For me, the prostitute figure Mina is vastly comparable to
Saugandhi from Hatak. From something as outward as the pretentious wardrobe to something
as deep as the craving to belong to the nationalist culture, both of these
marginalized figures have stark similarities.
Saugandhi’s metatheatrical relationship with Madho where she plays the
submissive dominated wife against Mina’s performance as a Lucknow ki Tawaif. She says,
‘Tawiaf ho to Lucknow
ki warna behtar hai kisi shareef ghar main hi paida ho jaye’. This make-believe
mechanism is how both of these women are coping with reality in their own
contexts respectively.
Second most striking similarity between these figures is the
repressed instincts of motherhood .The very last scene where Mina stares at her
daughter writing in the Café depicts a sigh. The gaze itself indicates
repressed motherhood, which Saugandhi embodied in Hatak throughout. Both of
these women gave up their children for the betterment despite of intense
maternal reflexes.
There was a discussion if Hakim Sahib actually
fell in love with Mina and the daughter she gave birth to. I for one disagree
with that. This man is solely able to love himself and nobody else. This man is
so adamant on his out of place principles that he finds it a lot easier to kill
his own children than to change himself. He killed Saifi because he was afraid of who he might turn into and then
tried to kill the baby without caring for consequences in either case. His
identity is so dear to him that there is no room for any person to get close to
him. To have even the teensiest faction of love in your heart, there has to be space for anythingelse and Hakim Sahab is full of himself that
there is no margin for anybody else.
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