Bajre Da Sitta
Director: Jass Grewal
Year: 2022
Duration: 113 minutes
Music: Traditional
Rating: 7.5
This was quite
wonderful. A Punjabi film filled with beautiful soulful music but perhaps
more importantly, filled with the love of music. Think what a barren place
the world and our lives would be without song. It has memories, it surrounds
us, inhabits us, makes us dance or clap our hands. It is played at weddings
and at funerals. All our celebrations are powered by music. The people who
create it and perform it are special. Music is a gift. One sadly that I don't
have, but I love it. This is a beautiful simple film of all this and the
joy that music can bring. And take away.
The setting is a small Punjabi village in
the 1960s where the patriarchal rule of father, brother and husband were
absolute. When your honor, reputation and status meant everything. The headman
of the village (Guggu Gill) has two sweet, innocent, adorable teenage daughters
who know nothing of the world, are illiterate but innately have the gift
of song. Both Roop (just Tania) and her sister Basant (Noor Chahal) love
to sing. It is just natural to them. They have no idea of their talent. It
just springs out of them. One day while singing "Let the partitions of my
hair resemble the streets of Lahore" as they walk with their girlfriends,
they are heard by Baghel Singh (B. N. Sharma) who works for a record company
and immediately recognizes their talent and wants to record them.
The father does not care. This will bring
disgrace to him and the family. Finally, he is convinced to let them record
one song, but their names cannot be revealed or their photo shown. It is
a lovely Bengali folk song accompanied only by traditional Indian instruments,
as are all the songs. It is a hit, but it becomes a huge scandal when their
identities come out. The father is shamed and the only solution is marrying
Roop off if any man will have her. One is willing played by Ammy Virk who
I just saw the other day in the cricket film "83". He was the Sikh who had
his heart broken. I had no idea that he is a huge star in Bengali films and
also a popular singer. He promises the father that he will not let Roop sing.
The two playback singers are Jyotica Tangri and Noor Chahil who plays one
of the sisters. The inspiration for the film are Surinder and Prakash Kaur
(same last name as the two movie sisters have) who were big Punjabi singers
in the 1940s and 50s and had a hit with a song of the same title as the film.
This film will feed the emptiness inside.
