MeeraBai: 1979 movie

Mirabai (मीराबाई) (1498-1547CE) (alternate orthographies: Meera; Mira; Meera Bai) was a Hindu mystical poetess whose compositions are popular throughout India. Mirabai is held to have been a disciple of Ravidas. Mirabai composed between 200 to 1300 prayerful songs called bhajans. These bhajans are in the bhakti tradition, and most passionately praised Lord Krishna, she considered God Krishna to be her Husband . The extant version of her poems are in a Rajasthani dialect of Hindi and in Gujarati. Many of the details of Mirabai's life are pieced together from her poetry and the stories later recounted by members of her community. While Mirabai's hagiography is held as truth by followers of the bhakti tradition, the historical authenticity of most of her story is the subject of scholarly debate. Mira was born in 1498 A.D. in Kudki, a little village near Merta, Rajasthan, which is presently in Pali district. Her father was Ratan Singh, a descendant of Rao Rathor, the founder of Jodhpur. When Mirabai was only 3 years old, a wandering sadhu came to her family’s home and gave a doll of Krishna to her father. Her father took this is as a special blessing, but was initially unwilling to give it to his daughter, because he felt she would not appreciate it. However Mira had, at first sight, become deeply enamoured with this doll. She refused to eat until the doll was given to her. To Mira, this figure of Krishna embodied his living presence. She resolved to make Krishna her lifelong friend, lover, and husband. Throughout her turbulent life she never wavered from her youthful commitment.


"Meera" is a shocking tale of the "Hindu Socrates" who was poisoned for her determination and rebellious nature against social and religious laws. A Hindu usually takes pride that Hinduism tolerates even those thinkers who challenged God and Vedas by citing examples like "sage" Charvaka, "Bhagwan" Buddha, "Bhagwan" Mahaveera whose philosophies were included within Hindu philosophy by calling them "heterodox" philosophers, it being an extremely tolenent religion . However, Meera is a sad exception. A Rajput princess who is married to a Rajput prince Bhojraj even though she considers Krishna as her husband. Throughout her life she is questioned and tortured by Hindu priest and her royal family for her radical beliefs. After her marriage, once while dancing in a Krishna temple, Swami Raidas meets her. This meeting is questioned by her family since Swami is of low-caste. Eventually when her husband goes out in a war against Moguls, she leaves her home and heads to Kashi where Akbar sends her a gift. For this "crime" of accepting a gift from a rival of Rajputs and spending several nights outside the home, she is convicted by religious court and eventually after a Socratic hearing, she is poisoned like Socrates. in teh movie One is also reminded of Gurudutt's Pyasa where a poet is celebrated after his death but insulted and tortured when he is alive. Meera is also tortured entire life but today after her death several centuries ago, she is celebrated as a great Bhakti saint by Hindus. Hema Malini has gelled excellently with the life of Meera, very strong-willed performance, especially when she argues with the Hindu priest in her trial in the climax. Only drawback of the film is its music, one misses Lata Mangeshkar voice in the Meera Bhajans which she had sung for a non-film album for her brother and hence chose not to sing for this film. Direction, script and dialogues are by Gulzar, and as one might expect, are in a class of their own. Gulzar was an assistant director of Bimal Roy in Bandini and Kabuliwala and like his mentor is an expert in depicting human sentiments and relationships.


Hema Malini ... Meera Rathod
Vinod Khanna ... Rana Bhojraj Sesodia
Shammi Kapoor ... Rana Vikramjeet Singh Sesodia
Shreeram Lagoo ... Virendev Rathod (as Dr. Shreeram Lagoo)
Om Shivpuri ... Kool Guru (Head Priest)
A.K. Hangal ... Saint Raidas
Bharat Bhushan ... Tansen
Dina Pathak ... Mrs. Virendev Rathod
Shahu Modak
Dinesh Thakur ... Jaimal Rathod
T.P. Jain ... Poojary
Sudha Chopra ... Sudha Sesodia
Amjad Khan ... Badshah Akbar, Emperor of Hindustan
Vidya Sinha ... Krishna Rathod