A boy and a girl of very young age become friends. They walk together, talk together, laugh together and play all kinds of tricks and nuisances according to their age. Nowhere they feel any gender difference between them. However one fine day, the boy feels that the girl has changed. She is no longer frank and free with him and shying away from him. The boy tries his level best to figure out the change in the attitude and behaviour of the girl towards him and sort out this issue but cannot. The girl has suddenly become a puzzle (PAHELI) for him. Can you tell him - why ? Watch Paheli (1977) to understand this puzzle.
Paheli (puzzle) is a movie from the flag-bearers of simplicity in Hindi cinema - Rajshri banner and true to their tradition (maintained in that period), they have made this story with a rural backdrop and selected teenager newcomers to play the principal roles. It's a lovely movie which touches the the chords in the romantic hearts again and again throughout its duration.
Montu (Satyajeet) is a schoolgoing teenager who lives with his widower father, Brij Mohan (Nitin Sethi) in the city. During summer vacation, he visits the village with his friends which is actually the hometown of his family and where his grandmother (Durga Khote) resides. There he happens to meet two teenager girls - Gauri (Nameeta Chandra) and Champa (Poornima Jayaram). Firstly, the girls play mischiefs on him and his friends but soon thereafter he gets friendly with them, especially with Gauri and when his friends return to the city after a couple of days, he doesn't go with them because he has started enjoying the village life, the love of his grandma and most importantly the company of Gauri. The twosome (Montu and Gauri) keeps on wandering about the village, the fields and all the nearby places. Innocent love has blossomed in their hearts but they being yet to grow-up, are not able to perceive it that way. They only know that they like to be with each other, eat together, sing together, laugh together and play together. Montu comes to know that being an orphan, Gauri is not comfortable in her home and gets a discriminatory treatment from her fostering aunt (Deena Pathak) as against her cousin sisters. He also happens to meet some golden-hearted people like Balraam (Arun Govil), his sweetheart, Kanak (Abha Dhuliya) who is the daughter of the Vaidya (Ayurvedic physician) of the nearby village and his aged and widow mother (Leela Mishra). After having a very nice vacation, Montu returns to the city with a promise made to his grandma as well as Gauri to come again next year.
Comes the next year and Montu is again in the village to spend his vacation. However despite the village being the same, there is a lot of change visible to and felt by him. The biggest change is the behaviour of Gauri. The girl who was after him like anything, teasing him, playing tricks on him, laughing with him, singing and dancing with him in the rain, showing him everything in the village and the nearby locations, bringing water-chestnuts for him to eat (because he is too fond of them) and doing what not for him; is shying away from him. Whenever he visits her, she does not come before him and talk to him. Why ? Asks his heart. The teenager girl has become a puzzle for this confused boy. He comes to know that Gauri's close friend - Champa has got married and now a groom is being searched for Gauri too. He is hurt less by this fact that Gauri may be married to someone, more by her maintaining distance from him. Feeling lonely and painstruck in his heart, Montu decides to go back to the city, never to return. When he is about to leave, Gauri arrives to bid farewell to him with his favourite chestnuts as a parting gift. And suddenly, the puzzle behind Gauri's seemingly strange behaviour gets resolved before Montu. And after that, he gets the biggest and the most pleasant surprise of his life from his grandma.
This lovely and touching movie tells that during puberty, girls get mature faster than boys. They come to understand the male-female attraction and the importance of their union through the sacred knot much earlier than the boys. And that's why girlish shyness comes to fore when there is attraction linked to the opposite sex in the heart of the girl concerned. The boy may not be able to understand it if they are of the same age group.
The artistes have been chosen quite wisely. All have next door looks and appear to be out of the real life people around us. Many characters including the heroine are débutantes. But these newcomers alongwith the hero - Satyajeet and seasoned character artistes like Leela Mishra, Durga Khote and Deena Pathak have delivered natural performances. They look ordinary but win hearts.
Blind lyricist-cum-composer Ravindra Jain has prepared ear-soothing songs for the movie which contain the fragrance of the Indian soil as well as the Indian culture. The songs have been admirably sung by Hemlata, Suresh Wadkar, Chandrani Mukherjee etc. The best song is - Sona Kare Jhilmil Jhilmil, Roopa Kare Kaise Khilkhil which the hero and his female friends sing while enjoying the downpour from the sky.
Paheli is by no means an outstanding or some great movie but it's a touching and lovable movie whose characters are heart-conquering. Indian villages are no longer the ones as shown in the old movies of Rajshri banner. However the simplicity, innocence and cleanliness in hearts shown in them is something to cherish forever. Virtues of life and family values are also there to adopt and preserve for the generation next. If you love simplicity and Indian villages, watch Paheli and lose your heart out to its characters.
