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Jai Santoshi Maa
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Wikipedia article
'Jai Santoshi Maa' is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language devotional film directed by Vijay Sharma and written R. Priyadarshi. Santosh M (also called Santoshi Mata) is the goddess of satisfaction. Usha 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. Made on a low-budget, the film became one of the most successful film at box office.
Plot
The film opens in the Dev Lok (Hindi for Devaloka) or "the world of the gods," a Hindu heaven located above the clouds, where we witness the "birth" of Goddess Santoshi ("Santoshi Maa") as the daughter of Lord Ganesha, the elephant headed god of good beginnings, his two wives Riddhi and Siddhi ("prosperity" and "spiritual power"), sons Kshema and Labha ("prosperity" and "profit"). Although, Lord Vinayaka has another wife Buddhi ("wisdom"), she is not portrayed in the film.
A key role is played by the immortal sage Narada, a devotee of Lord Vishnu, and a cosmic busybody who regularly intervenes to advance the film's two parallel plots, which concern both human beings and gods.
We soon meet the 18th-century maiden Satyavati Sharma (Kanan Kaushal), Santoshi Mata's greatest earthly devotee, leading a group of women in an aarti to the goddess. This first song, "Main To Arti Utaru" (I perform Mother Santoshi's aarti) exemplifies through its camerawork the experience of 'darshan' of "seeing" and being seen by a deity in the reciprocal act of "visual communion" that is central to Hindu worship.
Through the Mother's grace, Satyavati soon meets, falls in love with, and manages to marry the handsome lad Brijmohan ("Birju"), youngest of seven brothers in a prosperous Bias Brahmin farmer family, an artistic flute-playing type who can also render a zippy bhajan on request (Apni Santoshi Maa, "Our Mother Santoshi"). Alas, with the boy come the in-laws, and two of Birju's six sisters-in-law, Durga and Maya are jealous shrews who have it in for him and Satyavati from the beginning. To make matters worse, Narada (in a delightful scene back in heaven) "stirs up" the "jealousy" of three senior goddesses, Lakshmi, Parvati, and Brahmani (a.k.a. Sarasvati) the wives of the "Hindu trinity" of Vishnu, Lord Shiva, and Brahmaagainst the "upstart" goddess Santoshi Ma. They decide to examine (pariksha) her perseverance or faith (Shraddha) by making life miserable for her chief devotee. Of course, this is all just a charade and the holy goddesses are just acting as if they are jealous of the granddaughter of Universal Mother Parvati to test Satyavati's devotion.
After a fight with his relatives, Birju leaves home to seek his fortune, narrowly escaping a watery grave (planned for him by the goddesses) through his wife's devotion to Santoshi Ma. Nevertheless, the divine ladies convince his family that he is indeed dead, adding the stigma of widowhood to Satyavati's other woes. Her sisters-in-law treat her like a slave, beat and starve her, and a local rogue attempts to rape her; Santoshi Ma (played as an adult by Anita Guha), taking a human form, rescues her several times. Eventually Satyavati is driven to attempt suicide, but is stopped by Narada, who tells her about the sixteen-Fridays fast in honour of Santoshi Ma, which can grant any wish. Satyavati completes it with great difficulty and more divine assistance, and just in the nick of time: for the now-prosperous Birju, stricken with amnesia by the goddesses and living in a distant place, has fallen in love with a rich merchant's daughter. Through Santoshi Ma's grace, he gets his memory back and returns home laden with wealth. When he discovers the awful treatment given to his wife, he builds a palatial home for the two of them, complete with an in-house temple to the Holy Mother. Satyavati plans a grand ceremony of udyapan or "completion" (of her vrat ritual) and invites her in-laws. But the celestials and sadistic sisters-in-law make a last-ditch effort to ruin her by squeezing lime juice into one of the dishes (key point here: the rules of Santoshi Ma's fast forbid eating, or serving, any sour or bitter food). All hell breaks loose before peace is finally restored, on earth as it is in heaven, and a new deity is triumphantly welcomed to the pantheon, as the goddesses have been convinced of Satyavati's devotion.
Cast
*Kanan Kaushal as Satyavati Vyas (ne Sharma)
*Ashish Kumar as Brijmohan ("Birju") Vyas
*Anita Guha as Shri Santoshi Mata
*Bharat Bhushan as Pandit Devidutt Sharma, Satyavati's Father
*Rajani Bala as Geeta
*Trilok Kapoor as Lord Shiva
*Bela Bose as Durga Vyas
*B. M. Vyas as Geeta Father and jeweller businessman
*Rajan Haksar as Bhairav "Bhairavram" Vyas
*Manohar Desai as Dayakar ("Dayaram") Vyas
*Dilip Dutta
*Mahipal as Devarishi Narada
*Padmarani as Devi Mata Brahmani
*Leela Mishra
* Sushila Devi
Soundtrack
Song composed by C. Arjun and lyricist written by Kavi Pradeep
Awards and nominations
*BFJA Award for Best Male Playback Singer (Hindi Section) Pradeep for the song "Yahan Wahan"
*BFJA Award for Best Female Playback Singer (Hindi Section) Usha Mangeshkar
*Filmfare Nomination for Best Female Playback Singer Usha Mangeshkar for the song "Main To Aarti"[http://deep750.googlepages.com/FilmfareAwards.pdf 1st Filmfare Awards 1953]
References
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