The Film: Baghban
Producer: B R Chopra
Director: Ravi Chopra
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Salman Khan, Mahima Chaudhary and Aman Verma
Lyrics: Sameer
Music: Aadesh Shrivastava
Audio: T-Series
Release Date: 2nd October 2003
Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:
Raj Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan in a patriarchal role. Oh my god! Please think of a new name for creativity?s sake. I have seen this name in enough Bollywood movies to make me cringe every time I hear it) is an accountant with ICICI bank. He has four sons of which three are married, and two grandchildren. His wife Pooja (Hema Malini looking absolutely mind-blowing. She doesn?t seem to have aged at all. Esha Deol should certainly take some tips from her mother, as she already looks like she is 40 and beyond) is a loving mother, and wife. The two of them are very much in love even after 40 years of their marriage.

All their life they have sacrificed their dreams to fulfil the dreams of their sons. They have exhausted all their resources and plan to retire to a life where their kids will take care of their needs. The sons (Aman Verma, Samir Soni, Salil Chadha and Nasir Khan) and their assorted wives (Suman Ranganathan, Divya Dutta, Arzoo Govitrikar) are not too happy to hear of their plans. In a bid to discourage them and ease their own burden, they come up with a plan to separate the two and take one each alternately to their houses for periods of six months.

When Amitabh agrees to their plan on his wife?s insistence, he does not know of what they have in store for themselves, as they are insulted, humiliated, and denied an honourable existence. The only ones who behave a little decently are the grandchildren (the good looking Rimi Sen and the small kid Yash Pathak from the flop movie ?Rahul?).

Amitabh has also helped an orphan Alok (Salman Khan in a nice special appearance) to complete his studies. He is eternally indebted to Amitabh, and with the help of his wife (Mahima Chowdhary) he proves to be a dutiful son.

Paresh Rawal and Lilette Dubey befriend Amitabh and provide some light moments to the film. Sharat Saxena has a bit role, and Asrani makes a fleeting appearance in a number of scenes, but is relegated to the background in most of them.

There are also clichéd scenes of a Karva Chauth sequence and a tie-tying tradition to depict the romance between Amitabh and Hema. Amitabh usually has these tie scenes in movies where he is seen romancing his wife.

Analysis:
Amitabh is as always efficient; though he seems genuinely tired in lots of the scenes. Hema Malini is the surprise package of this film. She looks stunning, and gives all the other actresses in this film a run for their money. She even takes over from Amitabh as she has the sole fight scene in the movie (actually a slap scene, which gets the award for being the most inane scene seen in a movie for the last decade; this side of David Dhawan territory). The on-screen chemistry between Amitabh and Hema is absolute magic.

Paresh Rawal and Lilette Dubey deliver ably on their roles to lighten up the terse proceedings. Salman Khan for a change does crying scenes where he doesn?t make us grin from ear to ear. He has a Special Appearance in the movie, and does not play a lead part as the promos suggest.

The kids and their wives register little or no impact in their made for TV roles of bad bahus and cold-hearted sons. Sameer Soni stands out in a few scenes. Rimi Sen doesn?t have scope to perform, but Master Yash registers an impact in the scenes with Amitabh.

Technique:
Director Ravi Chopra (Zameer, Aaj Ki Awaaz, The Burning Train) seems to have pulled a Rip Wan Winkle on us. He seems to have gone to sleep in the 1970s and woken up suddenly to make a film with values and scenes from another era. This is also due to the fact that the story was written by B.R. Chopra in 1970. Some of the scenes make you cringe in horror at their stupidity. Also, he never seems to have observed that spectacles don?t get smashed into itsy bitsy pieces when they are dropped, but just get broken. He does handle some of the emotional scenes quite well, and succeeds in bringing a lump to your throat at the appropriate moments. One of the sore points of this movie is the in-movie product placements. ICICI, Ford, TATA Tea, ZipFone etc. gain some footage in the movie. And, whereas in a Subhash Ghai movie dialogues are built around such products, Baghban has scenes specially dedicated and created to push them.

The dialogues by Achala Nagar are the mainstay of this movie, and are ably written.

Music by Aadesh Srivastava, an Amitabh favourite, is ok, but the pace at which songs drop in is not. About 30 minutes of this 3h 20m film is dedicated to songs that do nothing to expedite the proceedings. 4 of these songs are sung by Amitabh, and he insisted that it was the machines that Aadesh had which made his voice sound tolerable. When Paresh Rawal suggests to Amitabh that he write a book about his experiences in life, I felt like suggesting why not instead make him cut a music album. He has had more experience doing that in this film. Another Amitabh favourite singer Sudesh Bhosle is missing from this film?s music. He usually sings all songs for Amitabh as he can remarkably imitate Amitabh?s baritone while singing.

Sidelights:
1) Amitabh says he was tricked into singing the songs of this movie as Aadesh told him they were just practising and would dub the songs later. (Producer B.R. Chopra must have saved a bundle by not getting professional singers for the film music.)

2) A Harivansh Rai Bachchan (Amitabh?s father) song has been used for the Holi sequence (B.R. Chopra saving on lyricists too).

3) Amitabh is seen wearing quite a number of rings. He has two prominent neelam (blue sapphire) rings on his fingers. These seem to be doing their work considering that he is swamped with work. (He should probably give some to his son Abhishek too).

4) Amitabh and Salman got very close during the making of this film and they haven?t stopped praising each other since.

5) The initial cast when the film was launched was Dilip Kumar, Rakhi, Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla. These were replaced by Amitabh, Hema, Salman and Mahima respectively.

6) Achala Nagar, the dialogue writer had also written dialogues for the B.R. Chopra blockbuster ?Nikah?.

7) In the climax scene, if you notice closely, you will realise that Mahima Chowdhary was not physically present at the location and her scenes have been shot later and sprinkled into the climax.

Verdict:
Now for the inevitable question. Would I or wouldn?t I recommend this movie?

Amitabh lovers, there is no dearth of them; can handle this one. Hold on to your handkerchiefs though, and suitably make an excuse beforehand to your neighbours that you are suffering from a nasty cold; so that you are saved the embarrassment of getting caught sniffling/crying during the movie.

For all Hema Malini fans, this is a must see. She is appearing on the silver screen after a big hiatus, and you never know when you might see her again. Her presence She is definitely worth the price of the ticket.

As for the length of the movie, smokers have a definite advantage as they can have frequent breaks due to the songs.

Lovers of sensible cinema are advised to keep their distance