Mausam (1975)

Fresh and Exciting

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

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Enough said. A successful surgeon visiting his past and never realizing the havoc that was caused in the multiple lives (that he genuinely cared for) due to something that he neglected to do. There was a reason of course, but a superficial one which he recognizes too late. The plot revolves around the life and heartbreaking fate of Chanda and her daughter Kajali due to his self-absorption. In the first half Sanjeev presents a master-class of immense acting...you cry when he cries ( he cries only once) but you also cry when he is hit with a proverbial emotional brick. He totally reveals the complex emotional whiplash that he suffers as the details on Chanda and later Kajali' lives are revealed. The last quarter belongs to Sharmeela in the daugher's role. What she does when she finds out the real identity of Sanjeev ....is extremely impactful and masterfully emoted. That scene makes the movie come together in ways that otherwise would not be possible. There are some minor flaws that do not impact the plot....not much is revealed about Sanjeev's current life. Also the peripheral characters in Sanjeev's life are given only a weak presentation although the women in Sharmeela's life are given the needed depth. But they do not distract from the powerful emotionality of the movie....This movie was made more than 40 years ago. It is interesting to think if Bollywood is capable of making this movie again?? possible but perhaps unlikely--and it is not because talents like Sanjeev Kumar may not be available (which may indeed be true)-but primarily that Bollywood "mores" on handling the love stories have changed...watch the movie closely ---and watch what Kajali's only love Kundan does when he loses her. It is a powerful scene in its own right. Would you blame Kundan? How will Gulzar rewrite Chanda's character if he were to write this story today??? same or different? See it and be amazed.

Mausam is a masterpiece. The more you watch it the more you understand it and you start developing a bond with the actors in the film. There are people who debate whether mausam is better than Aandhi or vice versa, although both the films are based on somewhat a similar subject which involves the actors making a mistake in their early life and living through it to the latter part of their life filled with remorse and guilt.I will go with mausam as a better movie than Aandhi mainly because of Sanjeev kumar's acting (not that his acting in Aandhi was bad but the story of Mausam is sanjeev kumar centric) who makes you feel for him and his helplessness as Amarnath Gill. He comes back after 25 years to the place of his love and has not married yet. Gulzaar Saab has left it upon us to think whether amarnath was right or wrong in his decision of not returning at the earliest and it is these moments in the movie that trigger our imagination and establish a bond with the characters. Sharmila Tagore has played a character that you will have in mind whenever you go to Darjeeling. I recommend to see the movie twice and in absolute peace. The songs just suck you even further into itDisclaimer: Watching the movie repeatedly might start to trouble you emotionally ;-)

I managed to catch two gems recently. The first one was over 3 days while I worked out. Maybe the installment approach allowed me to ponder on this film and love it all over again. In Mausam, Sanjeev Kumar rocked as the young doctor-in-training, and then as the older man who comes back to Darjeeling to relive his memories. Gulzar kept many things shrouded in mystery and so many things completely understated - I was so glad he chose to not insult the viewers' intelligence with needless explanations along the way. We never found out if Sanjeev came back to Darjeeling for any other motive than R and R. We were never told if the young Sharmila actually "fell" for this older man or it was pure gratitude, since she knew who he was all along! The flashbacks were kept to a minimum and even the minor characters like Om Shivpuri, Dina Pathak and Agha were so perfect in their roles. Sanjeev was pitch perfect, playing men that were 20 years apart in age, just by subtle changes in body language and some gray hair! And in a surprising twist all the intensity, regrets and anger were portrayed by the older man. Sharmila was excellent in the mother daughter roles, although clearly outclassed by Sanjeev. And the divine music - Dil Dhoondhta Hai Phir Wohi Fursat Ke Raat Din. A perfect 10 from me for this perfect film.

I got hold of this movie in order to start seeing more of Sanjeev Kumar, whom I admired so much in Silsila, where he plays a husband who probably knows his wife (Rekha) does not love him the way he loves her - the performance was so subtle and intelligent He is wonderful in this one too, but probably it's the performance of Sharmila Tagore I'll remember more keenly.When I went looking around the Internet for comments on Mausam I came across a message board note from someone who said she knew she could feel all right if she could hear Dil Dhoondta Hai every day of her life. I understand why someone could fall in love with this song, played at the very beginning of this movie and again in a scene of love from the past of Kumar's character, whom we first meet in his middle age.Translation on screen: The heart lies in searchOnce again for those daysAnd nights of leisure . . . .We're right away in the world of the longing and search for long-gone sweet memories, recalled with melancholy.Dr Gill (Kumar), an unmarried gray-haired man who has become successful through discovering a useful medicine, is spending a holiday at Darjeeling alone. Over twenty years before he had visited the same place, and fallen in love with the daughter of a local Ayurvedic doctor. He did not keep a promise to return for her, and he has come back to see what he can find out about her. He learns that she never recovered emotionally from his abandonment of her; she had married subsequently, lived in poverty, and had a daughter, who is now a prostitute The movie is the story of his efforts to deal with all of this, including his "buying" several weeks of the girl's time from the brothel where she works.Sharmila Tagore (the mother of Saif Ali Khan, for fans who know present stars better than earlier ones) plays both the girl Kumar falls in love with and her daughter, the young prostitute. She is a magical creature in both roles - as the brash mountain girl who helps her father get customers (she rounds Kumar up fast when he slips on some steps and gets him to her dad's herbal dispensary), and as the seen-it-all and still enchantingly innocent prostitute girl. We also have a glimpse of her as a gray-haired "old" woman in a sad scene where her decline into madness is dramatized.She doesn't know what Kumar wants when he takes her to his house, and is emphatic about being paid for her services - he insists on getting her dressed up in a ladylike way, once he's dealt with her insistence that the cost not be taken from her wages. My favorite scene in the movie possibly, besides the car and the song at the beginning, is the scene where she decides she knows what kind of customer he is: not the kind who wants to "have fun" with a girl, but the romantic kind who wants to "roam" and see dancing. If I recall correctly, she insists on dancing for him, though with a warning that she is not good at it - and she isn't, instead she is entirely lovable. She seems to be about 14.It's the kind of story Bollywood excels at - there is such artistry involved (the movie is written and directed by Gulzar, so the script is basically perfect) in containing the powerful emotions of a man who abandoned the only person he ever loved, and has returned too late to do anything to benefit her directly. He is a taciturn, grim-ish character when we meet him, tenderer but also somewhat self-involved in the flashbacks to his "days and nights of leisure."The antic aspects of both the girl he loves and of her tough little daughter keep the movie far away from being a dreary guilt-and-sob-fest. Kumar is a wonderful actor, as noted, but this movie is from the days when the hero didn't have to be in fit physical shape; he isn't, so when he is supposed to be young and handsome, his face is fine but the body detracts from my ability to experience the "young love" thing. But Dil Dhoondta Hai just about makes up for it.I think the movie also allows some play to the question of whether there is a Lolita-like element to the relationship developing between Dr Gill and the girl - it lets us think about that, I'd say.