Like her epic prototypes, this divine forest-girl meets and falls for a city-boy and contracts an informal marriage with him-and then (so to speak) it is all downhill from there.

Since the heroine of this story (after an ordeal that will be summarized below) became recognized as the mother of the dynast Bharata, whose name is reflected in the official, post-Independence name for “India” ( Bhaarat, or “the descendants of Bharata”), this tale is as portentous as it is popular.Įthnic ontogeny, national geography, Hindu mythology, and the feminization and divinization of land and nature thus all converge in the film’s blue-eyed Himalayan heroine, Ganga (played by Kapoor’s ingénue discovery Mandakini, whose stage name evokes another sacred river)-who shoulders this heavy symbolic burden, above her ample cleavage, as jauntily as she does the jug of ganga-jal (Ganges water) she carries in a famous scene early in the film. Broadly speaking, the narrative recapitulates the Shakuntala story-that first appeared in the epic Mahabharata in perhaps the 3rd or 2nd century BCE and then was reworked, some six hundred years later, by the poet Kalidasa into the most famous of all Sanskrit dramas. The last film that director Kapoor completed before his death in 1988 became a smash hit that heartily reconfirmed, after several lukewarm releases, his cherished epithet of “the Great Showman.” It is in fact in the grand Kapoor tradition: an ingenious and epic-scale allegory that synthesizes classical and mythic narrative, soft-core political and social commentary (here condemning the corruption of politicians and capitalists and championing the nascent environmental initiatives of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi), and audacious display of the female anatomy. Singh Lyrics: Ravindra Jain, Hasrat Jaipuri, Ameer Qazalbash Music: Ravindra Jain Choreography: Suresh Bhatt Art direction: Suresh Sawant Cinematography: Radhu Karmakar

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