Decades before Adipurush, Jai Santoshi Maa was the mythological blockbuster that gave Sholay a run for its money

The year 1975 was big for Hindi movies as this was the time Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ avatar reached its crescendo. This was the year of Sholay and Deewaar, the films that are considered a part of Hindi cinema’s legacy. Other films like Feroz Khan’s Dharmatama, Dharmendra and Hema Malini’s Pratigya, Rishi and Neetu Kapoor’s Khel Khel Mein and Rafoo Chakkar were flying at the box office and the masses were lapping them up. In the midst of all these popular films, Vijay Sharma’s Jai Santoshi Maa had a quiet release in the month of May and soon became gigantic at the box office. It was only second to Sholay in terms of box office and considering that it was made on a much lesser budget, the return on investment on this film was certainly higher than the Salim-Javed film.

Jai Santoshi Maa’s story was as simple as one could imagine. The closest thing that one can compare it to is one of those vrat kathas where a god-fearing layperson faces unprecedented hardships, prays to god, and is ultimately rescued by the god, and even rewarded with a little extra in the end. Complete with visual effects that seem dated for even the 1970s, and dialogues that are excessively melodramatic, the film has regular intervals of devotional songs which are all in praise of the goddess. And it was probably the music of the film that clicked with the audience and made it a bigger hit than Deewaar in 1975.

Composed by C Arjun and written by Kavi Pradeep, the title track of the film ‘Main Toh Aarti Utaru’ can still be heard in temples and the lyricist’s daughter Mitul Pradeep, in an interview with The Times of India, called it “one of the most iconic songs of his career”, which included the memorable ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logo’. “Pradeep ji reluctantly agreed to write lyrics for this project. The first song he wrote was this aarti of Santoshi Maa,” she said and recalled that he liked to “tune the lyrics” and when he shared it with the composer, he readily agreed to take it on. The music here was similar to the tune of Gujarati garba and was quite catchy. “There was nothing amiss in the lyrics. We told our father ‘any person who is spiritually inclined, will like this song’,” she recalled.

Mitul also recalled that Jai Santoshi Maa, which released in the month of May, and Sholay, which released in August, were in theatres at the same time. Jai Santoshi Maa was a sleeper hit at the theatres but once it found the right gear, it did not slow down for months. We have all heard stories of people watching Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan in the 1980s with their footwear lined up outside the TV room like they were in a temple and Jai Santoshi Maa also witnessed similar display of faith from the audience. “I was astonished to see the ladies performing the aarti inside the theatre auditorium. They were also dancing to this aarti,” she shared. A similar anecdote was shared by film analyst Dilip Thakur in another interview shared by the publication. “On Fridays, people used to remove their footwear outside the theatre before going inside the theatre to watch the film,” he said and shared that after the film picked up, theatre owners and distributors decided to screen special shows which would only have women audience. “During those times, women didn’t get to watch movies by themselves. So separate shows for women were organised on Saturdays because kids would have a half-day at school. Those shows used to be called janani (women) shows. Those shows would have only ladies and their kids,” he shared.

Jai Santoshi Maa, a modest mythological film made with a rather simplistic approach gave tough competition to what is now seen as one of the most renowned films of Hindi cinema, Sholay. “Amid the craze of Sholay, the only film to stand its ground was Jai Santoshi Maa,” shared Thakur. While Jai Santoshi Maa was all the craze in the 1975, it is seen as an anomaly in Indian cinema’s history as not many films could repeat its success story. The legacy of many of the films that made lesser money that it is much richer and as individual pieces of cinema, most of them have aged better than Jai Santoshi Maa. In 2006, Jai Santoshi Maa was remade with Nushrratt Bharuccha who was making her film debut and it sank without a trace. Although, a television show starring Gracy Singh a few years ago worked successfully for almost two years.

In comparison to the 1975 hit, Adipurush has all the tools in place to make it a big hit at the box office but if Jai Santoshi Maa’s success taught Bollywood one thing, it was that making money at the cinemas does not guarantee a lasting legacy.