Baghban

Baghban stands itself as an emotion appealing family drama, which presents the age old conflict between selfishness and selfless, between fake love and true one, between parents and children. It is a modern story of the same old family problem, children finds their parents as a burden. In this line , The Tokyo Story of 1950s is recommended but Baghban is unique in the sense of its presentation. The colorful settings, the presentation of emotions in a much deeper level ; perhaps it could make you cry, the musical scores betweeen, the matured love story of two adults in their 60s, the applaudable performance of adults towards the youth generation etc.

Analytically, Mr Malhotra is a retired banker, who happily lives with his family, his four own married sons and one adopted son, who lives in foreign. But his happiness is shattered when his own children neglects him and his wife, even for the triflest matters. This enlightens him about truth in family lives, about the world, about reality. A ray of hope appears in the form of his adopted son, who loves and accepts them as his living God. Mr Malhotra is happy with this but still it cannot outweighs his own children acts. Throughout the film, this war between selfish and selfless grows intense and finally he decides to never forgive his own children. He chose not to give share of his old age success as a writer. The film actually depicts the journey of Mr Malhotra from emotional attachment to enlightenment. The journey has the power to appeal to viewers emotionally, wholly it goes credit to first class act of Big B, Hema Maam and other senior roles like Paresh Rawal etc.

Technically , the film is clear in it's details, portrayal and narratives. I feel the songs should have been less. No comments about performances, the antagony characters are well acted, you will like to hate these guys. Salman's act is dramatised, but still convincing as the obedient and optimistic son. Though well made film, but still few things are neglected like ---- Mr Malhotras upbringing, his characteristics as an individual, his children upbringing etc, which was needed, atleast to explain the unenlightening episodes. It is not a masterpiece but a well made film having realistic characters relatable to all universally. Finally the spark of the film is Big B, who as the saddenned father, gave spellbound performance !

A 69 on a scale of 100.

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to agree with jungleking. He has told it like it is.

I'll admit there are a few movies that will make me ball out and this is one of them. This is movie is reality in its true colours.

Great performances by the whole cast and great work by the crew.

I believe that Baghban should be made into a book, but that is my view.

If you haven't seen Baghban, watch it as soon as possible. It is worth the time.

Lately, Bollywood has churned out movies with tremendous show of skin and exhibitionism, but this movie is such a stark contrast and is one of the reasons that it works. In this movie they have dealt with the age-old issue of children not willing to take the responsibility of their parents when the parents are considered "useless" by their children. Although we have seen such movies in the past like Avtar and Amrit, but what is different about this movie is the way they have shown the romance of an old couple. I can't remember seeing such romance in any other Hindi movie, so it is refreshing to see that even an old couple can have youthful romance.

This is one of those movies that makes you think and analyze your relationship with your parents. As one's parents get older their habits get formed and many times members of the younger generation (myself included) get angry at them and I felt how important it is to overlook the immediate state of your parents, and instead to reflect on how they have toiled in bringing you up. Another question that arose in my mind after watching the movie was whether parents have children so that they have someone to take care of them or do they have children without any ulterior motive. After having discussions with my Mom (in relation to this movie) I realized that, yes, everyone does have expectations, but that's not the reason that they work so hard to build a child's future. In fact, as a child, we have expectations from our parents through our dependence on them, so why should we accuse them of wrongdoing when we have similar expectations. It is human to want to be loved, and that's the least we can do for our parents. Well, after reading this lengthy philosophical discussion you can see how thought-provoking this movie is. Let me get back to the movie. After a long time I have enjoyed watching Amitabh Bachchan, and Hema Malini's performance was so subtle and yet she gave a powerful performance. There is one scene in particular, where she tells Amitabh to have his medicine (right before they get separated) and one moment she has her eyes shut and the next moment her eyes are filled with tears. In this movie I didn't find much melodrama and the dialogues are hard-hitting and are to the point. Finally, the performance of Paresh Rawal, is, as usual, very good. I hope everyone watches this movie with their families.

