Haar Jeet (Victory & Defeat), 1972
Set of 6 Showcards, c. 1972, 50cm X 60cm
Tinted and untinted gelatin silver prints on coloured paper, on board, with screen-printed lettering.
Haar Jeet is a classic drama about love and sacrifice. The film stars Rehana Sultan (winner of the National Film Award for Best Actress in 1970) and the legendary Mehmood, whose formidable career as a comedian saw him appear in nearly 300 films. The music for Haar Jeet was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, a hugely popular duo whose music direction won them seven Filmfare Awards. Laxmikant-Pyarelal was awarded a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
"Kamal, a single urban woman, works as a governess in Mumbai for a widower and his three children. His younger brother also lives there and he and Kamal are attracted to each other. But he marries her friend Radha, who moves in but later ends up in a wheelchair, becoming dependent on Kamal and the family. This film is typical of Hindi cinema which can start with a familiar Hollywood storyline (in this case, The Sound of Music) but towards the end turns into something else.
In the showcards, the solid colours that divide the pictures suggest conflict. The characters are shown gazing or gesturing across space in an absence of geographic or historical context, highlighting the varied nature of the plot and emotional content.
The film Haar Jeet (1972) was produced by N. N. Sippy and directed by C. P. Dixit. Music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Colour, Hindi, starring Rehana Sultan, Radha Saluja and Anil Dhawan."
--Text by Dr. Deepali Dewan and Alexandra McCarter, based on Deepali Dewan, ed. Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s. Showcards from The Hartwick Collection. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum Press, 2011. Copyright of and reproduced here with the generous permission of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Literature
Deepali Dewan, ed. Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s. Showcards from The Hartwick Collection. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum Press, 2011, p. 95, Cat. no. 43.