Lets’s begin with some trivia today. What’s special about 8 December? Its Dharmendra’s birthday. Its also Sharmila Tagore’s birthday. Frequent co-stars, they have starred together in multiple movies such as Anupama, Devar, Mere Humdum Mere Dost and Chupke Chupke. And Satyakam, on which today’s post is based upon. Satyakam is regarded as a masterpiece of director Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

The Plot

The movie begins with a voiceover by Narendra/Naren Sharma (Sanjeev Kumar). He is narrating the mythological story of Jabala and her son Satyakam. Satyakam goes to Gautam. He requests Gautam to accept him as his disciple. Gautam asks him what’s his “gotra“. When Satyakaam asks his mother, she replies he was born after she serviced several men and she cannot confirm who was his father. But her name is Jabala and his name is Jabal Satyakam. When Gautam hears this from Satyakam, he proclaims Satyakam is a real brahmin as he had the guts to speak the truth. Naren then then starts narrating the story of the modern Satyakam.

It is pre-independence time. Naren and his best friend Satyapriya (Sath) Acharya (Dharmendra) are engineering students, awaiting their results. Satyapriya, true to his name is a stickler for honesty. The results are out and both are now engineers having cleared the exams successfully. The college students are traveling back home. Unfortunately, the bus meets an accident and they lose one of their friends in the tragedy. Sath and Naren escape with minor injuries.

Recovering from the tragedy, they are looking forward to start their careers with the promise that physical separation will not affect their long term friendship. Sath spends time with his grandfather “Dadaji” Satyasharan Acharya (Ashok Kumar) who is a high caste Sanskrit scholar and runs a gurukul. Dadaji wants Sath to get married soon.

Sath clears an interview with United Paper Mills in Mumbai. The managing director Shyam Sunder (Rajan Haskar) interviews him. Ananto Chatterjee (Rabi Ghosh), the overseer is his colleague. Sath comes to know from Chatterjee that there is no work in the office. He has joined a couple of months back and waiting for work to be allotted. Sath is uncomfortable hearing this. Being the “principled” employee, he cannot earn money by sitting idle.

There is a board meeting and he is introduced to the company’s owner Kunwar Vikram Singh (Manmohan) of Bhawanigarh, a princely state in central India. Sath openly questions him about the commencement of his work. Kunwar informs that Sath’s work is to survey land in his state as they are planning to open a new mill there. The next day, Kunwar & Shyam Sunder along with Sath and Chatterjee leave for Bhawanigarh.

Its June, 1947. At this point, through a radio announcement, the movie incorporates the topic of the annexation of princely states in the soon to be independent India. Kunwar is listening to the radio and is not happy as he awaits his own fate and that of Bhawanigarh.

Sath, Chatterjee and Shyam Sunder are staying at the guest house. The caretaker is Rustom (David). They are served by a young girl Ranjana (Sharmila Tagore). Ranjana’s mother had run away with a driver. Apparently, Ranjana is the driver’s daughter. Kunwar has his sights on her and she entertains him with a song when he is alone in his suite.

Next day onwards, Sath and Chatterjee begin the land survey. They are waiting to be provided with important equipment like theodolite but only get assurances. Sath is restless as he believes in the output and value of his work. Its July, 1947 and Chatterjee tells Sath that they should run away because the future of Kunwar and Bhawanigarh is unclear. Sath convinces him to stay and continue their work. But other circumstances are going to interfere soon and change Sath’s life forever.

One night, Rustom pushes Ranjana and forces her to spend the night in Sath’s room. Sath maintains his distance from her. The next morning, Rustom tells Ranjana’s story to Sath. Due to the unpleasant reputation and deeds of her mother, Ranjan’s fate is bleak. Who will marry such a girl? Her life will be spent entertaining characters like Kunwar. Sath comments generally that anyone will be happy to marry such a beautiful girl. Rustom challenges him if he will do it. Sath realises he cannot. It is easier to talk than commit.

Further, Rustom tells him to take care of Ranjana for a few days as he will be going to Bhopal. She starts accompanying Sath to the survey site and spends time with him. She begs him to take him away from this place; she is ready to serve him as a servant but he tells her it is not possible. A situation arises after Ranjana is raped by Kunwar. It is further revealed she is pregnant and there are questions around the father’s identity. Sath makes the hard decision to marry her in spite of knowing all the background.

Kunwar’s true intentions in employing Sath also get disclosed. He wanted an engineer urgently to sign the land survey document for submitting to the registrar. Seems he wants to exploit the land for other reasons. But Sath is not ready to be bribed.

Sath and Ranjana marry and settle down. They have a son called Kabul (Sarika). Dadaji refuses to accept Ranjana because of her questionable past and Kabul, as he is not Sath’s son.

Due to Sath’s principled nature, he is not able to hold on to a job for long. He encounters corruption at every stage that demands him to make compromises in some form, which are not acceptable to him. Thus they keep moving around. Ranjana accepts this meekly.

A time comes when Naren and Sath meet again. But this time Naren is Sath’s boss. Naren is taken aback by Sath’s attitude towards honesty and inability to bend for practical reasons. There is a corrupt contractor Mr Ladia (Tarun Bose) who wants Sath’s signature on some documents which will benefit Ladia hugely. As expected, Sath refuses. Naren asks him to be realistic but Sath sticks to his stand.

Thus Sath’s life continues with more hardships on the way. One day, Naren comes to know Sath is in the hospital and being treated for last stage cancer. Mr Ladia is supporting the family. Sath is worried about Ranjana and Kabul’s future. Ladia is willing to help to seal the family’s future by giving Rs 25,000 only if Sath agrees to forget his principles and sign the pending documents that Ladia was chasing him for. He shares this proposition with Ranjana and requests her to convince Sath and get his signature.

Ranjana contemplates Ladia’s offer and lectures Sath that he never thought about them before. What will they do once he is dead? Will he be happy if she becomes a prostitute like her mother and what about Kabul’s future, where will the money come from? This leaves Sath in a dilemma. His one and only compromise will secure his family’s future but will he do it?

The Music

There are only 3 songs which are forgettable. Lyrics by Kaifi Azmi and music by Laxmikant Pyarelal.

My Thoughts

While an unconventional subject, Hrishikesh Mukherjee handles it deftly. The movie avoids being preachy. Mukherjee resolves Sath’s dilemma effectively and ties up the climax with the original story of Jabala and Satyakam. There are some lighter touches which are a trademark of Mukherjee’s direction. Sath’s unwavering stand on principles may seem a bit far fetched but he has a position that one has to start somewhere for honesty to prevail in the society. Even the independence of the country did not help to change things and that’s his regret. The dialogues by Rajinder Singh Bedi are impactful (he won the Filmfare award for this movie).

This is definitely one of Dharmendra’s finest performances. Too bad, he did very few of such characters in his long career. Sharmila Tagore, Sanjeev Kumar and Ashok Kumar are all good in their roles. Interestingly, Sanjeev Kumar is credited as “and Sanjeev Kumar” in the titles.