Seeta aur Geeta is the story of a pair of identical twins, separated at birth and later reunited. How do they discover each other again? By rare coincidence, they end up taking each other's place. Seeta is found by Geeta's family and thought to be her and Geeta is mistaken as Seeta by the police who have been told to keep an eye out for Seeta. Yes, it is all very confusing, but that is what happens. Each is able to deal with the problems in that life better than the other one was, and so all is well for a while. In fact, they each form a relationship in their new life as well. Seeta and Raka, a street performer, decide to get married, and so do Geeta and Ravi, a doctor. However, when Ranjit, a cruel relative of Seeta, discovers what is really going on, he attempts to bring both girls to their ruin. In the end, it is Raka, Ravi, and the two girls themselves (mostly Geeta), who save Seeta and Geeta. The film ends merrily with photos of the two couples getting married and a scene in which Raka and Ravi struggle to tell their brides apart.
The film portrays two vastly different people, and along with them, different backgrounds and ideals. Seeta is extremely demure and submissive. She has a strong sense of modesty and hates to wear anything revealing at all. Rather, she wears long, elegant saris. She lives under the guardianship of her aunt and, only technically, her uncle. Her uncle really has no/makes no say in her parenting. Her aunt treats her like cinderella and forces her to do way to many things at once. If Seeta fails to complete even one of these tasks, she is either slapped and beat by her aunt. If Ranjit is around, he whips her with his belt. Septa is not a fighter, but she silently endures her suffering and goes to her grandmother for comfort.
Geeta, on the other hand, is spunky, capable, and full of personality. She is not especially worried about modesty, but she is not one to flaunt her body either. Before taking Seeta's place, she was a street performer with Raka, her partner. In this profession, she displayed a free spirit and incredible skills physically. These traits come in handy when she decides to take revenge for Seeta on her tyrannical aunt and cousin. Not long after she enters Seeta's old household, she turns things upside down. Where previously Seeta had lived in fear of her aunt and obeyed her every command, now Seeta (Geeta) is the one with the upper hand and her aunt lives in fear of her. Geeta is not afraid of using violence for justice.
At one point in the film, Geeta asks her grandmother if a lie is still evil when it is made for a good cause. Her grandmother answers, "If you have to lie for a good cause.... then that lie is equivalent of 100 truths." Here, we see an ideology that indirectly supports the clause, "the means justify the ends." Throughout the film, these values are supported through actions. Geeta uses force, and at times, cruelty, to fulfill vengeance against her cruel aunt and Rajit. sometimes, she seems to take unnecessary liberty, such as when she beat Rajit to a pulp after he attacked her. Yes, at first she was just defending herself, but then she went to an extreme and whipped him repeatedly (almost maliciously) and caused him to tumble down the stairs (and they were steep stairs, too). Throughout the film, both directly and indirectly, violence, and what would normally be considered sin, is upheld if done with "good" intentions.
For one of the first times in Bollywood cinema, we see an antihero and deviance from the law. Geeta is this antihero, and what makes her even more rare for the times, is her gender. Up until the 1970s, a female lead who was also an antihero was almost unheard of. She is not an antihero in the usual sense, however. Instead, she holds the role of a character with a just cause who uses unjust means to get there. By violence and by trickery, Geeta forces Seeta's aunt and family to do what is right. She can be compared to a female version of Robin Hood, except she is fighting against injustice in a far more concentrated area, a household.
Geeta also provides many of the main examples of social deviance within the film. One example is near the beginning of the film, when Geeta tries to deceive Raka out of his full gain in profit. She hides some of his money, but he is fully aware of what she is doing and she doesn't get away with it. Another example is when Geeta is at the police station. Although there are a pack of officers chasing her, she manages to turn the whole station into a train wreck and ends up on the ceiling fan. A third example is when Geeta arrives for her wedding "drunk" and dressed very immodestly. It is not clear whether she really is drunk or not, but she pretends to be. Lastly, at the end of the film, Geeta sneeks out of jail with the help of Raka. In previous Bollywood films, it would have been more traditional for Raka to have gone to court or tried to explain the truth to police in order to rescue Geeta. All these examples of deviance mirror a change in the attitude of society during the 1970s. People were beginning to ease up on their ideals and justify actions in support of their causes.
By the end of Seeta air Geeta, the people in control at the beginning of the film are no longer in control. This seems to be a prevailing theme in movies of the 1970's. Seeta's aunt and her aunt's brother, Ranjit, can no longer control Seeta, beat her like an animal, or take her money. They are also no longer in control of her happiness. At the beginning of the film, due to her aunt's cruelty, Seeta tried to commit suicide. Now these people, previously tyrannical oppressors on her life, have been defeated by Seeta's sister and both their beaus. This trend of a reverse in power has become more and more popular in society since the 1970's and shows how thinking has progressed. Part of this change is the corruption of government that was clearly seen in the Cold War. There is less faith in the present authorities and increased belief in rebellion.
The society of India in the 1970's represented in the film Seeta air Geeta is one of reform. Individualism (i.e. Greta vs. Seeta) is becoming more popular, and while oppression by government is being recognized, violence for just causes is also being encouraged. What is this called? Rebellion. The line between right and wrong is starting to blur and society is beginning to think independently and without reigns. Although in India this movement wasn't as strong as other major areas of the world, it was still happening, just in subtler degrees.
Very good, especially liked the line about "Robin Hood, except in the concentrated area of a household."
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