This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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In my last article, I had discussed Nagesh Kukunoor, a NRI and a Chemical Engineer from USA, who left his lucrative job there to become a film-maker. Somnath Sen was another NRI who, after working as a Software Engineer in the U.S., decided to become a film-maker. Armed with a Master’s in film-making from the University of Southern California, he returned to India to begin his passion for film making.
Initially based in Delhi, Somnath Sen started his work in the visual media with television serials. Later, he moved to Mumbai, where he began his apprenticeship in the various fields of film-making viz, direction, screen-play, cinematography, production-coordinator etc by associating himself with films like ‘Rangeela’ (1995), ‘Raja Hindustani’ (1996), ‘Judwaa’(1997), ‘Kachche Dhaage’ (1999), and ‘Jaanam Samjha Karo’ (1999). He was also associated with documentaries, music videos, corporate films and commercials. In around 2000, Somnath Sen moved back to Los Angeles and became the Creative Head of Lemon Tree Films, a Hollywood film banner floated by two American-Indians who were in the entertainment business.
‘Leela’ (2002) was Lemon Tree Films’ first full length feature film in English which was produced in Hollywood and directed by Somnath Sen. I was neither aware of this film nor was I aware of songs in it. It was only when I was browsing through the filmography of Gulzar saab I came across this film. Luckily, the DVD of the full film is available on the internet. I watched the film and came to know that it was a Hollywood film in English, shot mostly in around Los Angeles with most of the American crew.
The film in DVD is about 100 minutes’ duration. Some of the dialogues are muted probably on the suggestions of CBFC. There are three old Hindi film songs – one each from ‘Junglee’, ‘Jaanwar’ and Kohra’ played in the films (got the names from the credit titles) during some occasions but these are also muted either partly or fully probably on copyright issues.
The theme of the film is broadly the same as that of Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Hyderabad Blues’ (1998). However, there is subtle difference in the sense that while ‘Hyderabad Blues’ (1998) highlights the identity crisis faced by a returning NRI in India, ‘Leela’ (2002) is about the identity crisis experienced by an American-Indian teenage son of a NRI couple settled in the USA and a visiting professor from India to the USA. The film also portrays as to how the rules of moral conduct in India get diluted once NRIs spend long period of stay in the USA yet they remain engraved to some extent in them.
The story of ‘Leela’ (2002) revolves around two couples – one the Mumbai-based and the other the Los Angeles based. Leela (Dimple Kapadia) is a professor at the University of Bombay. Her husband, Nashaad (Vinod Khanna) is a poet-singer. Leela is not happy with marital life as her husband is a womaniser. However, separation from her husband is not in her mind as she still loves him.
The film starts with a funeral of Leela’s mother shot in Madh Island (This, with Leela travelling to Mumbai airport are the only scene from the film shot in India). Leela is depressed because of her mother’s death. Additionally, she also feels that she has lost her identity to her husband as she is more known as the wife of the poet Nashaad than a professor. She gets a timely offer from University of Southern California as a visiting professor on the subject of heritage of South Asian countries in a college. She accepts the offer and departs to her new abode to find her own space leaving her husband behind.
Once in the U.S., Leela meets Krishna who is known as Kris (Amol Mhatre, an American-Indian actor) among his friends. He is one of the students in her class. This 18-year boy comes from a broken family and is torn between two cultures, as he was born in the States to parents who immigrated from India. He has been brought up by single mother, Chaitali (Deepti Naval) a divorcee whose ex-husband, Jai (Gulshan Grover) stays with his American girl friend. When Leela befriends Kris’s mother, Chaitali, another professor in the same college, Leela comes to realise that there is much that she can learn about herself from Chaitali. She finds herself exploring the real meaning of freedom.
After some initial hesitation, Kris becomes close to Leela. He starts visiting Leela’s house to learnt more about Indian heritage. He also gets to know about Hindustani classical music and learns to play Sarod. Over a period of time, Kris’s constant meeting with Leela turns into his infatuation of her. Leela discovers herself in a way that would not have fit in the Indian moral code. She starts spending time with Kris. Despite the age difference, it is a meaningful relationship for the two – Leela looking for freedom and Kris getting to know about his Indian heritage.
