Films Review: Utsav
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-31, Mov-Dec 1985)
The hoardings of Utsav display the jewel bedecked torso of Rekha with her arms cut off below the shoulders like the Venus of Milo. This disturbing image forewarned us not to expect much from the film. But we were not quite prepared for the degrading experience that the film turned out to be.
Utsav bears as much resemblance to the Sanskrit play Mrichhakatikam, by Sudraka, on which it is supposed to be based, as a rotting corpse does to a living creature. In Mrichhakatikam, Vasantsena, an accomplished courtesan, celebrated as the Lakshmi of her city Ujjayini, falls in love with Charudatt, a brahman renowned for his virtue and nobility. His chief virtue is generosity. He has spent all his wealth on almsgiving and endowment of works of public utility, and is reduced topoverty. By her love for him, Vasantsena shows that she is motivated not by avarice or lust but by her appreciation of his goodness. Therefore, when rejecting the advances of Shakar, the king’s brother-in-law, who uses his wealth and influence to act as a petty tyrant, Vasantsena says : “Good qualities, not rape, give rise to love.”…