Double trouble

When Behala resident, Kaushik Dutta bound himself in holy matrimony with sisters Jhuma and Soma this Sunday, he unwittingly joined a list of Bollwood and Tollywood greats.

With Kolkata resident Kaushik Dutta bringing the queasy issue of bigamy to the forefront, it8217;s time to find out Bollywood8217;s take on it

When Behala resident, Kaushik Dutta bound himself in holy matrimony with sisters Jhuma and Soma this Sunday, he unwittingly joined a list of Bollwood and Tollywood greats. Dutta8217;s bigamous ways may have raised a number of eyebrows, but on screen, Bollywood and Tollywood idols have practised and indeed, endorsed bigamy.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, a period that is considered to be the darkest of Bollywood history, filmmaker Saawan Kumar Tak earned himself the title of 8220;souten specialist8221;, because of his uncanny knack of manufacturing polygamous tales of different permutations and combinations8212;two women, one man, one woman, two men etc. While the Rajesh Khanna starrer Souten, dealt with the problem of other woman by making her to be a martyr, his next film Souten ki Beti was like the icing on the cake. The film deals with the sensitive topic of the fate of children born out of wedlock. Jeetendra has a daughter with Rekha, his mistress, while being married to Jaya Prada. And pray what does the wife do when she gets to know about her husband8217;s philandering ways? Bring the mistress and the child home and give her the status of the 8220;second wife8221;!

Then it was the turn of director David Dhawan and his series of gharwali-baharwali films, which made a mockery of the institution. Being married to more than one woman at that time seemed to be the favourite pastime of heroes like Govinda and Anil Kapoor in these regressive comedies. While the legalities of the situation may make most men think twice before taking the plunge, for these men the consequences were always happy. In Sajan Chale Sasural Govinda happily bounces from one woman to another with the ease of an olympic gymnast. In between, he also manages to crack a few ribald jokes at the expense of his unsuspecting wives, Tabu and Karisma Kapoor. The problem, which seems a little more than a logistical one for our hero, is resolved with what is supposed to come naturally to most Indian women 8212; you guessed it 8212; acceptance.

Presumably, women in Bollywood of the 1980s had no choice but to accept a man who has been less than loyal to her. If she revolts, like Rekha does in the Jeetendra starrer Ek Hi Bhool, she is a shrew who has to be tamed. Another exercise in regression was the Jeetendra-Rekha starrer of the late 1980s, Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai. The film literally had the kanjeevaram clad heroines literally clawing each other to keep the man who both can stake claim to!

More recently in David Dhawan8217;s Gharwali Baharwali, the hero has no choice but to indulge in bigamy, we are told. On a business trip to Nepal, Anil Kapoor falls in love with a nubile Rambha, hides the fact from loving wife Raveena Tandon before things finally come to a head. Again, it is the wife who is guilt tripped into accepting the other woman.

Closer home, in Tollywood, the treatment of bigamy has thankfully been more sensitive. In Rituparno Ghosh8217;s 2005 film Antarmahal, the oppressive zamindar Jackie Shroff marries a much-younger Soha Ali Khan, after his first wife Rupa Ganguly fails to give him an heir. The wives are both allies and rivals in this complex tale of exploitation.