Ancient Indian Epic Mahabharata and Lang's film Der Mude Tod
The famous director, the Master of Suspense Sir Alfred Hitchcock was almost 30 years elder to the French film director Truffaut. However, the age difference didn’t bother them to exchange their views and aspirations with each other.
Hitchcock at his early age was deeply fascinated by the American movies and was a great admirer of Charlie Chaplin, D.W Griffith, Buster Keaton, and Fritz Lang. He was deeply captivated by German Expressionism. Lang’s silent film Der Mude Tod ( Destiny in English) induced a great impression not only on him but also on the other great directors due to its concept and intellectual merit. Perhaps the Bergman's film “ The Seventh Seal”, appeared to be influenced by Lang's Destiny.
Der Mude Tod: Ein Deutsches volkslied in 6 versen ( Destiny) ( Weary Death: A German Folk Story in six versions ) was a silent German Expressionist fantasy romance film released in 1921 and directed by Fritz Lang. The film interprets the urge and desperateness of a woman to get reunited with her dead lover. It contained three tragic stories set separately in Venice, Italy, and in the Chinese Empire. This was released in the US titled “Behind the Wall”.
The storyline of “ Destiny” revolved around a young couple, enjoying a ride in a carriage on a country road. Unaware of the identity of a hitchhiker, they offered him a ride to the town.
The hitchhiker who was death itself visited the mayor’s office in the town and purchased a small piece of land with the adjoining cemetery. He erected a strange huge wall surrounding this. One day the couple again met with death and this time her lover disappears when she got engrossed.
With deep agony, she sobbed in front of the mysterious wall and noticed that a large group of ghosts was passing through the wall and spotted her lover at the last. She tried to stop him but he entered into the kingdom of death.
Now the young woman confronted the death and was led to a dark room where numerous long candles were burning. Arguing love is stronger than death, She demanded why her lover was taken out from her but the death explained that he was just following the will of God. He told the woman that each candle represents human life and the three candles that were flickering signifies that their lives are hanging in balance. He promised that he will return her lover back if she could able to save one of these lives with love.
To relate the three candles three independent stories were shown against each of the lives but all the three characters died and the three candles burned out.
Death won the bet but he offered her a last chance to get reunited with her lover and told her if she can find any soul to replace her lover within an hour. She failed to do so and offered her soul to death and got reunited with her lover.
Lang’s biographer Patrick Mc Gilligan stated that the conceptualization of this film came to Lang’s mind just after the death of his mother. His personal experience in life helped him to give proper shape to the characters.
Lang in films “Metropoilis (1927)” and “ While The City Sleeps( 1956)” had portrayed Death in a ghost-like appearance, which seems to be his thematic interest. In his film “ The Testament of Dr. Mabuse” he had introduced the ghost of Dr. Mabuse, maybe to add volatility to the theme and to emphasize some deeper meaning.
The most astonishing part is the concept of the film is considered to be inspired by the mythological tale "Savitri and Satyavan" in Vana Parva ( The Book of the Forest) of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. This is originally in Sanskrit and attributed to the sage Vyasa.
Yudhishthira ( One of the main character of Mahabharata, the eldest brother of Panchapandava, called dharma raj, can be considered as the king of wisdom, rights, laws, and virtue) enquired sage Markandeya to learn whether there is any woman who can match the devotion of his wife Draupadi ( wife of all the five brothers ie Panchapandava). The sage replied to him by relating this story.
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| Savitri and Satyavan with Yama |
Ashwapati the king of Madra Kingdom was childless. He lived ascetically with his wife Malavika and offered oblations to the Sun God Savitr for the desire to have a child. One day the God appeared before him and granted him a boon. Soon they had a daughter and to honor the god, they named her Savitri. She was beautiful and pure. When she reached the age of marriage, according to the wish of his father, she was told to select her husband on her own. She chose Satyavan, son of the blind king Dyumatsena of the Shalwar Kingdom. The king had lost everything and lived in exile along with his wife and son as a forest dweller.
On the advice of her father, she spoke to sage Narada and learned that Satyavan was destined to die within a year. She was suggested to choose a more suitable husband which Savitri didn’t accept.
They got married and continued to live in the forest. Savitri started fasting, three days before the foreseen death. The day of the predicted death, she urged for permission to her father in law to take her husband into the forest on which Dyumatsena agreed.
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| Yama and Savitri. By Nandlal Bose |
But when Yama carried the soul away, she followed him
and offered successive arguments for wisdom. This impressed Yama who offered
her boon but didn’t accept to return the life of Satyaban. However, defeated by
the argument of Savitri, Yama had to return Satyavan to life and blessed them
to live a life for four hundred years. Thus they became united.
In 1916, Gustav Holst in England composed a chamber of Opera England based on the story of Savitri.
Destiny was not well received by the audience on its release as it was not considered to be enough “German”. Later it got its acclamation when this was appreciated in France. In 2016, a restored version of the film was released on Blu-ray which includes Lang’s original color tintings.
By
Sudipto Roy
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