KABHI KABHIE - Love is Life

'Kabhi Kabhie' is a film I was really looking forward to for a couple of reasons – one was its famously beautiful songs. Another was the Rishi Kapoor/Neetu Singh jodi (because I love them both and had heard that this was their best film together). If you had asked me while I was watching the film if it lived up to my high expectations, I'd probably have said 'not really'. Interestingly though, now that I've had a bit of time to mull over the film, I like it more than I did initially.

'Kabhi Kabhie' is a film about secrets and lies. Not the 'harmless' kind; but the powerful kind that can shatter happy homes and destroy blissful marriages. Secret romances, secret children, secret adoptions… those kinds of secrets. Every family has some of those… and as long as they're kept well hidden, life is grand… but the funny thing about secrets is that they have a way of (often many years later), rearing their ugly heads in a way that affects the lives of not only the keepers of the secrets, but also the people they love. The overpowering message of the film is that it takes love – deep love, to overcome the past, to forgive, to accept the loved one 'warts and all', and to destroy the bitterness, anger and confusion that can arise when those family secrets are revealed. (Hence the film's tagline: 'love is life').

I found some elements of the film's plot instantly relatable. Neetu Singh plays Pinky, a carefree, pampered youth who suddenly discovers that the people she calls her parents actually adopted her from a mother who couldn't keep her. Instantly, she no longer feels comfortable with her adoptive parents – irrationally (but then, I guess plenty of genuine emotion is irrational), she feels like a stranger in her own home - even though her parents love her to bits and say mushy OTT things like this to her:


Pinky goes in search of her 'real' mother (and answers to the questions of who she is and why she was unwanted as a child). Waheeda Rehman (in what I found to be a very effective performance) plays Anju, Pinky's conflicted birth mother. Anju is torn between acknowledging Pinky on the one hand, and preserving the fragile new life she has built for herself with an oblivious husband (and their adored, rather stroppy second daughter) on the other. I could instantly relate to the conflicts and confusion felt by these two characters (Pinky and her mother) because their situation echoes recent events in my family...

And then there's the other part of the plot – one which I couldn't relate to and which I thought could've been portrayed better… given a bit more thought, perhaps. At the beginning of the film, Amitabh Bachchan and Rakhee play young lovers (he's a renowned poet named Amit Malhotra, she's a pretty student named Pooja), whose lovely winter romance is rudely and abruptly terminated when Pooja's parents marry her off to Vijay Khanna, played by Shashi Kapoor.

Luckily for Pooja, her husband, a jovial, fun-loving kinda guy, is loving and kind to her; and she apparently comes to love him too (as a duteous fate-accepting wife should(?)). (I suppose a weak-ish case could be made for her being very fond of him, but not wholly loving him until the end of the film when all the secrets are revealed - honestly I dunno). For all her broken-heartedness at the end of her romance with Amit, not much pining is done by Pooja; after their poetry-filled wedding night all is hunky-dory, it seems, and on the honeymoon she is just as ecstatic and affectionate as any madly-in-love bride. Her demeanour does not read resignation and acceptance, but joy and excitement. Was she just overjoyed and overwhelmed at how wonderful her new husband was, how much he cared about her? Did she fall in love with him almost immediately? Not really sure what to make of it – part of me just wonders, was the sex that good? (No judgment of her attitude though, I just wondered about the reason for it).

Our poet Amit, on the other hand, ceases to write poetry, now that his Pooja belongs to another. He goes off to work for his dad and then settles down and has a family of his own, but he seems to have a tougher time moving on with his life than Pooja. His marriage (in the scriptwriter's mind) doesn't seem particularly happy (although, to be fair, we don't see as much of it as we do of Pooja/Vijay's) – his wife (Anju of the adoption storyline) seems a little scared of him, and he seems more passionate about his daughter than he is about his wife. Perhaps it's his naturally sombre and reflective disposition, perhaps it's the fact that his sensitive poet's dil has been broken, or that he's a bit lost without his art and inspiration, or simply that he just hasn't been pragmatic enough to embrace his fate the way Pooja has; or perhaps it's just the fact that he's a man and therefore more 'constant' in his affections (if so, yeeuck!). Whatever it is, he just does not appear as happy in his 'new life' as Pooja is in hers.

