#4 Naram Garam (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gomQrZx5Nzk
Naram Garam, a fantastic film made back in 1981 is my yet one more favourite. It beautifully portrays the silent, yet deep rooted love between the leads Kusum ( Swaroop Sampat) and Ram Prasad (Amol Palekar).
Woven with lots of
comic moments, it is a love story of Ram Prasad and Kusum. The latter along with her father (A. K. Hangal), comes to the place where Ram stays, as they become homeless. Ram is already facing financial crisis, but as he decides to help them as for the sake of humanity. The other reason being, Ram has feelings for Kusum and she too has soft corner for him.
When Ram brings them to a vacant bunglow near his home, many suitors are ready to marry Kusum, as she is beautiful. Among them are the manager (Suresh Chatwal) as well as brother Kaali Shankar ( Shatrughan Sinha) of Ram’s employer.
Ram’s employer Bhavani Shankar ( Utpal Dutt), is a highly superstitious business man. Ram accomodates the father daughter duo in Bhavani Shankar’s vacant bunglow.
On knowing the truth,
Bhavani gets furious first. But Kusum’s singing skills and the prediction done by a that his second wife’s name will start with the letter ‘K’, draws him towards Kusum. He tells Ram in fact to fix his marriage with Kusum and becomes the next suitor for Kusum.
Ram and Kusum’s trials start with this announcement of Bhavani Shankar. But Ram turns tables around by inviting Bhavani’s daughter Summi (Kiran Vairale) and mother-in-law (Dina Pathak) right on the wedding day, and the marriage is called off.
The twist is, to save Kusum from societal taunts, as her wedding has stopped all of a sudden, Bhavani requests Ram to marry Kusum. Ram gets what he wants and the film ends on a happy note.
Highlight
The highlight of this movie for me is the pure, beautiful chemistry shared by Amol Palekar and Swaroop Sampat. The silent, yet deep rooted love they share is classically woven into a comedy movie. The trust she has on him, that he will bring her out of any problem is beautifully shown. In one of the scenes, he is about to leave for an important work. He tells her to marry Bhavani, assuring that he will solve this matter and she doesn’t have to marry Bhavani in real.
Ram says, “Have faith in God”.
Kusum gives a beautiful reply to him, “I have faith only in you now”. And till Ram comes back, Kusum waits for him.
These words stole my heart then, and till date I wonder how blindly Kusum trusts Ram.