Ek Chadar Maili Si

Ek Chadar Maili Si -- Ordained by Fate**

MAIN CAST:
Hema Malini -- Rano
Rishi Kapoor -- Mangal
Poonam Dhillon -- Raji
Kulbhushan Kharbanda -- Triloka

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:
Rano lives the life of many Indian peasants: she takes care of her children and her elderly in-laws, keeps the house clean, and cooks for her abusive drunkard of a husband and her immature brother-in-law. Things take a turn for the worst when a series of confusions leaves Triloka dead, and the widowed Rano does everything in her power to keep her family alive.

FILM -- 3.5/5
Don't let the almost middling score fool you: Ek Chadar Maili Si is very well-written and interesting. It features very natural-sounding dialogue that I found refreshing, and each scene makes the best of lighting, angles, and so forth to really connect you to the film. Melodrama is rare in this movie, which makes it much more believable than many of the social dramas that came out in the 80s. But Ek Chadar Maili Si has a few niggling issues. Namely, the pace is extremely slow, and there are very few songs in-between to pick things back up. The fight scenes are pretty awful, even by 80s standards; characters are beaten to a bloody pulp with nary a scratch on their faces until the very end of the fight, when they are suddenly covered in blood. Also, there are a couple of important plot points that I felt were never fully explained; for example, what happened to Lakshmi after she fell off of the cart? Did she die, or did she live? And what is the relationship between Mangal and Rano at the end? Are we supposed to "realize" that they fell in love, or is their affection for each other still of the brother/sister sort? Silly little things like that may not bother most people, but I found these unexplained occurrences rather aggitating.

CHARACTERS -- 5/5
Ek Chadar Maili Si is most famous for its performances, and there's a good reason for that. Hema Malini, often seen as little more than a "pretty face," proves she can act. You can't help but feel for Rano as she frantically worries about how she'll feed her family, and her big brown eyes really tug on your heart strings. Of course, I loved Rishi Kapoor; his character was well-written and well-played, and it was amazing to watch Mangal grow from an immature loafer to a mature man with many burdens. Triloka has a few more layers than most "drunken husband" characters, and I liked that Kharbanda brought some depth to a character that could have been entirely one-dimensional. Surprisingly, my absolute favorite member of the cast ended up being Poonam Dhillon. As is typical for me, I found the minor actress more beautiful and alluring than the big-name starlet; Raji is spunky, but alluringly beautiful as well. The chemistry between Dhillon and Kapoor is awesome, and they make a very cute couple, albeit a sickenly sweet one. Some may call the Raji/Mangal love story an unnecessary addition to the film, but I thought it added a bit of levity in the first half and showed how dramatically Triloka's death affected the family in the second half.

SOUNDTRACK -- 3.5/5
This isn't a soundtrack I'm going to listen to very often, but it's still cute. "Margi Margi" is cute enough, and the lyrics are really funny, but Hema doesn't even do much actual dancing in the film (although her facial expressions are really cute!). "Koi Sona," an upbeat love song between Mangal and Raji, is probably my favorite song from the soundtrack. "Iss Duniye Mein" and its numerous reprises didn't quite hit home with me, though they are beautiful in an absolutely melancholic way. The song that really hit my heart strings was the devotional song to the mother goddess at the end, which has some of the most passionate vocals I've ever heard.

OVERALL -- 4/5
It's important to realize that Ek Chadar Maili Si, for all of its progressiveness, isn't quite a feminist film for two major reasons. The first (and more praise-worthy) of these reasons is that Triloka's death affects not only Rano, but her family as a whole. Hence, the film is generallky focused on how the death of a patriarch changes everybody's life, rather than narrowly focused on how it changes his wife's life. The more unfortunate reason why I cannot call Ek Chadar Maili Si a feminist film is because it ultimately contradicts itself. Without ruining too much of the plot, I can honestly say that I felt betrayed by the film's ending. The same patriarchal practices that put Rano in to her unhappy marriage in the first place are lauded when they are applied to her daughter Guddi. This movie may argue that women can be strong, but it certainly doesn't argue that their position as property to be bought and sold is unfortunate. Nevertheless, Ek Chadar Maili Si is a strong film with a good soundtrack and absolutely wonderful performances. I recommend at least renting it, especially if you want to see some of Hema Malini's best acting.

TOTAL SCORE -- 16/20 (great)




** I've seen several translations of this title, and I know "chadar" refers to the marriage ceremony in the film, but this was the simplest translation I could find.