This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-18, Sep-Oct 1982)
This film is appropriately named. The aadharshila (foundation stone) of man’s boundless egotism is indeed woman’s endless sacrifice.
This is the story of a young man who is suffering from a strong delusion that just because he has graduated from the Poona Film Institute, he has not only the right to make pompous, egocentric films but also to call us, the audience, fools, just because he suspects we may not enthusiastically fall into his trap.
Being unsure of the audience response, the first thing he does in the film is trap a young woman and make her his wife. Thenceforward, he has a captive audience in her and can freely inflict on her his repetitive and self-righteous ravings and rantings. And what can a filmi wife do but gaze adoringly at this self-styled genius, and be willing to play a lifelong “supporting role” to him? Asha in the film is indeed a modern Sita accompanying Ajay, the modern Rama, into self-imposed exile in the jungles of the Delhi and Bombay film world. The film maker Ashok Ahuja (who purports to be relating his own personal story in the film) keeps repeating that Asha’s continuing self-sacrifice is crucial to Ajay’s struggle. However, one presumes that for every one Asha there must be many, many other women who do not serve some egocentric man or other with such patient forbearance—otherwise we would have had to suffer many, many more films like this one. Watching the film, I blessed every one of those women who saved us and the film industry from such misfortune.