socialism are upheld against individualism( a tide, completely reversed today).


However, others would also look at 'Alaap' with a sense of nostalgia and loss, an emotion that many Hrishikesh Mukherjee films tend to create.


Balance between show and tell in Alaap


'Alaap' has a lot of relevant dialogue which becomes a seamless part of the narrative. 


There is a lot of talk, explanation and yet most of it is organically choreographed with music by Jaidev and poetic lyrics by Rahi Masoom Raza.


 



For instance; declaration of love in a musical naturally requires no dialogue and yet the chemistry and buildup between Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan feels so natural with the use of classical renditions.


Conveying the need of pain in a musician's life to bring forth his best through dialogue is so well blended with image and music is another example.


Emotions magnified through memorable Imagery


Likewise, in most of 'Alaap' and a lot of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's filmography, post a dramatic dialogue delivery on social, cultural and personal conflicts, imagery of a kind is used, that it becomes a statement in itself.


When there is talk of hunger and poverty and a conflict between Rekha and Asrani about the same, an image of Rekha putting out the fire on a chulha speaks volumes and more than there is to convey.


When Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan convey news of expecting a child, Rekha shares her happiness through the imagery of holding a beam of sun in her hand. That is accompanied by a song after a long lapse of music in the film.


That particular sequence for its simplicity and impact is so moving, one has to see it to believe it.


In one particular sequence, when Alok meets his father Triloki Prasad after many years, by accident, the use of body language, emotion and imagery is such that it inadvertently conveys a repressed desire for reconciliation between the father and the son.


That among many such sequences is proof of how a master filmmaker uses form to organically lend meaning to content and context of his film.


Rekha as the woman with limited intellect in Alaap


'Alaap' being a film of the 70s with the kind of space women had in general back then, does not give its women protagonists agency. 


Characters such as the one played by Rekha or that of a comic relief( Farida Jalal) are merely ornamental.


Dialogue that is stereotypical, misogynist, sexist today but majorly accepted then, is used when it comes to women being emotional creatures who need to be patronized in order to make them understand matters of principle and intellect.


 



A defect that plagued most commercial Hindi films of the time also is present in this Hrishikesh Mukherjee film.


Having said that, and explored some elements of 'Alaap' which stand out in contrast to modern filmmaking techniques in Hindi cinema; this Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha film is an early prototype of getting the musical film right that all audiences and people with interest in Hindi cinema can watch.


Conclusion


'Alaap' almost makes one feel sad for being a 90s kid. While many of us grew on dominant Karan Johar films or the Hindi films made for the NRI audience in the 90s movement as many say, generations before us grew up on social-realist cinema movement, or amid the throes of middle cinema and parallel cinema movements that championed and shed light on class, inequality, female agency and rights, aware political citizenry, angst of the angry young men/women demanding their rights and more. 


And, us and perhaps Gen Z and those who are born later, have a completely different, if not materialistic, sense of film memory to rely on for nostalgia and shared cultural memory.


In that regard, a film like 'Alaap' not only creates a sense of sadness but also for not having the kind of reference films to grow up on. 


Or, the fact that we as a desi audience, so  blindly laud even the popular culture influx from the west( post liberalization in the 90s) that we totally lose touch and forget about the gems we have already mastered and made.


Alaap can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video