Rajinder Singh Bedi
2021दस्तक
Rajinder Singh Bedi
Sanjeev Kumar, Rehana Sultan
Tells the story of newly weds Hamid and Salma. They move into a rental flat next door to the local red light district. The flat had been the former home of a well known mujra and qawali singer, Shamshad. Men still come to the door in the hope of seeing Shamshad and do not seem too put out by seeing Salma despite her protestations. The couple struggle to live within the bounds of their own moral code while the earnings of prostitution seem to be flaunted around them. Hamid gets more and more angry and seemingly unable to reconcile his morality with the immorality of the world and at one point beats his wife and then rapes her making her into a 'whore' of his fantasy. The story here bears resemblance to the later 'Ek Chadar Maili Si' by the same director and seems to explore the complex world of women and sexuality as viewed by Indian men: mother, goddess, whore. This film also explores the ethos of prostitution in its reality and as a metaphor for the outside world.
Dastak
Phagun
Rajinder Singh Bedi
Dharmendra, Waheeda Rehman
Shanta Dhamle lives a wealthy lifestyle in Bombay along with her dad, Shamrao, and mom, Ansuya. She incurs their displeasure when she falls in love and gets married to a poor and overly sensitive writer, Gopal, who moves in with them, and continues to suffer verbal abuse at Shamrao's hands. On the occasion of Holi, while his book 'Agla Kadam' is being published and marketed, he puts some color on a pregnant Shanta's expensive Saree, which upsets her, she humiliates him, and he walks out. He starts writing under the pen name of Santosh, and when Shanta finds out, he changes his name to Vivek, and again to Chitrangh, and does not communicate with her. Four years later, a day before Holi, he has accumulated enough wealth, hundreds of expensive and colorful Sarees, a doll for his daughter,
Phagun
