Arth (“value, significance, wealth, meaning”) is a 1982 hindi film  directed by Mahesh Bhatt. Film based on film-maker who is having an extra-marital affair with an actress decides to leave his wife. Arth is the story of women’s search for her identity.

Pooja (Shabana Azmi) an orphan, married to an ambitious film director Inder Malhotra played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda. She is emotionally and economically dependent on him and dreams of her own home. Inder hands over the keys of that dream home to Pooja. The twist that occurred when Inder gives her the keys of a new house proves to be double-edged, when it is revealed that he is in love with another woman, Kavita Sanyal played by Smita Patil, with whom he earned the money (in the film industry) for the new apartment. When Inder deserts Pooja for Kavita, she chooses to leave the apartment for a women’s hostel. She is helped by Raj to surpass the difficulties of life as a single person, to find a job and to rely morally on herself. Raj and Pooja become good friends. Kavita’s mental instability deepens her fears of insecurity, even after Inder requests Pooja to sign the divorce papers.

Pooja’s maid (Rohini Hattangadi), also has a major role; she lashes out at Kavita for breaking Pooja’s home.She finds out that her drunk husband has stolen the money. Furious, she searches for him to find him in the arms of his lover after spending all the money. She kills him and goes to the police station and confesses her crime. Worried about her daughter, she calls Pooja who promises to take care of the daughter.

Raj falls in love with Pooja and proposes to her. She refuses saying she is empty and cannot give him anything. Raj tries to persuade her saying that she cannot spend the rest of her life feeling miserable about the past and that she should try to find a new life for herself. Pooja continues to live with her maid’s daughter and refuses to marry Raj saying that she has found a new meaning to life in being independent and being a mother to the child.

Pooja is the center of the film, and Azmi brings great depth and subtlety to the role, conveying both the fragility of innocence betrayed and the determination of a woman who is slowly discovering her own inner strength. Patil is likewise effective as the Other Woman, like mad scenes, due to her guilt over having wrecked Pooja’s marriage. These excesses notwithstanding, the final encounter of the two rivals is remarkably powerful, evoking, despite Pooja’s anger and revulsion, their subjective kinship through their common lose-lose situations with Inder.

Pooja leaving everything behind was moving forward, Kavita was struggling in her life. As she suffers from schizophrenia, her relationship with Inder is getting messy due to a continuous fear that Inder will leave her and go back to Pooja. Concerning Kavita’s health, her mother requested Pooja to meet Kavita for once as she feels guilty about breaking their house. The scene where Pooja and Kavita meet each other, though a small duration, but their acting is so intense and powerful that you get goosebumps. On having Pooja’s forgiveness, Kavita realises that she does not want to marry Inder and ask him to leave her house.

At a beautiful point in the film, Inder comes and tells Pooja to sign the divorce papers. She makes him say the date louder, it’s her birthday. The same man comes back to her at the end and expects her to take him back. She beautifully asks him if she had returned to him after doing all that he did. One of most hard-hitting and impactful climax Hindi cinema ever got.

Arth is about the meaning of love. Self love prominently. It is about finding the true meaning of life. The powerhouse Shabana Azmi, an hauntingly beautiful performance by Smita Patil, an honest to the character Kulbhushan Kharbanda & the sweetest Raj Kiran, a doomed but aspirational Rohini Hattangadi and a heart-aching tale of self-realisation is made.

Pooja realizes her identity as a woman and not a commodity, and chooses to be a single & independent mother to her maid’s daughter. Women need to be emotionally and economically independent. Women who had fought their battles alone. She was treated as a doormat, she had no money, she had no job. She refused to settle again with a man. Woman need a man in her life, who cares for her, admires her inner beauty & soul.

The lyrics by Kaifi Azmi, Rajinder Nath Rehbar and Iftikhar Imam Siddiqi are extremely beautiful and relevant even today. Stalwart singers like Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh have done justice by bringing these lyrics to life by lending their stunning voices. The songs are soulful, and they touch the heart. ‘Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho’ and ‘Jhuke Jhuke si nazar’ continue to touch our souls. 

Film won two Natinal film awards for Best Actress and Best editing, and three filmfare awards.

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.