Tehzeeb (2003)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Khalid Mohammed's Tehzeeb is a tribute to Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata, and he officially acknowledges Bergman for being the inspiration for this film. Mohammed is a good director, but his attempts to make an art film and add all the possible ingredients of Hindi commercial cinema trip him a bit up this time. In his wonderful 2000 film Fiza he did the same, but much more delicately, and while Tehzeeb is definitely a good film, he tends to go a bit overboard with all the appearances, subplots and redundant characters. Having said that, Tehzeeb is still a great watch, and due credit goes to Mohammed's fine script and direction, Javed Siddiqui's realistic dialogues, A.R. Rahman's soundtrack which gives life to the movie, and of course the credible acting by the leading actors.Starting with the flaws, the entire Diana Hayden story could and should have been deleted. What does it have to do with the film and its story? I did not really understand the purpose of her appearance and what actually it was all about. And besides that, she is such a non-actor! Her accent is terrible and she is annoying throughout. The Namrata Shirodkar one was redundant as well, though more bearable because of the nice song and the wonderful scene that follows it (the advice Shabana gave Namrata about the rules of success in showbiz). There were several other instances, like Diya Mirza's ridiculous disco dance. That was apparently a take-off on the exceptional "nervous breakdown" dance numbers of Sridevi and Meenakshi Sheshadri in the films Lamhe and Damini, respectively, but in this film, it's just pathetic.Now to the film: Shabana Azmi and Urmila Matondkar star as a mother and her daughter (second time after Masoom in 1983. 20 years ago, can you believe it?!). Urmila is Tehzeeb, a young married woman who looks after her mentally ill young sister, and Shabana is Rukhsana Jamal, a popular singer and her estranged mother. Although she does love her mother and misses her, Tehzeeb has always considered her mother the cause of her father's death and her younger sister's (Dia Mirza) mental disability. All of a sudden, Mrs. Jamal calls Tehzeeb to inform her that she is going to visit her. Both women are excited towards the meeting. Here the story actually deepens. The film brilliantly follows and depicts this mother-daughter relationship, its ups and downs, and finally shows how they come to terms with each other.Quite expectedly, while the film is titled after Urmila's character, it belongs to Shabana Azmi, who is natural, credible and charming as the vivacious and colourful star Rukhsana. It's a pleasure watching her delivering these witty dialogues in her own inimitable style. Urmila, while always a talented and intense performer, tries to do more than required at some scenes. She is too impulsive, and while it's an integral part of her acting and always interesting to watch, I think she should have tried some restraint in this role. Arjun Rampal, playing Tehzeeb's loving and supportive husband Salim, is also the film's narrator, and he succeeds on both accounts. Mohammed rightly tries to give his role as much substance as possible, and Rampal performs exceedingly well; he plays Salim with utmost sincerity and humour and makes him thoroughly likable and entertaining. Dia Mirza is cute and effective as the mentally disabled and love-seeking Nazo.Tehzeeb is aided by a great technical crew and is excellent in cinematography, editing and particularly music. A.R. Rahman scores once again with a terrific background score and equally great songs, among which I especially loved "Na Shiqwa Hota", a soulful number which efficiently summarises the mother-daughter relationship on-screen. Mohammed wonderfully portrays the lifestyle of modern Muslim families, and this is yet another factor which warrants a fascinating watch. The film's ending is unexpected and surprising. Some may like it, some may not. I was disappointed by it, but it's actually what makes Hindi movies so unique and special, no? Tehzeeb is not without its flaws, but after all I still think it is an interesting and moving film and an altogether worthy effort. I recommend.

I'm highly surprised with the high voting average (7.4/10 when I last checked) that Tehzeeb received. I mean, yes, the film is very intelligent, with very strong actors playing their parts beautifully - Urmila Matondkar as the simple, happy daughter but with a resentment towards her star-singer mother, Shabana Azmi as the star-singer mother who is very charming and gushy but is thought by Urmmila to have murdered her husband and ruined her children's lives, Dia Mirza as the mentally retarded daughter - um. how can you be retarded and still put on makeup and curl your hair on your birthday and other days, I wonder? I guess her mom and sister did that for her. - who is, in my opinion, a spoiled brat, because ordinary two-or-four-year-olds are not pampered so much, and Arjun Rampal as the cute, innocent, loving (and lovable?) husband of the daughter; but what was Diana what's-her-name and Namrata doing there? What were all those crappy, unnecessary songs doing there? They completely stopped the story and made us all eager to change the channel to hum dil de chuke sanam, which was playing and which had much better songs. Sure, some of the atmospheres in Tehzeeb were quite dark and suspenseful, but why ruin the effect with sudden lighthearted moments when we want to get on with the true serious story? I can only think that the director got scared with some of the effects or something. However, the fact that the retarded girl did not recover from her attempt to shoot herself with her brain fully repaired, and the mother dying when her daughter went to her to ask for her pardon, were very nice touches that set it apart from most bollywood happy-ending flicks. But then again the movie got ruined by the clips at the end. This movie is supposed to be serious, not funny!Still, all in all a nice almost-art movie. 6/10.

The Bollywood fare is burning brighter with each film. When an actor the like Arjun Rampal(Salim) is thrown with the likes of Shabana Azmi(Rukshana Anwar)and Urmila Matondkar, some of the talent has to rub off on him and it does in this marvelous movie called "Tehzeeb"(Etiquette). Even though it is difficult to accept them in the role of a mother and daughter the acting prowess of Shabana Azmi takes a notch over Urmila and both come out as top notch talent at the end, where as the other two characters have a long road ahead. Except the song that Shabana sings for her daughter, the music of AR Rahman is a flop to think he may be an overworked composer. The standout is ace direction, Screenplay and Cinematography.There is not much dowdt that Urmilla Matondkar has immense talent that very few of her contemporaries can match. Suffice to say this a a beautifully enacted film that lingers long after the movie including the very short and impressive perf. by Rishi Kapoor.

For the first half of the movie, there is absolutely no story. It gets really annoying as nothing happens. However, the film's pace suddenly accelerates during a power-packed confrontation scene between Urmila and Shabana Azmi. The characters have been developed excellently. Songs are lovely. The picturization of "Meherbaan" and especially "I want to be free" are terrific. What I find the best about this movie is the well-portrayed relationship between Urmila and Shabana. Looking from Urmila's point of view, it seems that her indifference towards her mother is right, while Shabana is selfish. However, from Shabana's point of view, her actions seem totally justified, while her daughter's attitude is very hurtful. What makes this film unique is that the audience can sympathize with and understand both contradicting points of view. The ending is very poetic and (the following might be a spoiler) brings out the pain of Shabana's life and how, unfortunately, Urmila lived her entire life based on misunderstandings.