Silsila 1981

I saw Yash Chopra's Silsila again last night. I saw the movie when it came to theatres in the early 80s years ago. It was interesting to see the movie again without the Rekha-Amitabh-Jaya hype that had dogged the movie then. At the time it was touted as a movie based loosely on the lives of these three actors.

Despite the hype, the movie did not do well. Rightly, I thought, as I watched the movie again last night. The movie was a bit dull and slow in pace. The theme was interesting very unlike most Hindi movies. While most movies (certainly during the 80s), stuck to tried and tested formulas, this movie a good look at adult relationships.

The movie starts with a lovely song 'Sar se sarke sar ki chunariya'. To me, it looks like the Punjabi festival of Teej is being celebrated in this song. During Teej, girls and young brides dress up to the nines, gets mehendi done and sing and dance amidst Jhoola's. We see Shekhar (Shashi Kapoor) and Shobha (Jaya Bhaduri) romancing together. They are a young couple in love. Shekhar is an Air Force Officer, and Shobha is a school teacher.

Shekhar's brother, Amit (Amitabh Bachchan) also lands up and the three have a great time together partying.

Later, Amit attends a Sikh friend's wedding and runs into the beautiful and feisty Chandni (Rekha) at Sangeet. Sparks fly between them and they sing a lovely number together "Pehli pehli baar dekha aisa jalwa". Amit woos Chandni and there is love and happiness all around. The brothers are set marry lovely women and lead a happy life together.

Right then, tragedy strikes and Shekhar dies. Shobha is distraught. She is pregnant with Shekhar's child and does not know what to do. Amit marries Jaya in a bid to protect the child of his brother. Chandni, ditched royally by Amit, marries Anand (Sanjeev Kumar).

A chance meeting with Chandni reignites Amit's feelings for her. He pursues Chandni and explains the reasons for his sudden marriage. Chandni softens towards him they are pulled together by their impulses and seek every opportunity to get close.

It is at this time that the story gets a bit slow, lingering on their clandestine meetings. It does give rise to an amazingly beautiful song "Yeh kahan aa gayeham", which is interspersed with some lovely poetry recited by Amitabh. A little more passion and emotion at this stage onwards would have helped.

The movie is acted out very well. Jaya was simply superb as a wife who has to stand on the sidelines and watch her husband flirt with another woman. Sanjeev Kumar was topnotch as the husband who has to watch his wife slipping away from him. Rekha puts in a powerhouse performance as a woman torn between her husband and her lover. She brings oodles of glamour to her role. She is beautiful, and she knows how to seduce the camera to bring out the maximum effect of her personality. It is hard to fault Amitabh in acting. I did think he looked a wee puffy here. 

I do think the women steal the show in this movie. Both Jaya and Rekha essay their complex roles with ease. Sanjeev is a scene grabber, but his role was quite slim. If only the movie did not have such an episodic feel to it. If only there was more cohesion and drama to it.

What comes up is a spoiler. The movie is an old one and there is hardly an aficionado of the movies of this kind who has not seen the film yet. But in case you do not want a spoiler, do not read on.

I liked the fact that the aspects of adultery were well depicted here. The adulterous couple, Amit and Chandni have to wrestle with the internal and external problems. They are forever afraid of bumping into someone they know. Also, they have to wrestle with their sense of right and wrong. However, once their impulses get the better of them, they decide to take off.

Amit tells Shobha about his love for Chandni and tells Shobha he is leaving her. Chandni does not confront Anand directly, but he implies that he knows her heart is engaged elsewhere. As he leaves for a conference in Bombay, he says he hopes he will find her home when he returns.

Amit's friends are generally un-supportive of his move and tell him so in no uncertain terms. Chandni and Amit go to the anniversary celebrations of his Sikh friend. At the paath, they find they have to sit apart because they are not married. While doing the aarti, Amit is reminded of the holy vows he took with his wife. This ignites a different emotion in him.

Just then, Shobha calls to say that Anand has been in an accident. When Amit tells Chandni about the accident, she is reminded of her ties with her husband and is eager to get back to him.

Thus their little post-marital obsession with each other ends. The sudden melodrama of the burning planes and helicopter rides at the fag end rankles. It does not fit in with the slow pace of emotional journey that the characters are going through till now.

Spoiler ends

The adultery was more in the mind. Although in the song "Yeh kahan aa gaye ham" Amit does fantasise about a complete relationship with his beloved, they just seem to be going around spending time with each other. Nothing wrong with it. If a person is emotionally pulled towards another person, it is adultery as well, one does not need physical relations to break one's vows. Amit and Chandani feel they are in love with each other and not with their spouses. That is a good reason enough to break their marriages.

I find myself curiously engaged by this movie. It is too slow paced, I feel. Yet I am charmed by the theme of love and how it transcends other ties at times.