Okay, the movie has a good theme--people should not forget their parents and discard them when they get old. However, I don't see some of the things happening in real life, especially things like Amitabh's glasses not being repaired. Sometimes the anger was also justified such as the late-night typewriter incident and the daughter coming back home at 3 AM (since they didn't know the true story). Somethings were just over-doing it, such as Salman and Mahima literally worshiping Salman's parents. The ever-growing love between Amitabh and Hema was really sweet. It was nice to see elderly, true love after watching cliched perfect 20s romance in every movie. What I especially didn't like about this movie is that it put women back in the 19th century where they are supposed to sit on the edge of their chair every evening, waiting for their husband to open the door; they should live in the kitchen. Hema's dialogue, "Times may change, but a woman's role never changes" ticked me off. However, this whole movie was made up by the climax, which was one extraordinary speech by Amitabh. His perfect eloquence is unmatchable by any other orator in Indian cinema. His words envelope you and take you on an emotional roller coaster.

Baghban is generally good, thought-provoking and moving, but it's never outstanding. This is the story of Raj and Pooja (Bachchan and Malini) who are married for over 40 years and have four sons living in India and one adopted son living abroad. The first half portrays the love of the entire family and particularly the longstanding love of the elderly parents. But then, when Raj retires and asks their children to take care of him and his wife, they get a shocking reply. The sons offer them to live separately, each spouse with another son, and change residence every half a year to another son. This is quite unbelievable and unrealistic. Would any child have had enough courage to act so cheap with their parents and separate them despite knowing how much they love each other? I don't think so. I was surprised that after all, the parents decided to accept their children's senseless conditions. I wonder, how is it possible? Why wouldn't they have stayed together in their house and forgot about their children? Well if they had done this, this film probably wouldn't have been made, so that's pretty sums it up.

And that's the particular period on which the story focuses: the first six months they live separately, Raj in the house of the second son, and Pooja in the house of the elder son. The film portrays their loneliness and suffering without each other, but most importantly shows how they discover the true colours of their children. Their children don't care for them, treat them badly and don't show any respect. Their daughters in-law are even worse. This part of the film is only reasonably well-done. The main problem with this entire concept is that you wonder how come they never get to meet during these six long months. Before they moved, they always had parties and dinners with the entire family and now they suddenly don't? Are they in prison or what? The saviour comes in the form of Salman Khan, their adopted son who literally worships them. I did not really understand the need to show such an enormous love from Salman to his parents. It was, though ironic, extremely cheesy and hard to believe.

In spite of the many of its flaws, the film does have its moments and it manages to touch your heart on more than one occasion. For instance, the Diwali phone conversation between the couple; there is nothing to eat in the fridge and Raj pretends to be eating, yet his wife understands that he is lying. The scene is moving (although it is, again, hard to believe that a common family's fridge would be completely empty). I loved the scene in which Hema asks her son how he can be moved by his wife's tears but doesn't give a damn for his mother's tears. Hema Malini was spectacular in both of these scenes. What I particularly liked, however, is the nice interaction between Raj and the new people he meets in a nearby restaurant in which he spends most of his time, including its young clients and particularly its owners, a childless couple played by Paresh Rawal and Lillete Dubey.

Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini, who have worked together many times, totally rise above the script and bring so much experience, sensitivity and depth to their respective roles that the otherwise poorly-handled portrayal of their love becomes convincing. Paresh Rawal and Lillete Dubey play their roles to perfection and make for an extremely sympathetic couple. Salman and Mahima are wasted, and all the four sons, their wives and children, are strictly average. The film belongs to the main lead and it's nice to see an out-and-out commercial Hindi movie in which the lead pair are 60 years old.

Baghban works in parts. Sometimes it's exciting, but sometimes it's boring and unwatchable. It generally works as typical Bollywood entertainment. The story had been tackled in Bollywood too many times before in films like Avtaar. Yet there is something very refreshing and new about the way it's presented in a modern-day India, even if it's not completely convincing. The irony conveyed through this film is too evident: strangers treat them better than their own children. I guess this was made to shock the audience and convey a striking message. The music is average, but the fact that Bachchan performs his own songs is good for the film. The ending is dramatic, overdone, but still somehow works on you. Maybe it's the best thing about this film; the moral taught in it and the good acting are stronger than any of its weaknesses.