Flashback Friday: Revisiting Zeenat Aman’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Social Drama Clad In Sensual Garb

'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' must be the one that broke through many barriers and ended up being an iconic work of art decades after its release.

Filmmakers hardly ever try to portray the protagonists the way Kapoor envisioned them decades ago, even in this day and age.

New Delhi: When directing a film, Raj Kapoor—credited with revolutionizing the narratives and aesthetics in Hindi cinema—took several risks. Of all the movies, 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram', starring Zeenat Aman, must be the one that broke through many barriers and ended up being an iconic work of art decades after its release. Cinema halls refused to screen the 1978 release, which was not surprising given that the heroine wore plenty of risque outfits. Filmmakers hardly ever try to portray the protagonists the way Kapoor envisioned them decades ago, even in this day and age.

The actor, who later became a director, has really come under fire for supposedly commodifying and exploiting his heroines as a way to draw in more business. The first thing that viewers will think of about Kapoor's controversial move of putting his heroines in sensual avatars, be it 'Mera Naam Joker', 'Bobby', or 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili', is how scandalous it was. Therefore, the initial image that comes to mind when one thinks of 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' is still Zeenat Aman's bold looks, hardly concealing her body while wearing a white saree. But after seeing the entire film, it's fair to say that you might come for Aman's seductress demeanor but stay for the particularly sexualized depiction of a woman.

Now, that may sound like an awful spot to start when going over a movie that was released almost five decades ago and is so celebrated. However, a film's flawed portrayal of women is an issue worth addressing when it makes an intense attempt to draw attention to and stress society's standards of beauty. 

Zeenat Aman, who has become a prominent figure in Bollywood with a string of films under her belt, welcomed the chance to portray the film's leading lady after established actors Dimple Kapadia and Hema Malini turned down the offer. Aman came onto the Hindi film scene as a contemporary, urban woman, therefore the audience was rather surprised when she was cast as a rural woman. Aman came onto the Hindi film scene as a modern, metropolitan woman, therefore the audience was rather surprised when she was cast as a country woman. She took the role of a young girl who, ironically, went by Rupa and was met with disdain by society because of her deformed face.

In case you still haven't watched the iconic film, the story follows a woman named Rupa who is deemed Abhagan (unfortunate) by the locals because her mother passed away while giving birth. She is made to suffer even more when she has an accident that leaves her face damaged. Rupa's greatest feature is her sweet voice, which stands in stark contrast to her rather unappealing looks. The filmmaker envisioned the scenario of a guy falling in love with a woman who has a mediocre appearance but has an enchanting voice, and it was revealed in the book 'Raj Kapoor Speaks' that Lata Mangeshkar was the inspiration behind the film and that he wanted to cast her in it.

The notion that Rupa is shown as an "ugly woman" is hard to relate to, since the camera constantly moving over her body gave the impression that she wasn't. Shashi Kapoor, Rupa's romantic interest in the movie, is an affluent, modern man in contrast. He seems to be the kind of man who is attracted to a woman purely on the basis of her appearance. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to the audience that he grows feelings for the singer who wanders around the village with her face partially hidden. Once he marries her and sees her face, things start to go wrong. He reacts in the most wildly dramatic way possible since he cannot believe this is the same Rupa.

Kapoor then splits the idea of physical beauty and inner beauty into two women (literally). The protagonist is subsequently led to believe that he is having an affair with the singer Rupa (the attractive one), who always finds him with her face half-covered, while his wife at home is someone else entirely. Even after Rupa gets pregnant, he still refuses to believe that these two are the same person.

Eventually, the goal that Kapoor's plot set out to accomplish at the beginning of the movie is in no way met. The notion that 'beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder' is completely misconstrued through the flawed premise. Nonetheless, it is even more absurd to be critiquing a film of this sort in the social media age, when the concept of beauty has become muddled with people obsessing about their aesthetics before posting a photo on Instagram. These are the days when people merely endorse imperfections in comment sections, but the truth still stands when we see it in real life. The movie 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' seeks to strike a truce between the notions of inner beauty with one's appearance, yet ends up falling into its own lure.