Jai Santoshi Maa
It is written in our scriptures and in fact, even Lord Krishna says in the Bhagvad Gita, that our ‘bhavna’ i.e. emotion should be steadfast, pure and predominant and then God’s attainment will be ours! This thought that our ‘bhavna’ should be predominant is also what we should keep uppermost when we sit to watch Santoshi Maa. This is not a movie to watch for special effects and sets. I remember when we used to watch The Ramayan by Rammanand Sagar, when it was telecast for the first time on Doordarshan as kids, our grandmothers and mothers would watch with a deep devotion which we did not understand so the loss of ours.
Remember, regardless of the sets, costumes or special effects which may be improved, the lines spoken by Shri Ram/ Bharat or Santoshi Maa hold the gyan to change our lives for the better, it would be silly to lose a lifechanging devout wonderful experience just because we are busy being critical about cinematography and visuals. So, coming back to Santoshi Maa, what made people travel miles in bullock carts to watch the film, take off footwear outside cinema halls, throw flowers and coins in the screen and bow deep whenever Anita Guha as Santoshi Maa appeared on screen, despite what were tacky sets and very crude special effects?
Well, it was a combination of factors the script is pretty wellcrafted, drawing heavily upon the tradition of vrat and katha, along with a certain desire. There is actually a background about the growing popularity of Santoshi Maa vrat in Northern India and one of the funders’ wish coming true. The dialogues are pretty good with lots of cultural references and the songs and music are amazing. The aarti has today become THE aarti for Santoshi Maa devotees.
It is a movie which brings the Gods themselves into play with a rather unflattering display of human tendencies in Goddesses’ Lakshmi, Parvati and Saraswati for which a case was actually filed by a lady devotee in Gujarat.
One thing which is beautifully depicted is that in the first song– Main to aarti utarun re Santoshi Mata ki- the darshan is depicted where the devotee sees the God and also the God sees the devotee- a thought which is so central to worship for us.
Think Sholay and Deewar, the two other blockbusters of the yearmasala, action-oriented, maledominated movies for urban India while Jai Santoshi Maa was aimed at and liberating for the rural and women audience. It depicted the concerns of the Indian woman at heart- marriage, leaving her maika, trying to adjust with in-laws, unfair treatment, life is like a test for her and the women just connected with both- the protagonist Satyavati and Goddess Santoshi Maa. This is a movie about women, a woman protagonist who wins with her determination and devotion to a Goddess, in fact, both the devotee and the Goddess wade through a multitude of issues created by other women, under instigation from Narada. A lesson, Women need to stand by Women and then no one can defeat us!
Satyavati and Santoshi Maa are closely connected and in fact, symbolize the concept of Advaita Vedanta that we are one with God!
