Mr. Sampat

Mr. Sampat
Poster
Directed by S. S. Vasan
Produced by S. S. Vasan
Based on Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi
by R. K. Narayan
Starring Motilal Rajvansh
Padmini
Music by B. S. Kalla
E. Shankar Shastri
Cinematography P. Ellappa
Edited by Chandru
Production
company
Release date
  • 1952 (1952)
Running time
 165 minutes
Country India
Language Hindi

Mr. Sampat is a 1952 Indian Hindi-language satirical film produced and directed by S. S. Vasan under Gemini Studios. It is based on R. K. Narayan's 1949 novel Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi, and the Tamil film Miss Malini (1947). The film stars Motilal Rajvansh, Padmini and Kanhaiyalal. It deals with Sampat, a con artist who manipulates a theatre actress and a ghee merchant for his own benefits. Although Rajvansh received rave reviews for his performance, Mr. Sampat was a commercial failure.

Plot

Sampat is a con artist. Since the city of Bombay loves theatre actress Malini of the Kala Mandir Company, he plots and concocts an elaborate scheme involving her and Seth Makhanlal Gheewala, a ghee merchant. He uses Malini, helps Seth Makhanlal win the local elections, then has them involved in opening a bank by offering customers higher interest. The deposits are high. At Sampat's persuasion, Malini starts her own theatre company, but this comes at the cost of her leaving the Kala Mandir Company. While Sampat has a good life, a maharaja, who had huge deposits with the bank, withdraws his funds when Malini rejects his advances. In a matter of time, all of Sampat's schemes fail and both Seth Makhanlal and Malini lose large amounts of money. Realising that he does not have anything more to gain, Sampat abandons them and goes off to explore new zones, this time in the guise of a godman.

Cast

Production

Mr. Sampat is based on the 1949 novel Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi by R. K. Narayan,[4] and the Tamil film Miss Malini (1947) from which the novel developed.[5] It was produced and directed by S. S. Vasan under the banner Gemini Studios.[6] The film was made on a shoestring budget, unlike Vasan's earlier directorial venture, the blockbuster Chandralekha (1948).[7] Vasan showed Motilal Rajvansh two reels of Miss Malini, but Rajvansh felt it was "slow" and complained that it gave him "a headache". He then gave Vasan a sample of his own interpretation of the character Sampat and proceeded to play it that way. Rajvansh played Sampat as someone who just wants to live life as he wants, "not as an extraordinary person, but precisely as an ordinary person".[8] The film substantially deviated from the novel, with Vasan making it "a broad burlesque film and using it successfully to lampoon politicians, ex-princes, journalists, filmstars, religious zealots and bogus philanthropists."[9] Padmini was chosen to reprise the role played by Pushpavalli in Miss Malini,[10] and Mr. Sampat marked her first major appearance in a Hindi film.[11] Cinematography was handled by P. Ellappa, and the editing by Chandru.[3] Principal photography took place entirely at Gemini Studios.[8] The final cut of the film was 165 minutes.[4]

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by B. S. Kalla and E. Shankar Shastri.[12][13] It also marked P. B. Sreenivas' debut in playback singing.[14] The film had no romantic duet, no bhajan, no rakhi song and no heartbreak track, all of which were considered "essential ingredients" in 1950s Indian cinema.[15] The song "Laila Laila Pukaroon" is picturised on a play based on Layla and Majnun.[16] The song "Acche Din Aa Rahe" is picturised on Malini declaring that achche din (good days) will never come for the poor because "the rich and the powerful will never let that happen."[17] Historian V. Sriram noted similarities between "Aao Aao Kahani Suno" and the song "Ayirathu Thollayirathu Ambadu Aruvadu Natakam" from Manamagal (1951).[18]

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Aao Aao Kahani Suno"Geeta Dutt, Jikki 
2."Acche Din Aa Rahe"Shamshad Begum 
3."Aji Hum Bharat Ke"Geeta Dutt, P. B. Sreenivas 
4."Chalo Paniya Bharan"Geeta Dutt, Jikki 
5."Devendra Dev Ki Jay"Talat Mahmood, Shamshad Begum 
6."Din Control Ke"Geeta Dutt, Jikki 
7."Hindustaan Humara"Geeta Dutt 
8."Jagah Nahi"P. B. Sreenivas, Geeta Dutt 
9."Khabardar Hoshiyar"Shamshad Begum 
10.""Kyon Janam Diya"Shamshad Begum, Talat Mahmood 
11."Laila Laila Pukaroon"Shamshad Begum, Talat Mahmood 
12."Lo Bar Jipsi"Shamshad Begum, P. B. Sreenivas 
13."Lo Lai Suiyan"Shamshad Begum 
14."O Basiragi Banwasi"Geeta Dutt 

