Superhit devotional songs from 1975 low-budget but unexpected superhit Hindi film - Jai Santoshi Maa
In the late 70s and 80s in Bombay/Mumbai and Dombivli, I have heard some of the more popular devotional songs of this Jai Santoshi Maa Hindi film, umpteen times. At festival times like Ganesh Chaturthi and Navarathri there would be many community puja (worship) events along with some entertainment over a few days period. The bigger events would have a loudspeaker playing devotional songs for most of the daytime. I think I have heard the songs I have given below many times through these loudspeakers. They had acquired a cult-like status. The movie box office proceeds seems to have been in the range of the superhit Sholay and Deewar movies' box office proceeds - all three movies were released in 1975! That itself tells us how big Jai Santoshi Maa was at the box office. I mean, Sholay and Deewar were spectacular hits having superstars of that time, and these movies are considered as great Hindi films even today.
These devotional songs of Jai Santoshi Maa highlight rural women and their worship rituals in the context of the many trials and tribulations they face, and in the context of having successfully overcome the trials and tribulations and coming out on top, family status wise and financial status wise, through the grace of the goddess Santoshi Maa (Mata).
The youtube views (viewcounts) tell us that these songs are popular even today!
* 14 million views: Karti Hu Tumhara Vrat Main | Usha Mangeshkar | Jai Santoshi Maa 1975 Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkaPXgFAn-c, 6 min. 25 secs, published by Gaane Sune Ansune on 12th October 2015
* 22 million views: Main Toh Aarti Utaru Re Santoshi Mata Ki (|) | Usha Mangeshkar| Jai Santoshi Maa Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ8VKSh3rL0, 6 min. 52 secs, published by Gaane Sune Ansune on 7th October 2015
* 6 million views: Yahan Wahan Jahan Tahan | Kavi Pradeep | Jai Santoshi Maa 1975 Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er2ggmmQS3o, 6 min. 1 sec, published by Gaane Sune Ansune on 9th October 2015
Attempted explanation(s) of why the movie and these songs acquired a cult-like status are given on the movie's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Santoshi_Maa. I have given below some extracts from it:
Jai Santoshi Maa is a 1975 low-budget Hindi film that became one of the top blockbusters of all time.[2][3] Santoshī Mā (also called Santoshi Mata) is the goddess of satisfaction. Usha Mangeshkar, sister of Lata Mangeshkar, sang the devotional songs for the film along with Mahendra Kapoor and the famous poet Kavi Pradeep, who wrote the lyrics of the songs.
...
Release and response
This low-budget film with forgotten stars and unknown actors unexpectedly emerged as one of the highest-grossing releases of 1975—sharing the spotlight with the likes of Sholay and Deewaar. This bewildered critics and intrigued scholars (resulting in a modest literature on the film as a religio-cultural phenomenon), but made perfect sense to millions of Indian women, who loved its folksy story about a new "Goddess of Satisfaction," easily accessible through a simple ritual (which the film also demonstrates). A classic example of the "mythological" genre—the original narrative genre of Indian-made films—and one of the most popular such films ever made, it gave a new (and characteristically Indian), inflection to the American pop-critical term "cult film," for viewers often turned cinemas into temporary temples, leaving their footwear at the door, pelting the screen with flowers and coins, and bowing reverently whenever the goddess herself appeared (which she frequently did, always accompanied by a clash of cymbals).
The screenplay is based on a vrat katha: a folktale (katha) meant for recitation during the performance of a ritual fast (vrat) honouring a particular deity and undertaken to achieve a stated goal. The Santoshi Ma vrat seems to have become popular in north India during the 1960s, spreading among lower middle-class women by word of mouth and through an inexpensive "how-to" pamphlet and religious poster of the goddess. However, the printed story is very sketchy and the film greatly embellishes it, adding a second narrative to its tale of a long-suffering housewife who gets relief through worshiping Santoshi Ma.
Analysis and social significance
In an era dominated by violent masala action films aimed primarily at urban male audiences, Jai Santoshi Maa spoke to rural and female audiences, invoking a storytelling style dear to them and conveying a message of vindication and ultimate triumph for the sincerely devoted (and upwardly-mobile). Above all, it concerns the life experience that is typically the most traumatic for an Indian woman: that of being wrenched from her mayka or maternal home and forced to adjust to a new household in which she is often treated as an outsider who must be tested and disciplined, sometimes harshly, before she can be integrated into the family. Satyavati's relationship with Santoshi Ma enables her to endure the sufferings inflicted on her by her sisters-in-law and to triumph over them, but it also accomplishes more. It insures that Satyavati's life consistently departs from the script that patriarchal society writes for a girl of her status: she marries a man of her own choosing, enjoys a companionate relationship (and independent travel) with her husband, and ultimately acquires a prosperous home of her own, beyond her in-laws' reach. While appearing to adhere to the code of a conservative extended family (the systemic abuses of which are dramatically highlighted), Satyavati nevertheless quietly achieves goals, shared by many women, that subvert this code.