This comes across when Pooja asks Amit:

The years keep rolling by… and neither Pooja nor Amit reveal their romance to their spouses. Then Pinky falls for Vicky, Vijay and Pooja's sprightly show-off son (played by Rishi Kapoor – I have to wonder how many 'Vickys' he's played) It's at this point that the secrets all start to unravel.

'Kabhi Kabhie' has a lot going for it. I love the music – especially the title song. The picturisations are memorable – the wedding-night one is lush and romantic, the song in the rain is fun, fresh and charming, as is the one with Rishi, Neetu and Naseem Banu – done with the requisite youthful abandon and (in the latter) a little bit of angst. Speaking of Rishi/Neetu, they really were very sweet together in 'Kabhi Kabhie'. I loved their chemistry and the passionate love/hate thing they had going – they were actually very convincing as young, immature lovers.

There were also a lot of neat little touches in the film that I really enjoyed, like the camp/tacky chair-covers at Amit and Anjali's dining table,

the giant dice in Pinky's room,

and the attention paid to costume throughout the film.

The acting is good, although not excellent – I really like Amit Ji playing restrained, quiet roles ('Zanjeer', 'Sholay', 'Kasme Vaade'), so I enjoyed watching him here even though I didn't warm to his character much. I thought Rakhee was alright, and although Shashi (whom I'm a recent convert of, thanks to 'Deewaar') guffaws way too much and too loudly for any normal/sane human being for most of this film (I kept wondering what kind of mood-enhancers his character was on); I liked the fact that beneath all the excessive cheer, he really brought out the sensitivity and depth of his character. This saved me from wondering if I should go back to my not-really-liking-Shashi days – that and his relaxed and very enjoyable scenes with his real-life nephew, Rishi.

I've already praised Waheeda (very good job), Rishi and Neetu… and Naseem Banu is also memorable as Amit and Anju's bratty daughter, Sweety. And it was interesting to catch Simi Garewal, looking much the same as she does now.

'Kabhi Kabhie' is a flawed film. The last Yash Chopra film I saw before 'Kabhi Kabhie' was the brilliant 'Deewaar', a tough act to follow in every way, so perhaps I was a little harsh on 'Kabhi Kabhie' as a result. I don't think so, though. To my mind, 'Kabhi Kabhie' suffers from defects in the pacing of the scenes and the development of the characters and their relationships. There are too many rough edges, and some 'disjointedness' in the script. And this is a minor quibble, but the shower scenes (one with Rakhee and one with Neetu) felt gratuitous and a little silly. And putting a little chalk (or at least something that looked a lot like chalk!) on the temples of Amitabh, Rakhee and Shashi actually did not make them look older at all – they looked pretty much the same as they did at the start of the film. Not a very good job by the make-up people. The editing could have been much better and I think the whole winter theme was overdone – it was pretty and made for compelling visuals in some parts of the film, but it felt pointless and boring in others.

For all its faults, though, 'Kabhi Kabhie' does have a whole lot of charm and some very interesting themes, and is probably a film I will come to enjoy more and more with time. And I like it when that happens…

'DEEWAAR' (1975)

'Deewaar'… 'Deewaar'… I was really intrigued by a couple of mentions of this film. Sanket mentioned that it was the first and only Bollywood film to show a couple smoking cigarettes in bed after sex. Abhishek Bachchan, on 'Koffee with Karan', was asked to rank five of his father's movies – 'Agneepath', 'Deewaar', 'Sholay', 'Zanjeer', and 'Baghban'. That was exactly how he ranked them – with 'Deewaar' taking a princely second place over 'Sholay' and 'Zanjeer', both of which I have seen and loved. So I knew I had to see 'Deewaar', and now I have.

Every now and then a film comes along that just satisfies you in every way. You aren't left wishing the story had been more ____, or the dialogues had been more ____, or the performances had been more____, or the music had been more____ or whatever…. You are just satisfied in every way, because the movie is just… all that and more. 'Deewaar' is one such movie – and the best thing is that, for all the brilliance of its crafting (Yash Chopra directs brilliantly, Salim-Javed's masterful writing is all things beautiful – sheer perfection in every scene, RD Burman's music is excellent, the action scenes are well-staged, there is some lovely cinematography with some truly iconic images, even the costume design and make-up rocks…), it also has a great deal of heart.