Reception

Although Rajvansh received rave reviews for his performance, Mr. Sampat was a commercial failure.[1][19] In a review dated 4 January 1953, The Times of India said, the film "marks a new departure in the policy and principle of our filmmakers, who have been ruled hitherto by box-office considerations with rare, too rare, exceptions. In Mr Sampat, Vasan has given us our very first picture which can be said to hold the mirror up to life with useful purpose and an immediate lesson aimed at stimulating the tardy growth and quickening the critical faculty among audiences... Mr Motilal gives a superb performance... he is a grand actor with a slick art which nobody on the screen today can rival."[20] Babu Rao Patel, then the editor of Filmindia, also reviewed the film positively, praising the satire and morals in the film.[15] Rati Batra of the magazine Thought wrote on 10 January 1953, "Motilal as Mr Sampat lives upto the character perfectly, and, though he gets all the laughs, he never borders on the clownish." She also praised the performance of Padmini as Malini but criticised the photography, noting that the shots of the stage shows seen in the film suffered from "bad lighting". J. D. S. of the same magazine also praised the film, thanking Gemini for "presenting to our film industry a model in the portrayal of modern social and political themes." He concluded that, despite a few minor objections, Mr. Sampat was a "shining example of film art amidst the morass of mediocrity that is the experience of the Indian cinegoer."[21]

Mr. Sampat was later featured in journalist Avijit Ghosh's 2013 book 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed.[22] Ghosh wrote in that book that the film's "post-mortem of corruption feels cool and contemporary even today" and that Rajvansh gave "the performance of a lifetime" as Sampat.[23] Writing for Upperstall.com in 2016, Karan Bali stated that Mr. Sampat was "perhaps [Vasan's] best Hindi film", despite being significantly different from the source novel. He praised Vasan for handling the satirical elements "extremely well making the film delightfully irrelevant and thoroughly amusing" along with the performances of Rajvansh, Padmini, Kanhaiyalal and Agha. He wrote that, since Padmini was a trained dancer, "many of the stage performances in the film make splendid use of her tremendous ability as a dancer."[9]

Dropped sequel

After the completion of Mr. Sampat, Rajvansh suggested a sequel titled Mr. Sampat Goes to the UNO to Vasan, but it never came to fruition.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Lokapally, Vijay (30 September 2010). "Mr. Sampat (1952)". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  2. ↑ Ghosh 2013, p. 2.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vasan, S. S. (1952). Mr. Sampat (motion picture) (in Hindi). Gemini Studios. Opening credits, from 0:11 to 1:00.
  4. 1 2 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 1998, p. 326.
  5. ↑ Ramakrishnan, Venkatesh (14 August 2017). "1947: A Madras story". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  6. ↑ Ghosh 2013, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Rangrajan, Malathi (8 April 2012). "Buzzing like crazy". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  8. 1 2 Ghosh 2013, p. 4.
  9. 1 2 Bali, Karan (10 March 2016). "Mr. Sampat". Upperstall.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  10. ↑ Warrier, Shobha (25 September 2006). "Dance was Padmini's passion, not films". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  11. ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 1998, p. 168.
  12. ↑ Ghosh 2013, p. 5.
  13. ↑ "Mr. Sampat". Saavn. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  14. ↑ "PB Srinivas enthralled music lovers for over five decades". Daily News and Analysis. Press Trust of India. 14 April 2013. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  15. 1 2 Ghosh 2013, p. 6.
  16. ↑ Ghosh, Devarsi (22 August 2017). "'Laila' down the years in Hindi film music: From Majnu's inseparable lover to a weapon". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
  17. ↑ "It is Disingenuous of Gadkari to Now Disown the Phrase 'Achche Din'". The Wire. 14 September 2016. Archived from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  18. ↑ Sriram, V. (19 March 2018). "From Manamagal to Mr Sampath". Madras Heritage and Carnatic Music. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  19. ↑ Ghosh 2013, p. 8.
  20. ↑ "Vasan's Mr Sampat witty satire". The Times of India. 4 January 1953.
  21. ↑ Batra, Rati; J. D. S. (10 January 1953). ""Mr. Sampat": Two Reviews". Thought. Vol. 5. Siddhartha Publications. pp. 16–17.
  22. ↑ Bhaduri, Abhijit (1 June 2014). "40 retakes: Bollywood classics you may have missed". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  23. ↑ Ghosh 2013, p. 1.
  24. ↑ Ghosh 2013, p. 7.

Bibliography

  • Ghosh, Abhijit (2013). 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed. Westland. ISBN 978-93-83260-31-7.
  • Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul, eds. (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (PDF). Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-563579-5.
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