The story takes a dramatic turn when Kris comes to know that her mother has an affair with an American man. It was a great shock to him. He leaves the house and his father arranges for him a separate house to stay. Around the same time, Leela on a telephonic talk with Nashaad, comes to know that he has a woman in his house. In a fit of anger, she bangs the telephone and remove the cord as she is in no mood to listen to Nashaad’s excuses. At this point, Kris visits Leela’s house and finds her in very bad mood. Both Kris and Leela are emotionally at the venerable situations. Both need each other for solace. At this juncture, both finds in each other’s arms and inevitable happens.
This incidence stains the relationship between Leela and Chaitali. She develops contempt for Leela. In the meanwhile, Nashaad who is worried about the strange behaviour of Leela, decides to accept an offer for his concert tour in the USA. He visits Leela’s house who shares her guilt with Nashaad of her ‘one-night stand’ with Kris. Nashaad is not perturbed by this news. On the contrary, he consoles Leela and at the same time chats with Kris. They became friends. In one of Nashaad’s private concerts, Kris even plays guitar as accompanying musician. After the end of his concert tour, Leela decides to return to India with Nashaad. The film ends with Kris at the departure gate of Los Angeles airport giving his cap to Nashaad as a memento. In return, Nashaad puts his folded shawl on the shoulder of Kris.
As told by director, Somnath Sen in one of his interviews, ‘Leela’ (2002) is a Hollywood film with a soul of a Bollywood. The elements of Bollywood are represented by Hindi songs of different genres – classical, Gujarati garba, Punjabi folk, ghazals and light music. More importantly, the film has a happy ending.
The film was a box office disaster. As per the Box Office India report, the film was made at a total cost of around Rs.2.25 crore. But world-wide, the film could garner about half of the cost of the film. The film was critically acclaimed in the US reviews but Indian reviews were not kind to the film.
The highlight of the film is the brilliant music given by Jagjit Singh (5 songs) and Shantanu Moitra (2 songs). I am presenting one of the songs ‘khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain’ which is a ghazal composed and sung by Jagjit Singh. The ghazal is written by Gulzar. All the she’rs of the ghazal sum up the relationship between Nashaad and Leela.
A video clip of the song made from short clips of the various scenes from the film is available on the internet, I feel that this is not the original video clip because I have seen these scenes in the film in the different context. My gut feeling says that this song was picturized on Nashaad (Vinod Khanna) during a get together with his fans in the USA. There is a scene in the film of get-together in which Nashaad’s fans request him to sing a ghazal. But the next scene jumps to Leela’s house. Probably, this song must have been deleted from film’s DVD which was released in 2006.
This lovely ghazal of Gulzar in the silken voice of Jagjit Singh fits very well to what English poet P B Shelly had said – ‘our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought’.
Video Clip :
Audio Clip :
Song-Khumaar e gham hai mahakti fizaa mein jeete hain(Leela)(2002) Singer-Jagjit singh, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-Jagjit Singh
Lyrics(Based on Audio Clip)
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
tere khayaal ki aab-o-hawa mein jeete hain
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
bade ittefaaq se milte hain milne waale mujhe
bade ittefaaq se milte hain milne waale mujhe
wo mere dost hain teri wafa mein jeete hain
tere khayaal ki aab-o-hawa mein jeete hain
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
firaaq-e-yaar mein saanson ko roke rakhte hain
firaaq-e-yaar mein saanson ko roke rakhte hain
har ek lamha guzarti qaza mein jeete hain
tere khayaal ki aab-o-hawa mein jeete hain
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
na baat poori huyi thhi ke raat toot gayi
na baat poori huyi thhi ke raat toot gayi
adhoore khwaab ki aadhi saza mein jeete hain
tere khayaal ki aab-o-hawa mein jeete hain
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
tumhaari baaton mein koi maseeha basta hai
tumhaari baaton mein koi maseeha basta hai
haseen labon se barasti shaba mein jeete hain
tere khayaal ki aab-o-hawa mein jeete hain
khumaar-e-gham hai mahekti fiza mein jeete hain
tere khayaal ki aab-o-hawa mein jeete hain