Mausam

One look at the movie poster and my mind was made up! Two of my
favourite actors, Sanjeev Kapoor and the very sexy Sharmila Tagore,
sure promise a few hours of good cinema.

Mausam (season)
though decades old, stills remains an attractive movie
owing to Gulzar’s candid story telling. While the plot itself is not
what I would rave about, its the way Gulzar and his actors have handled
the story, that glues you to the expected end. Amarnath Gill (Sanjeev
Kapoor) guilty of a failed relationship with a small town vaid’s (local
village doctor) daughter Chanda (Sharmila Tagore) and incidentally,
twenty odd years later stumbles upon the remnants of Chanda’s life, in
an off-season vacation in Darjeeling. Filled with remorse and regret,
Amarnath embarks on a journey to seek what remains of his lost love,
Chanda’s daughter Kajli (also Sharmila).

Of the several paths that this story could walk down, the choice of
simplicity and bare truth exposed in the character s feelings makes the
movie so convincing! Without actually dwelling on the notes of sympathy
(for Kajli’s life as a prostitute), or revenge / hatred (for Kajli
towards Amarnath, the lover who failed her mother) or self-loathing
(for Amarnath who realizes the cost of his erroneous choices in life),
the movie paces on, leaving it for its viewers to experience this
basket of emotions.

Some rather nice tracks, befitting its generation, accompanies this
movie. Take those hours off and grab yourself a copy of this film.

PS: An interesting thing pointed out to me was that this movie has a slight take off from the AJ
Cronin novel Judas tree!