Ravi (played by Shashi Kapoor) and Vijay (played by Amitabh Bachchan) are brothers, but each has a very different outlook on life. Ravi has a wholesome, unassuming, unambitious, and sincere desire to seek fulfilment by walking the straight and narrow. He is non-confrontational, good-natured, almost naïve – very sweet, really. Even when, in the course of his search for employment, he is confronted with inequality and injustice, he does not fully engage with it – he deals with it by manufacturing a string of similes about the world being like a chest of drawers, a cupboard, a third class train. When he has the opportunity to deprive another young man of a job opportunity, his conscience will not allow him to – like every other eager young man he wants to succeed, but he is not desperate enough to hurt someone else in order to succeed... so he steps back.

When Ravi eventually finds himself (and not on purpose, as it is a goal he would never have considered himself worthy of) in the police force and under oath to fight injustice, he is crushed to discover that the injustice is not 'out there', to be expressed in poetic metaphors and looked upon philosophically. Nahin, injustice and inequality is nearer and dearer to him than he could have ever imagined. In boldly and painfully confronting and grappling with this injustice, Ravi loses one of the most important relationships in his life. At great cost, he discovers a steeliness and resolve he never knew he had – and becomes a man.

Vijay, on the other hand, is relentless and unscrupulous in his pursuit of a better life. One extremely cruel childhood encounter has scarred him for life – emotionally, as well as physically. And along with this terrible event, abandoned by their father, Vijay and his brother (with their mother having to play the role of father as well as mother) have had to endure deprivation and degradation. So now the adult Vijay is haunted and hurting – and angry…. He is angry at many people – at his father, at the men who made an offensive inscription on his arm, at society and 'the system' for kicking the three of them when they were down, at God for allowing all this to happen despite his mother's devotion to Him… but most of all Vijay is angry at himself.


He's angry at himself for being a victim, for seeing his mother become a victim, for feeling helpless and unable to make up for all the suffering.

So when he sees the opportunity to do so in adulthood, he accepts the risks involved and grabs at it with both hands… unconcerned about the risk to his life, unconcerned about the censure of society. He has only two overwhelming motivations – first, to make his mother happy by endowing upon her all the comforts she has been denied (and to take care of his brother too); and second, to prove that he is not a helpless victim but a powerful man.


Ravi and Vijay are the sons of a former trade union leader, a man who fearlessly stood up for justice until the price of his uprightness became too great for him to bear. In a way, both Ravi and Vijay are very much their father's sons… fearless, courageous, single-minded and determined (although for Vijay, that courage is almost instinctive, while Ravi has to discover it). Both have also inherited their father's substantial leadership qualities – Vijay's abilities in this regard shine through early in the film while he is working as a dockhand – it gives you a glimpse of how effective he could have been had he chosen to harness that boldness and ability to inspire in a more positive way.

The difference between father and sons, however, is that, unlike their father (and in Vijay's case at least, in a conscious effort not to tread their father's path) both brothers stubbornly refuse to back down from their fight for justice… and each brother's concept of 'justice' is very different. For Ravi, justice is firmly on the side of the good – it's about putting the bad guys behind bars, and without fear or favour. For Vijay, it's about taking what he can as quickly as he can, by any means necessary, from an intrinsically and endemically unjust system; and all in a futile attempt to numb the pain, to destroy the power of the past. It's about taking complete advantage of his luck until it runs out. So Ravi and Vijay, hitherto loving and very close brothers (with Vijay doting on Ravi, and Ravi adoring his bhaiyya), end up firmly on different and opposite sides of the same wall – hence the film's title.

In a way, the wall also represents Maa (played to perfection by Nirupa Roy), who is caught between these brothers. Deeply loved and respected, Maa has sacrificed everything for her sons and loves them both with all her heart… but like all mothers (although they will usually deny this); she has a soft spot in her heart for one of them. In a scenario that reminded me of Radha and Birju in 'Mother India', Maa shares a very deep and special bond with her restless, defiant firstborn son Vijay. Part of the reason for this could be that, as the older son, Vijay has consciously witnessed and shared in more of Maa's suffering, while they have both sought (and fought) to protect Ravi from becoming too keenly aware of the full extent of their lack. (In fact, Vijay took up child labour so that Ravi could get an education). More importantly though, I think part of the reason for this bond is that Maa sees beyond Vijay's tough and abrasive exterior to the wounded, tender, sensitive heart within. In a way, she's the only one who fully 'gets' him.

The only one, that is, until the sassy Anita (played very capably and memorably by Parveen Babi) shows up.