[Wiki References]
2. BoxOffice India.com
3. "Jai Santoshi Maa", https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073191/. IMDb. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
--- end wikipedia extracts ---
Ravi: I should also mention that I have not seen the film.
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
These devotional songs of Jai Santoshi Maa highlight rural women and their worship rituals in the context of the many trials and tribulations they face, and in the context of having successfully overcome the trials and tribulations and coming out on top, family status wise and financial status wise, through the grace of the goddess Santoshi Maa (Mata).
The youtube views (viewcounts) tell us that these songs are popular even today!
* 14 million views: Karti Hu Tumhara Vrat Main | Usha Mangeshkar | Jai Santoshi Maa 1975 Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkaPXgFAn-c, 6 min. 25 secs, published by Gaane Sune Ansune on 12th October 2015
* 22 million views: Main Toh Aarti Utaru Re Santoshi Mata Ki (|) | Usha Mangeshkar| Jai Santoshi Maa Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ8VKSh3rL0, 6 min. 52 secs, published by Gaane Sune Ansune on 7th October 2015
* 6 million views: Yahan Wahan Jahan Tahan | Kavi Pradeep | Jai Santoshi Maa 1975 Songs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er2ggmmQS3o, 6 min. 1 sec, published by Gaane Sune Ansune on 9th October 2015
Attempted explanation(s) of why the movie and these songs acquired a cult-like status are given on the movie's wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_Santoshi_Maa. I have given below some extracts from it:
Jai Santoshi Maa is a 1975 low-budget Hindi film that became one of the top blockbusters of all time.[2][3] Santoshī Mā (also called Santoshi Mata) is the goddess of satisfaction. Usha Mangeshkar, sister of Lata Mangeshkar, sang the devotional songs for the film along with Mahendra Kapoor and the famous poet Kavi Pradeep, who wrote the lyrics of the songs.
...
Release and response
This low-budget film with forgotten stars and unknown actors unexpectedly emerged as one of the highest-grossing releases of 1975—sharing the spotlight with the likes of Sholay and Deewaar. This bewildered critics and intrigued scholars (resulting in a modest literature on the film as a religio-cultural phenomenon), but made perfect sense to millions of Indian women, who loved its folksy story about a new "Goddess of Satisfaction," easily accessible through a simple ritual (which the film also demonstrates). A classic example of the "mythological" genre—the original narrative genre of Indian-made films—and one of the most popular such films ever made, it gave a new (and characteristically Indian), inflection to the American pop-critical term "cult film," for viewers often turned cinemas into temporary temples, leaving their footwear at the door, pelting the screen with flowers and coins, and bowing reverently whenever the goddess herself appeared (which she frequently did, always accompanied by a clash of cymbals).
The screenplay is based on a vrat katha: a folktale (katha) meant for recitation during the performance of a ritual fast (vrat) honouring a particular deity and undertaken to achieve a stated goal. The Santoshi Ma vrat seems to have become popular in north India during the 1960s, spreading among lower middle-class women by word of mouth and through an inexpensive "how-to" pamphlet and religious poster of the goddess. However, the printed story is very sketchy and the film greatly embellishes it, adding a second narrative to its tale of a long-suffering housewife who gets relief through worshiping Santoshi Ma.
Analysis and social significance
In an era dominated by violent masala action films aimed primarily at urban male audiences, Jai Santoshi Maa spoke to rural and female audiences, invoking a storytelling style dear to them and conveying a message of vindication and ultimate triumph for the sincerely devoted (and upwardly-mobile). Above all, it concerns the life experience that is typically the most traumatic for an Indian woman: that of being wrenched from her mayka or maternal home and forced to adjust to a new household in which she is often treated as an outsider who must be tested and disciplined, sometimes harshly, before she can be integrated into the family. Satyavati's relationship with Santoshi Ma enables her to endure the sufferings inflicted on her by her sisters-in-law and to triumph over them, but it also accomplishes more. It insures that Satyavati's life consistently departs from the script that patriarchal society writes for a girl of her status: she marries a man of her own choosing, enjoys a companionate relationship (and independent travel) with her husband, and ultimately acquires a prosperous home of her own, beyond her in-laws' reach. While appearing to adhere to the code of a conservative extended family (the systemic abuses of which are dramatically highlighted), Satyavati nevertheless quietly achieves goals, shared by many women, that subvert this code.
[Wiki References]
2. BoxOffice India.com
3. "Jai Santoshi Maa", https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073191/. IMDb. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
--- end wikipedia extracts ---
Ravi: I should also mention that I have not seen the film.
[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Comments
Post a Comment