The music is very classy. The songs are beautifully written by Javed Akhtar and the lovely score composed by Shiv Hari. They are very well filmed as well. Amitabh's version of Neela Aasmaan was not particularly appealing. The tulips of Amsterdam are well utilised in "Dekha ek khawab to". Ever since yesterday's viewing, I am really taken by "Yeh kahan aagaye ham". It is such a lovely song. "Jo tum todo piya" is very beautiful too, and Jaya emotes it very well. There is no need to say anything more about "Rang Barse", which has turned into a Holi staple now.This song was written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan.   "Pehli pehli baar" is a another song that will never die away. "Sar se sarke" is a song steeped in Punjabiyat that Chopra was so fond of flaunting in his movies. So are the paath's that are put in thanks to the Sikh wedding and anniversary celebrations.

Last word, though it does not quite make the cut as a must watch romantic drama, it is an above average more than a decent watch.

Reshma Aur Shera

Friday the 27th September was difficult for me because I was feeling depressed and down.  On top of that the internet was playing hookey.  I was in the process of changing my connection and fell between two stools of the old connection which I scrapped and the new connection which was having teething troubles.

I decided to bring out a DVD from my pile of 'to-be-watched'.  I picked 'Reshma aur Shera'.

I picked 'Reshma aur Shera'.

I have heard only good things about this movie, I loved the music, I love Sunil Dutt and Waheeda.  I was eager to see for myself if the movie lived up to my expectation.

It did.

The movie is set in the magnificent, stark sand dunes of Rajasthan.  Reshma (Waheeda Rehman) is the beautiful daughter of the Chief of Pochina and Shera (Sunil Dutt) is the son of the chief Sagat.  The two clans do not get along and their rivalry has claimed a good number of lives.  Shera is visiting a fair which culminates in ritual sacrifice of a goat for the Devi Ma.  This year he has the honor of wielding the sacrificial sword.

Reshma and Shera run into each other at the fair.  Shera is captivated by the girl and kind of stalks her.  She is curious about him, attracted too, but hesitant.  A little later Shera's younger brothers Vijay (Vinod Khanna) and Jagat (Naval Kumar) get into a scuffle with the Pochina crowd and are on the point of killing their Chief's son Gopal (Ranjeet) when Shera steps in and saves him.  He thrashes his brothers for creating ruckus at Devi Ma's door and sends them back home.

This act of his endears him to Reshma.  She loves her brother and her one wish is to see him unharmed.  Shera wants to end the enmity between their clans and wants to marry Reshma. For the moment they have to be content with a little courting and meeting secretly at nights in the sand dunes.

Shera's pacifist ways are not met with any enthusiasm by his bloodthirsty brothers and father, the Chief Sagat (Jayant).  Shera has one more sibling, the youngest, Chotu (Amitabh Bachchan).  Chotu is a crack shot and dumb. He loves his eldest brother Shera and follows him around.  He is a bit cowardly and weak too.  But a good person.

Shera wants to start the peace talks between the families by a visit to the Chief of Pochina (K N Singh) on the occasion of Gopal's marriage.  His father disowns him for wanting to do this.  There is a very touching scene as Shera is driven away without taking the bundle of food that his mother had packed for him.  Chotu picks up the food and runs after Shera to give it to him, but is dragged back, weeping and helpless by his brothers.

Shera's families now hatch an evil plan to making Chotu shoot the Chief of Pochina and Gopal dead.  Just as Shera manages to win over the Chief of Pochina too.  Now the heart-rending scene at the site as the newly wed bride (Rakhee) finds she is now a widow, makes Shera swear vengeance.

A bloodbath is unleashed as Shera tries to find the person who pulled the trigger.  Where will this vengeance end?  What will happen to Reshma and Shera?

The story is told in a taut manner, there are no unnecessary scenes and no diverting into CSP, which was the bane of many movies of the time.  The starkness of the tale is complemented by the starkness of the desert landscape.  The homes of the people are in mud-huts with thatched roofs, not some fancy havelis, as the movies these days often have.  

The characters are quickly delineated by deft dialogues and actions.  Hence we know early on that Shera is a pacifist, and so is Reshma. Shera's mother (Sulochana) wants peace too.  Shera's brothers and father are bloodthirsty. Chotu is simple soul who would not willingly hurt a sparrow.  The story moves along at an even pace.

The songs by Jaidev are sublime.  Ek thandi si agan, shot brilliantly in Hawa Mahal is gorgeous.  Tu Chanda Main Chandni, shot in the shifting sand dunes is captivating.  There is a qawwali at the start Zalim meri Sharab me where a very young Sanjay Dutt also performs along with Sudhir.   Ek to yeh bharpoor jawani is a mujra performed by Padma Khanna to celebrate the killing of the enemy.

All the actors have put in a wonderful performance.  Waheeda stands out as a young girl in love at the start and later as a troubled young woman who must make some tough choices.  She deserved the national award she got that year.  Another standout performance in the film was from Amitabh Bachchan who was magnificent as Chotu who is brings out the nuances of his character to perfection.

The movie gets a little too melodramatic at times, but in face of such brilliance elsewhere, I am willing to let it pass.  This is one movie every film lover should see.