Subhash K Jha looks again at Tigmanshu Dhulia’s 2011 trippy Sahib Bibi Aur Gangster, a tribute to an iconic Guru Dutt film.
Sahib Bibi Aur Gangster is an audacious tongue-in-cheek homage to Guru Dutt’s timeless classic Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Don’t believe the director’s protestations to the contrary. Dhulia’s film even opens with an unabashed tribute to Guru Dutt’s film with skeletons being dug out during an excavation. There onwards there are plenty of skeletons tumbling out of secret places in the zamindar’s (Jimmy Sheirgill) bedroom and other workplaces, all leading to a series of climaxes, many of them aggressively sexual in nature.
Dhulia deconstructs and demystifies Meena Kumari’s alcohol-laden mysterious Choti Bahu from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. As played by Mahie Gill in Dhulia’s new-age deconstructed version of the classic film, the wife is a full-blooded sexually dissatisfied, curious and predatory creature somewhat annoying in her insistence on going against the rules of her husband’s crumbling ‘haveli’.
Scenes showing the wife’s rebellious streak are awkwardly constructed. It is no coincidence that the intruder in Dhulia’s film is a libidinous over-ambitious driver whose hunger for sex and power drives him to self-destruction. As played by Randeep Hooda, he is quite the opposite of the gentle shy besotted little creature that the Choti Bahu befriended in Guru Dutt’s film.
Sahib Bibi Aur Gangster creates a world far removed from Guru Dutt’s classic, and yet the two works are miraculously joined at the hip. Almost every character from the Guru Dutt film is replicated if not parodied in Dhulia’s film. There is even Deepal Shaw playing a modern day version of Waheeda Rehman’s Jabaa from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam.
Sex and politics fuse into the fading crumbling feudal world of Dhulia’s cinema, creating a potent mix of passion and politics. As the goon, who dares to enter his benefactor’s wife’s bedroom and dreams of taking his place, Randeep Hooda has the best lines and graph for his character. Here’s an actor who is yet to get his due.
Mahie Gill plays the desolate wife with an absolute absence of enigma. Meena Kumari didn’t quite know what she was searching for. This woman knows exactly what she wants and finally gets it through the nozzle of the gun. Jimmy Shergill has over the years evolved as an actor of subtle skills. As the embittered husband and doddering landlord he brings to the storyboard a kind of gentle persuasiveness that goes beyond the narration. His scenes with his father’s mistress are gems conveying wry disdain for a woman who controls the resources of a rapidly crumbling feudal kingdom.
Dhulia is in the habit of bringing into play the political forces that determine human nature in Uttar Pradesh.
Sahib Bibi Aur Gangster turns progressively Shakespearean towards the end with three protagonists hurling towards self-destruction. As they delve toward doom you are left with no choice but to watch the characters as pathetic paradigms of an era that has long gone.
The crumbling sepia-toned interiors and colour tones scream out a message of live and let live. But it’s too late, Dhulia’s characters are felled by their own greed and lust.Guru Dutt would have probably choked at this badland bawdy burlesque of “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam”. Lekin man-na padega, boss. Tigmanshu Dhulia’s homage to Dutt is saucy if somewhat uneven in tone and jagged at the edges.
Recalling the experience of making this trippy tribute to Guru Dutt, Tigmanshu Dhulia says,, “I made Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster because I was waiting for the release of Paan Singh Tomar. UTV was taking time. Rather than wait I decided to make this other film. Saheb Biwi… was made because I needed to work while waiting for the release of Paan Singh Tomar. I must tell you, my friends found a doggie on the streets, almost dead in a drain. We brought her to my office because my friends know I love dogs. We named her Sahiba. The minute she arrived in my life my career changed. When she walked in Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster commenced. She is my lucky mascot.”
Dhulia wrote a scene in SBAG where actor Rajeev Gupta is caught looking at porn on his laptop? “That was written specially for Rajeev. It’s a 8-minute long sequence. It’s inspired by those two politicians from real life caught enjoying porn in parliament. I think we we need to develop a sense of humour about Indian politics. Irrfan’s name in the film is Indrajeet Singh. But everyone calls him Raja Bhaiyya because he is a prince. His character is not inspired by Raja Bhaiyya. Irrfan’s character represents a fading feudalism. In real life, such former feudal lords get the same respect from the staff in their haveli as they did earlier while everything else outside has changed. Actually , Neil Nitin Mukesh was supposed to do a film. He saw Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster and wanted to be in the sequel. We met and shook hands. But as I wrote the script I realized I needed an older man for the part. The Neil-Mahie Gill pair would have looked odd. That’s when I asked Irrfan. Luckily he agreed. I owe Neil a role. I’d like to think that Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster changed the destinies of some of the actors. Randeep, Mahie and Jimmy’s career changed. When a film is a success everyone benefits.”
