Jait Re Jait

Plot

The story revolves around a tribal caste called the Thakar. Nagya (Mohan Agashe) is a drummer who has a passion for being a "pure one" (punyavant). He meets Chindhi (Smita Patil), who has abandoned her husband as she considers him useless. They both fall in love and strive hard to be united. Once when Nagya goes to jungle for wood-cutting, a queen honey bee attacks him and one of his eyes is injured. He decides to take revenge. The beehives are located high on a nearby difficult to climb peak {Lingoba}. He decides to cut all the beehives so that the queen-bee runs away. Meanwhile, Chindhi becomes pregnant with Nagya, but she still supports his dangerous attempt to climb the peak. Nagya then climbs the peak and cuts the hives. Chindhi is waiting at the base of the peak, but the disturbed honey-bees attack her and she dies in the incident. Nagya, in search of Queen honey-bee, loses his own queen[wife] in the end. This is a classic paradox, where he succeeds (Jait re jait, means WIN-WIN) in his revenge, but loses wife.

The film highlights all the traditions of the Thakar tribe.

Cast

Music

The popular songs of the film are composed by Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar with most of the lyrics by N. D. Mahanor and performed by Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, Ravindra Sathe and Chandrakant Kale. Poet Arati Prabhu contributed to the lyrics of the song 'Me Raat Takli.'

All lyrics written by N. D. Mahanor; all music composed by Pt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar.

Awards

The songs from this film are popular in Maharashtra. The film earned actress Smita Patil and Jabbar Patel Filmfare Awards. Maharashtra State Film Awards for Best Direction was also presented to Patel. The 25th National Film Awards held in April 1978 honoured the film with President's Silver Medal for Best Feature Film in Marathi for;

"Consistently transferring to the film medium a successful fictional work (Jait re Jait by G. N. Dandekar); for high lightening the mutual inconsistencies of love, of the fear of God and of superstition in a simple, innocent community of tribal, for the memorable use of the drum in evoking presence of the God and expressing the inexorable demands of love for a cinematic form which captures the lyricism, the cadence and the lilt of folk culture."