Post by odadune on Jul 20, 2015 1:27:05 GMT
(just for the record, this is the Mausam where Sanjeev Kumar has a mustache, not the one where Shahid Kapoor has a mustache. So we're clear on that.)
Dr. Gil, a middle-aged physician (Sanjeev Kumar) returns to the hill station where he once spent a holiday as a medical student and fell in love with Chanda, the daughter (Sharmila Tagore, Saif and Soha's mom) of an ayurvedic healer. He figures his old flame is probably comfortably married, but instead is horrified to learn that she is known in the community for having been abandoned by her lover, forced into an abusive marriage, and eventually dying insane. He tracks down her daughter Kajli (also Sharmila), who was assaulted by one of her mother's in-laws, and is now a prostitute, albeit one run by a comparatively benign madam. He takes Kajli back to his vacation home with him, and tries to make right the wrongs he did her mother. Along the way, we learn that he had a reason-maybe not a good one, but a reason-for not coming back to Chanda....
What follows is a series of very low-key but subtly off-kilter interactions, open to several interpretations. A fair number of people watch this movie and come away with the impression that Kajli is in fact Dr. Gil's daughter, even though Hindi films of this period were usually fairly upfront when they were dealing with pregnancies out of wedlock and attempts to legitimize them, and this film doesn't go out of its way to imply that is going on here. It doesn't rule it out, but it also doesn't endorse the idea. Another school of thought claims that this is a prototype for Lamhe, with a man losing the love of his youth, only to have her look alike daughter fall for him, and certainly the scene where Kajli hints at being in love with Gil, only to have him go ballistic with revulsion, slap her, and bring out her mother's things to show her is an influence on Lamhe. I personally prefer to think that Gil is attempting to be a surrogate father to the girl (he calls her "Beti" constantly), and failing horribly because as an antisocial bachelor he has only the dimmest idea of what is involved, and Kajli keeps misinterpreting his intentions because she has no frame of reference for them.
Gulzar was not good at endings, and although the ending to this one-which seems to imply that Kajli has recognized Gil as the faithless lover of her mother that she used to hate, and that she has forgiven him-is less random than some of his movies, it feels somewhat off-kilter and ambiguous. If you're okay with the subject matter-which sounds off-putting but is actually handled fairly tastefully-it's slow-moving but worth a look, with a gorgeous soundtrack from Madan Mohan, an earnest and likable performance from Sanjeev as a character who could come off as much more of a jerk than he does, and a really brilliant dual performance by Sharmila Tagore, an actress whom I'm otherwise pretty much indifferent to.
Carla's review: www.filmigeek.com/2007/06/mausam_1975.html
Dr. Gil, a middle-aged physician (Sanjeev Kumar) returns to the hill station where he once spent a holiday as a medical student and fell in love with Chanda, the daughter (Sharmila Tagore, Saif and Soha's mom) of an ayurvedic healer. He figures his old flame is probably comfortably married, but instead is horrified to learn that she is known in the community for having been abandoned by her lover, forced into an abusive marriage, and eventually dying insane. He tracks down her daughter Kajli (also Sharmila), who was assaulted by one of her mother's in-laws, and is now a prostitute, albeit one run by a comparatively benign madam. He takes Kajli back to his vacation home with him, and tries to make right the wrongs he did her mother. Along the way, we learn that he had a reason-maybe not a good one, but a reason-for not coming back to Chanda....
What follows is a series of very low-key but subtly off-kilter interactions, open to several interpretations. A fair number of people watch this movie and come away with the impression that Kajli is in fact Dr. Gil's daughter, even though Hindi films of this period were usually fairly upfront when they were dealing with pregnancies out of wedlock and attempts to legitimize them, and this film doesn't go out of its way to imply that is going on here. It doesn't rule it out, but it also doesn't endorse the idea. Another school of thought claims that this is a prototype for Lamhe, with a man losing the love of his youth, only to have her look alike daughter fall for him, and certainly the scene where Kajli hints at being in love with Gil, only to have him go ballistic with revulsion, slap her, and bring out her mother's things to show her is an influence on Lamhe. I personally prefer to think that Gil is attempting to be a surrogate father to the girl (he calls her "Beti" constantly), and failing horribly because as an antisocial bachelor he has only the dimmest idea of what is involved, and Kajli keeps misinterpreting his intentions because she has no frame of reference for them.
Gulzar was not good at endings, and although the ending to this one-which seems to imply that Kajli has recognized Gil as the faithless lover of her mother that she used to hate, and that she has forgiven him-is less random than some of his movies, it feels somewhat off-kilter and ambiguous. If you're okay with the subject matter-which sounds off-putting but is actually handled fairly tastefully-it's slow-moving but worth a look, with a gorgeous soundtrack from Madan Mohan, an earnest and likable performance from Sanjeev as a character who could come off as much more of a jerk than he does, and a really brilliant dual performance by Sharmila Tagore, an actress whom I'm otherwise pretty much indifferent to.
Carla's review: www.filmigeek.com/2007/06/mausam_1975.html