‘My mission to highlight the plight of peasants remains incomplete’

As his song, Mere Desh Ki Dharti, from the film Upkar (1967) gets included in the National Economic Survey, actor Manoj Kumar talks to veteran journalist Ranjan Das Gupta about how he envisioned the Indian farmer — who refuses to be sufferer, and stands up for his rights and duties — in the film.

“When I received news of the song, Mere Desh Ki Dharti being included in the National Economic Survey, I had a strange feeling. Though I was happy, somewhere in my heart, I felt that my mission to highlight the plight of the Indian peasant remains incomplete. True, the cause was portrayed through a majestic performance by (actor) Balraj Sahni saab in Do Bigha Zamin (1953). It was a masterly creation of Bimalda (director Bimal Roy).

The farmer, as conceived and portrayed by me in Upkar, is a modern, educated one. He is socially conscious, aware of his rights and duties, and, above all, abhors unethical division of land. I wanted to show that the Indian farmer is not merely a sufferer. He can also stand up and counter attempts to rob him of his social and economic potential.

Mere Desh Ki Dharti is the song [that] musically conveys the voice of farmers across the nation. The initial music of the number is from Punjabi folklore. A cut to Western melodious lilt in the second antara was to show the contrast of various societies — the farmer with his plough, as well as the urban upper middle class to which (actor) Asha Parekh belongs in the film.

The close-up of me with the plough on my shoulder symbolised the late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan, “Jai jawan, jai kisan”. I want to add that I shot a short documentary on the Kisan Rally at Parliament Street (New Delhi) in 1981. Made at the request of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the documentary has live shots of her, (son) Rajiv and (daughterin-law) Sonia Gandhi. It was screened only once at the Films Division auditorium and was attended by Indira Gandhi, who appreciated it.