elshikh4
At first, it's about a man who has to leave his love to marry the girl of his killed brother; for rescuing her reputation since she's pregnant with a love child. Then, our man faces his original love again, yet after being married to the doctor who happened to save his life once. OK, that's ladies and gentlemen what they call a romantic melodrama. And with the right colors, songs, and landscapes; it's Hindi romantic melodrama. And with Yash Chopra's dexterous cinematography and directing; it's even more; a fine Hindi romantic melodrama. BUT with 183 minuets long; it's boooooooooooring ! No doubt that everybody made their best effort. The cinematography in specific was so carefully sensitive, smooth and warm. The songs were charmingly directed as if a live broadcast from heaven. The cast did wonderful, without one atom of exaggeration. The casting itself was marvelous. However, I have to blame the script and the editing for the terrible pacing of the story. In fact, while watching a movie, what could be worse than rolling over your seat, asking "when will it end?", and praying god for more health to be able to finish it ?!The script stopped at one point; the coming back of love between Amitabh Bachchan's and Rekha's characters, then made such a huge cobweb around that, with more than enough; scenes, situations, songs and dialogues ! I think 2 hours of the 3 were spent over one question; what could be the end of that love?, yet with intention from the writer to elongate the time to the answer, not making the way to it thrilling in a decent way. Therefore all what we had was fashionably dressed Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha singing, then new characters being presented, like Kulbhushan Kharbanda's, added to more than 20 obvious coincidences, reaching to the melodramatic climax and the so-longed-for ending !I believe it's unnecessary to assure how naive that ending was. They extremely disappointed us, by ending this big enough melodrama, with that plane crash, which – suddenly and strangely – exposed how much Bachchan was in love with his wife !! And to perfect the naivety : "Love is faith and faith is forever". REALLY ?! They should have written "and naivety is forever TOO !" It's like reading a pretty long mystery novel to discover eventually that there was no actual murder in the first place ! So the general bore and the final artlessness ruled. And no lovable stars, nice colors, sad songs could compensate. I felt that I grew old in front of this movie !To be fair, one point was in this end's favor though, since it didn't lean to use the poetic justice where Bachchan's character would, for example, die as a punishment for cheating on his wife with a married woman. I think the chosen end represented, in a way, new moral vision and more merciful solution, which consolidated values like realism and objectiveness instead of absolute black-&-white idealism. For another broken rule, I must refer to the fact that in this movie Bachchan shows half naked in 2 shower scenes, and one bed scene while supposedly an illicit affair, let alone acting as someone impure who cheats on his wife. All of that were famous taboos for the star which he totally broke here, and I don't think he broke them again much, or maybe ever, after.There was something that bugged me very. Bachchan plays a playwright, a sort of struggling one as well. So how come he lives in a mansion, dresses lavishly and breakfasts majestically?? I'm a writer myself, and in the character's same age, however fighting to achieve less than the quarter of THAT ! Otherwise, the playwrights earn a lot, and I mean A LOT, in India !Some said that the story was loosely inspired by the alleged real life love triangle of Amitabh-Jaya-Rekha. Well, I don't know precisely about that, however the big B looked so comfortable while doing his love scenes with Rekha, more than any other actress. It could be just a coincidence, an actress who he felt at ease with, or an honest moment of acting, nothing more. But, if I'm wrong, then this movie is so historically rare to capture a true and delicate love between 3 top stars at one moment ! Silsila starts off as propitious romantic melodrama and ends up as long fashion show (Bachchan is wearing a new chic outfit in every shot, and never appears with the same outfit twice !). I hated its enjoying of elongating its situation endlessly, hackneying its characters blatantly, fabricating coincidences increasingly, and – most of all – putting its leads in lovey-dovey positions during a long list of songs to the extent of being the ultimate lovey-dovey movie of all time ! Nothing wrong with romantic melodrama, but exploiting it is what destroys the whole thing, to be tired and dull. And Silsila happens to be a clear example for that.
DesiBaba
The only reason I saw this again was for Sanjeev Kumar's performance. It is one of the best movie on the subject out of Bollywood, way ahead of its time back in 1981. Writing is excellent and music is also exceptional. One of the few movies I know of where Amitabh sings to songs written by his father. Amitabh, Sashi, and Rekha are good in their roles. Jaya also excels as Sobha. But Sanjeev Kumar steals the show, although he barely has 15-20 mins of on-screen time in the movie. He is very effective in expressing his character in a very subtle way (as always). I don't understand how others can compare KANK with this movie, yes, there are characters who engage in extra marital affairs, but that is about it. The circumstances and the story lines are completely different to be able to make apple-to-apple comparisons between the two.
diligentdrool_14
Silsila-one of the most sensitive, humane and intense movies ever made. The film shows how a man's heart can work and how fragile a person's feelings can be...very beautifully made film-Worth watch Amitabh Bachchan's performance leaves a deep impact on the viewers when he gets angry, when he cheats his wife, when he recites poems, when he loved his babhi, when he enjoys with his bro, when he says "main aur meri tanhaayi....", when he plays safe in front of Sanjeev, When he asks Chandini(Rekha) to leave the place forever on their own, when he speaks to Shobha(Jaya) before leaving, when he last says to Shobha that (in Hindi of course)"the truth is that you are my wife and I am your shusband bakhi sab jhoot hai..."-You cant hate his character in the film. You understand his feeling and love him... Amitabh and Rekha- They just rock...best couple of Bollywood... Sensitive film for sensitive viewers...Big B's performance deserved the actor awards of the year for sure, but yes yet again-Another dirty rude joke played on him (after Deewaar)
desiensus
This movie was billed as a true story when it came out. Even though it is still a masala Bollywood movie, it has some striking resemblences to the life story of the leading ladies and the hero, Amitabh Bachan. In real life Amitabh had an affair with Rekha while married to Jaya Bhaduri. The movie version follows the same script, except adds many secondary characters, such as Sanjeev Kumar as Rekha's husband. Jaya Bhaduri gives a passable performance, while rekha and Amitabh both overact. There are a lot of unnecessary fantasy sequences shot in the Tulip farms in Holland which have no relevance to the rest of the movie. Camera work leaves a lot to be desired. In spite of all this, this movie remains interesting because it dared to treat the theme of extramarital romance when such topics were taboo in Bollywood.
