The film is about the emotional turmoil of Saroja, a married woman in her early thirties, who is attracted to Samar, a bachelor in his late thirties. The beautiful and intelligent Saroja has a 10 years old daughter and a difficult husband (Virendra), an unambtious, ordinary school teacher, with whom she lives in a tortuous relationship.
Samar, son of a renowned professor who lived alone in a sprawling bungalow in a politically active hill town, has a high-profile corporate job in Delhi and is unable to come and look after his old father frequently. Samar had lost his mother, Rukmini Devi, long ago. She was a highly respected political leader of her time, deeply involved in the freedom struggle, and had passed away in 1942. Her professor husband, Samar’s father, lived to a ripe old age in this family bungalow in the hill town, where he had spent most memorable years of his life.
A few years before he died, the old professor had invited Virendra
(a distant relative, living in a nearby small town) and his family to move into his bungalow and look after him and his household. As Saroja made a shift from her humble moorings to live in the professor’s bungalow, she was exposed to a lifestyle that was culturally-intellectually- materially, far superior to anything she had ever experienced before. The old professor, happy to find that he could relate to this intelligent young woman whom he treated as his daughter, would often narrate to her the vignettes of his life with his late wife, and all the fascinating things they had done together.
Saroja also heard the accounts of professor’s wife, Rukmini Devi’s activities from others in town who still remembered and held her in high esteem. Influenced by her new environment, Saroja gradually began to shed her simplistic, small-town traditional belief that her life was unalterably a consequence of her karmas of a past life. Around her, she saw people moving up in life availing the opportunities that had blossomed in independent India. People who changed their life situations with the choices they made followed by actions in their present life. Gradually, a vision of an exciting life, such as was lived by Rukmini Devi, Samar’s mother, began to take shape in her mind. Could she not find the same quality of life with the support of Samar?
The film starts with the death of the old professor, with a scene at the cremation ground. We then see Saroja tossing and turning in her bed at night. She has suddenly realized that all her dreams and hopes will vanish if Samar, who has never lived in that town, decides to sell off the bungalow. She is aware that Samar’s father wanted his bungalow to be used for a socially worthy cause, and had stated so in his legal ‘Will’. She resolves that she would persuade Samar to support, and perhaps join her, in realizing her vision of living and working in a manner inspired by the life of Samar’s mother.
Samar is keen to fulfill his father’s wish for the bungalow. But, he is advised by every one he consults that he should sell off the house and use the proceeds for a worthy cause, unless he chooses to live there himself. He is apprised that the law and order situations have changed drastically, especially outside the metropolitan towns, and forcible occupation of properties had become a common phenomenon, the old norms of conduct that prevailed in his parent’s time, did not apply any longer.’Everyone is after money, any which way’, he is told.
Compelled to visit and stay in the hill town for long periods to settle the property matter, Samar is also shocked to observe the style of fleecing poor villagers who appear in local courts, seeking justice. ‘It is impossible for me to cope with the conditions here’, he tells himself. But then, there is Saroja, beautiful and charming, literally throwing herself at him. His frequent visits also provide Saroja with many opportunities to plead and convince him not to sell the house, to run a school or any other activity of his choice. He is utterly confused. Then one day, afraid of succumbing to the temptation when in her desperation she tries to seduce him, he decides to accept a low offer from a crooked lawyer, one of the two powerful men in town keen to buy the bungalow, just to wriggle out of the situation quickly.
Saroja is totally flustered. For her, the sale of the house, and thereafter, Samar going away forever, would terminate all her hopes and desires to lead a meaningful life. When she learns that a date has been fixed for signing the sale documents, unable to deploy any other tactic to delay or prevent the sale, she accepts the suggestion of the other powerful businessman keen to buy the bungalow, and has a forged ‘Will’ drawn up. The sale gets stopped at the last moment.
Samar is furious. Yet, he realizes that he has developed a soft corner for her, preventing him from taking any harsh measure. He tells her forcefully, later in the evening, to retrace her step and destroy the forged ‘Will’. Seeing her reluctance, as she repeatedly reminds him of her implorations against the sale and complying with his father’s wishes, he insists that before anything else she must rectify her wrong action because it was now a matter of family honour.
From this point onwards, both the protagonists are at loggerheads with each other. They muster their resources to win the battle with all their wits, guts, and determination.
All sorts of people join into the fray. An Inspector General of Police advises Samar to seek help from a politician on the strength of his mother’s name and fame. Bureaucrats, servile to the politicians of the day, surface on the scene. An old time Gandhian politician laments the ways of the new breed of politicians, yet he tells his son, a potential Chief Minister, to help out Samar. There are two musclemen enjoying political patronage, who threaten to kidnap Saroja’s daughter, leading to a sharp showdown between Samar and Saroja. A mujra is organised by local officials, the ipso facto rulers of the town, at the behest of one of the interested buyers of the bungalow who wants to demonstrate his influence to Samar.
Strangely enough, through all these happenings, even as they continue their fight, real love begins to grow between the protagonists. Unconsciously, Samar cannot help admiring the grit, intelligence, and courage of Saroja. And she observes the noble traits of his character, as he never takes any unethical action despite extreme provocation and advice to that effect.
In the end, Saroja loses out. The bungalow is sold. Saroja personally visits Samar in his house in Delhi with a rich businessman who offers a much higher price. But, as Chekhov once said, ‘life does not begin or end anywhere’. In losing, Saroja wins. Perhaps both of them win. To appreciate this situation, you have to watch the film.
The film has 3 flashbacks of Samar’s mother, as he reads her diary, narrating the scenes of her political and social activities, including one of her encounter with the British Inspector General of Prisons, two months before she passed away. Unconsciously, they remind him of Saroja’s pleading to use the house for a noble cause.
There are 3 songs and a mujra sequence intricately woven into the plot of the film. The first song is a bhajan that Saroja sings in the puja room as a part of her strategy to attract Samar. The second song is a lilting melody, a love song playing on the radio as Saroja comes into Samar’s room with all intentions of seduction. ( This song has been a great hit with every single person who has heard it ) The third song is crooned by the nautch girl in the mujra scene.
