Silsila -- ChainMAIN CAST:
Rekha -- Chandni
Jaya Badhuri -- Shobha
Amitabh Bachchan -- Amit
Shashi Kapoor -- Shekhar
BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:
Shekhar is madly in love with Shobha and can't wait to introduce her to his beloved brother, Amit. Before too long, Amit has found a love of his own, a beautiful young woman named Chandni. But when Shekhar dies in a plane crash and leaves a pregnant Shobha behind, Amit is duty-bound to marry Shobha, while Chandi agrees to marry a friendly doctor. Shortly thereafter, Amit and Chandni enter in to a secret love affair.
FILM -- 3/5
On the surface, Silsila seems like a film that breaks away from restrictive cultural norms entirely: one woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock while another carries on an affair with the first's husband, and neither is shamed for it. Yet there are many not-so-subtle ways that the film returns to conservative values in predictable plot twists I won't reveal (in hopes that they may still surprise you). The film often flashes between realism and melodrama, though I must admit that the realistic segments are really well-written and the melodramatic segments are...well, true blue melodramatic, if you're in to that kind of thing. Most of the dialogue is maudlin and dried out, leaving the actors to carry the film's emotional weight via facial expressions and body language. In Silsila's defense, the actors do this quite well, and I did, in all fairness, cry a few times during the second half. (The second half, by the way, is INFINITELY better than the first.) The costumes are rarely tacky, which is a big deal in an 80s Bollywood film; I was especially impressed with Rekha's clothing.
CHARACTERS -- 4.5/5
Like many otherwise mediocre films, Silsila's strength lies in its actors. Shashi Kapoor receives top billing, even though his character barely lasts through the first half of the movie. It's not his best performance, but at least his trademark charm is intact. Amitabh Bachchan breaks out of his "angry young man" comfort zone here with a character who broods twice as much, but keeps his condemnation of societal norms mostly to himself. Again, this isn't his best performance, but it holds its own. The folks who really steal the show in Silsila are the women: this is some of the best acting I've ever seen from Jaya Badhuri and Rekha. Shobha fits so many stereotypes of the "suffering Indian woman" that if it weren't for Jaya's skillful portrayal of the character and her sweet, innocent features, I wouldn't have been able to stomach here. She also has sweet (though almost sisterly) chemistry with both Shashi and Amitabh. Rekha's performance is especially powerful, and it's obvious why rumors about her and Big B run so rampant--their chemistry is INCREDIBLE. And may I just turn in to a fangirl here and say that Rekha is beyond stunning? Sanjeev Kumar also deserves accolades for his wonderful performance as Chandi's husband. That man really knows how to act with his eyes!
SOUNDTRACK -- 3.5/5
Silsila has one of those soundtracks that sounds mundane at first, but grows on you as you continue to listen to it. There are, of course, a few stand-out tracks; I fell in love with Amit and Chandni's love-at-first-sight song, "Ladki Hai Ya Shola," immediately, and "Dekha Ekh Khwab" manages to be old-timey without being cheesy. "Rang Barse," a Holi song, is considered a classic by many, but while I absolutely adore it now, it took a while to grow on me. The film also opens with a festival-type song, "Sar Se Sarke," which is just background music for me. "Neela Aasman" has several lullabye-like incarnations, all of which bore the shit out of me. I much prefer Shobha's heart-wrenching lament, "Jo Tum Todo Piya." Overall, it's a decent soundtrack with a few astounding gems and pretty but cliche picturizations to go with them.
OVERALL -- 3/5
Parts of Silsila made my inner feminist grimace so hard that I often had to remind myself that, considering when it was made and the common moral standards of the culture it came from (or really, the standards of most cultures), it really broke a lot of barriers. One woman in this film commits adultery, the other gets pregnant out of wedlock, and yet it is the women Silsila sets its sympathetic gaze on. These are not evil seductresses, bent out sucking out the respectively charming and dutiful souls of Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan; rather, they are good, honest ladies who experience unforeseeable tragedies and are forced to grin and bear the unhappy consequences. Furthermore, this is one of those rare Bollywood films that drags and bores in its first half, but astounds in its second half. In short, Silsila is not an incredible film, but it is a good one, and it's an absolute shame that many viewers cast it aside simply because of its controversial subject matter.
TOTAL SCORE -- 14/20 (really good)
