As a child I quite liked Samay Ki Dhaara although the ending left me stricken. I thought time would make its own and after a repeated viewing I can say that this film is quite an ordinary family drama which tries to convey a social message of how destructive a divorce can be and particularly how it affects children who are left in the middle to struggle all alone, wanting to be with both parents but being forced to live with only one of them. The film tells the story of Ajay and Madhvi, who decide to part ways when ideological differences seem to take them nowhere in their relationship. Their son Aroop stays with his mother, and soon both Ajay and Madhvi find solace in new relationships with other people and remarry. Everything seems fine for them, but Aroop feels lonely in a new house with his mother's second husband and his two kids, with whom he does not manage to get along. The film feels like an ordinary Hindi drama of its sort all through - at times effective, at times boring, at times just okay. Its narrative style was pretty good - very mainstream throughout yet an occasionally realistic portrayal of marriage and divorce in modern Indian families of those times. But everything was ruined by the tragic, typical, melodramatic and overdone ending. Yes, that kind of a turn could have happened anywhere, but it was incredibly extreme in this movie and it's the only thing one can think of once the movie ends.
The film stars a group of famous actors, all of whom do well but none going beyond the ordinary. Shabana Azmi is very convincing, but then, she always is. The film did not really bring the best out of her - at times she rose above the script, sincerely displaying a range of moving emotions, and at times she was let down by it, being made to look like one of those regular traumatised Hindi drama queens. Anyway, hers is definitely the best performance in the film but this one is certainly not another Arth in her career. Shatrughan Sinha is actually very good in this role of a stylish ego-driven businessman, a role he did not really have the chance to play that often. I've had a soft spot for Tina Munim since watching her wonderful debut performance in Basu Chatterjee's classic gem Baton Baton Mein, in which she looked super hot, and here too she is attractive and well cast. Vinod Mehra is efficiently restrained in his role. The kid who plays Aroop was okay at times, but he was too whiny to be credible, and not even once did I feel for his character. Anyway, Samay Ki Dhaara is not a bad film and it was an okay one-time watch for me. Lovers of Hindi cinema would certainly find the movie interesting and moving. For me it was an ordinary family drama which drastically turned into a tearjerker while it easily could and would have been better had the writer chosen a different ending other than the typicality.
