Vijay Anand's masterpiece

Tere Ghar Ke Samne was one of the best creations by Vijay Anand.

The trouble with a Vijay Anand film is that it never gets dated. And so also is the case with Tere Ghar Ke Samne, made some 41 years ago and starring the flawless beauty Nutan and Dev Anand as hero. And today, the 22nd January 2004, on Vijay Anand's 70th birth anniversary it is time to take a look at one of the finest works that came from one of India's most creative filmmakers.

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Tere Ghar Ke Samne is a work that belies description simply because it is so finely crafted, a work that has a momentum of its own with not a superfluous moment - a film that has been dismissed merely as being a 'good one' when it actually deserves to be up there with the classics.

Tere Ghar Ke Samne isn't just a love story set in the refined 60s - when family values hadn't eroded, when word of the elders was just as important as that of their offspring, when love was still played out with finesse - and not with body shows. It is also a film with political overtones - it is about neighbours running each other down; about neighbours being suspicious and constantly seeking to be pleased by those whom they call their own; through the film runs the game of one upmanship when one man's ego takes on another man simply because… they know no other way to be.

Overtly, the film is the story of architect Rakesh Kumar (Dev Anand) and his beloved Sulekha (Nutan in one of her most endearing performances) who is commissioned by Sulekha's father Seth Karamchand (Harindernath Chatopadhyay) to build their house.

A still from Tere Ghar Ke Samne

The catch is that he is also building his own house on a plot of land bought by his father Lala Puranchand (Om Prakash) that faces Karamchand's property. And both the men want their house to be better than their neighbour's because they're developed a rivalry while bidding for the same properties! Of course, neither knows that the same architect is building both houses and that both have mistakenly cleared the same plan for their individual homes.

Meanwhile, adding to the complication is the fact that Rakesh and Sulekha are in love with each other and know that there is no way, their respective fathers will agree to a marriage between the two. The film positions itself as a love story but takes on the macrocosm of misunderstandings and egocentric behaviour that can ruin lives and lifetime relationships. What makes it special is that Rakesh decides that the two lovers will not elope and get married without permission. He tells Sulekha that he will marry only her And with the sanction of their parents. He is convinced that he can convince them.

Even the cameos played by women are unlike seen then or even now on the silver screen. Vijay Anand's doesn't believe in the adage that women are supposed to be seen and not heard. As wives, Anand's women (in this case Pratima Devi - Sulekha's mother, and Mumtaz Begum - Rakesh's mother) take on their husbands if they feel that they are being unfair and stupid.

Rakesh's mother rebukes her husband for throwing out their only son because he smokes and drinks once in a while. Not only does she candidly confess that she was tempted on taking a peg or so in a club once, she also informs him that he is unjustified in believing that like their forefathers his son should also tow the line and play the obedient progeny. She insists that Rakesh means no disrespect with his drinking and smoking and that is hardly any reason for his being thrown out. She goes to the extent of telling Puranchand that it was his fault that he sent his son for higher education abroad not because he wanted his son to be well-educated but because it added to his prestige of having a son who was 'foreign returned'.

Likewise, Sulekha's mother tells Karamchand that he has lost his mind because he bid Rs. Two Lakhs for a property worth Rs. 40,000 only because he wanted his bid to be higher than Om Prakash's! And Karamchand in typical pompous style replies: Kabhi kisise peeche mat raho / Shaan bhi koi cheez hoti hai (Never allow yourself to be left behind / after all pride too is important).