Vijay and Anita discover that they are kindred spirits, and open up to each other like they have to no-one else. I really liked the depiction of this relationship, because, as Carla notes, there was a realness, a lack of bravado… an almost painful honesty to the equation between Anita and Vijay.

As the story progresses, the wall between the brothers becomes an increasing source of frustration, conflict, even alienation. Maa is in a heartbreaking position. Like Radha in 'Mother India', she ultimately must deny Vijay and hurt him, in order to be true to herself (and to Ravi). It hurts to see Vijay become the cornered, wounded animal, and to see his own brother have to play the role of hunter…

…but the wonderful thing about it is that it all makes perfect sense. In the end, Ravi once again receives a boost from his bhaiyya as he moves up in the world, but not in a way anyone could have expected or hoped for.

The inexorable denouement is perfectly symmetrical with the rest of the story, flowing directly from it – and the filmmakers, as Sanket notes, never allow you to look away from it, there are no cop-outs. Commendably, they commit to showing us what the characters really go through, their dilemma, their pain, warts and all. (Not really what I would associate with Yash Chopra – this is not a pretty, shiny, sentimental film; although it definitely is elegant, stylish and beautifully shot, which I would associate with Yash Chopra). I certainly did not expect to see realistic, frank scenes like these in a Yash-ji film:

The overall effect of the film is raw, gritty and hard-hitting, slamming the viewer with an almost brutal impact, and providing lots of food for thought. Even the sunny, light-hearted parts all lead somewhere – towards the inescapable conclusion of this very human, very real tale. For example, I love these adorable, light-hearted and carefree scenes between Ravi and his girlfriend Vira (played by the ultra-cute Neetu Singh, I love how Ravi told Maa she was his 'class fellow' – simply adorable - and just look at each of their expressions and how they tell a complete story)…

Random thought: I love how Ravi and Vira's names mirror each other…

But these sweet moments aren't diversions, they are the last calm and innocent moments just before Ravi's peaceful world is turned upside down…

I love how 'Deewaar' made me think about so many fascinating issues – the complexities of mother/son relationships, the relational dynamic between siblings, the way that choices made in each echelon of society eventually trickle down (or surge up) to affect other strata… 'Deewaar' is just a really good film, everything about it just works.

But now to erm... other matters… how hot is Mr. Bachchan in this film? He totally sizzles. This is definitely one of the best Amitabh Bachchan performances I've seen so far, it's intense, raw, compelling, and has tremendous depth; so I'll get that said right now and get back to how hot he was in this film. That thick, long-ish hair, those tortured eyes, those full lips, those lanky limbs… all variously accessorised with cigarettes/bidis, fab sunglasses, nice suits… even a rope. All hella hot.

Erm... no comment on this one

The only accessory that didn't quite work (for angry-and-hot-young-man purposes) was the badge… that was kinda corny…

One big discovery for me with 'Deewaar' is that I have been watching the wrong Shashi Kapoor films. Honestly, I have never 'gotten' the whole Shashi thing… I've never really understood why people think he's so handsome/beautiful, so cool, such a great actor… I mean, until 'Deewaar' I was ready to admit that there's a pretty-ish face there (and some lovely, long-lashed brown eyes – always gotta love that); but looks-wise or acting-wise (aside from his beautiful face and performance as a child in 'Awaara'), I had not seen anything to make me really love Shashi…

I had seen him opposite the Big B in 'Do Aur Do Paanch', but I thought Amit-Ji totally outdid him in that film. I thought Shashi's character came across as a bit of a loser and a wuss, and I really didn’t like his miserable 'do not sleep, little children' song in the film. My sister who watched 'Do Aur Do Paanch' felt the same – since then she's refused to watch anything else with Shashi in it. I also caught Shashi in Raj Kapoor's 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram', in which he plays an engineer who is obsessed with beauty and mistreats his wife as a result… in this film Shashi was playing a silly jerk, so it was really no wonder that I didn’t think he was all that. I actually really liked Shashi's performance (again, opposite Big B) in 'Trishul', but he didn’t really 'stay with me' after the film.

But 'Deewaar'… now this is a little something to make me like Shashi a little (ok, so I didn't just like him a little in 'Deewaar', I absolutely loved him, but it's slightly galling to have to admit it now...), and it definitely makes me want some more Shashi. His performance is simply wonderful, his character is nuanced and beautifully drawn, you can really trace his arc and journey in the movie… and he ain't looking half bad doing it either…