We all know how parents unconditionally love their children no matter what. Mother carries child for 9 months and goes through labor pain, sleeps in wet floor while keeping child in dry floor, father works hard to run home, save money while avoiding their pleasure, pay for child’s higher studies, and make sure child grow up properly. After some time child grow up, study hard, find better job, marry beautiful wife, and suddenly decide to live independently away from old parents while looking for more space. Child thinks he became powerful because of his hard work and dedication and there is nothing you parents did. Is this familiar to any of us? Isn’t it our story? Is this acceptable when we get old and our children do it to us? Please pause and think over my questions for a minute prior to read on.
They say the gardener watches over his plants grow, hoping that some day he would be able to bask in its shade. Likewise, the parents watches over their children grow, hoping that some day they would be able to lean on them for support. Avtaar is director Mohan Kumar’s tribute to all parents on this earth be it human, animal, or evil and tackles sensible issues of parents-children relationship.
Story
Avtaar Kishen (Rajesh Khanna) and Radha (Shabana Azmi) have a close-knit family of two sons, Ramesh (Shashi Puri), Chander (Gulshan Grover), and an adopted son, Sewak (Sachin). Avtaar toils day in and out as a mechanic in a workshop and takes good care of the family. He meets with an accident and becomes paralyzed. As he was trying to regroup, he thinks his real wealth is his sons and spent his retirement compensation on sons.
After marriage, his sons turn against him. The elder son, Ramesh marries to beautiful girl Shobha and gets a job but doesn’t take care of the family. The younger son, Chander marries a rich girl Renu against the wishes of his father and stays with her in her house. Finally a day comes when the old couple is forced to leave the house. Sewak continues to stay with them and helps Avtaar open a business. They achieve success in their venture. When the sons realize their folly, they first try to convince Avtaar and since he doesn’t budge, they try to convince Radha to accept them. Will Radha’s love for children and Avtaar’s love for Radha, make Avtaar to take them back into his fold?
Note: If you think this story seems similar to Baghban then you are right. Baghban was loosely based on Avtaar.
Analysis
Even though Avtaar has old-fashioned often-repeated story, it has most approachable, identifiable story. It has everything what family audience wants to see - touching and moving melodrama. As long as I have remembered, there are only two movies I have chocked myself after watching emotional scenes and even continue chocking at each repeated viewing. One is Hum Saath Saath Hai and other one is Avtaar. Even though both movies are contradicting each other, both are successful making me to hate troublesome characters that are trying to destroy family.
Avtaar is Bhagavad Gita for traditional Indian families and reminding you basics to live in joint family. At age 10-12, there was lot I learned from Avtaar. First one is parents and children relationship and their responsibility to each other. If parent taking care of their children when they are growing up, children should take care of their parents after they grew up. Second one is Mother’s unconditionally love for their child. Don’t matter how bad children are and how much they hurt their parents, mother will always love them because she deals with her heart instead of mind. As a child, if you ever have problems with mother, you should not think twice to rejoin, she would always accept you. Third one is child should not hurt father’s self-esteem. In most cases, father and mother are alike while dealing with emotions, but you have to remember he deals with his mind instead of heart. As a child, if you hurt father’s emotions then you have great chance to rejoin but if you hurt father’s egocentric and social self-esteem it’s tough to change their mind. Fourth one is parent should save their money for later years of his life. As a parent, you never know what makes your child’s mind change and leave you in oblivion. You should not invite any situations where you have to rebuild your life at retirement age.
Avtaar is realistically treated short melodramatic TV family soap opera. From the very first scene, it pulls you into small family of Avtaar Kishen and doesn’t let you go for days. It is rich in terms of emotional scenes and many of them will linger in your memory for years - Pregnant Radha walking on Vaishnavdevi asking for son, Avtaar looses his hand while working at car garage, Avtaar and Radha’s insult at different times by their children, Avtaar’s interaction with pan-wala at different times, Sevak earns money by donating blood repeatedly, Avtaar knowing reality of how Sevak earned money to buy tools, Avtaar asking for money after he repair his son’s car, and many more.
As movie’s name implies, the heart and soul of Avtaar is Rajesh Khanna. His brilliant command over portrayal of the title role is earth-shacking. He delivers a scintillating performance as the family patriarch and the doting father who has been the backbone of the family that falls apart after his retirement. He is well supported by Shabana Azmi and Sachin. The onscreen chemistry between Khanna and Shabana is highlight of this movie. The way they interact, love, and respect each other, it’s easy to identify and feel their pain. Sachin was outstanding as adopted son plus house servant especially in later half when Khanna needed him most. All supporting cast as kids are well acted to make sure you hate them while they were ignoring and insulting their parents. Look out for another message driven parallel story of A.K.Hangal as Khanna’s friend having same problems.
Critics of Avtaar might say it is one-sided view. It doesn’t even try to defend children’s point of view. In reality, parents might be at fault having generation gap and being too conservative or traditional. I agree but Avtaar is not about child’s point of view. It has single vision and it’s all about only one issue – love, respect, and takes care of parents. There are other movies, which take children’s sides like Hum Saath Saath Hai. Our jobs as a viewer (either parent or child) is make sure we get something from both movies and live in harmony.
I have heard people who watched this movie complained that Khanna’s character was too stubborn. I personally believe it was right way to present his character. Father who worked hard to realize family dreams, spent his retirement money on his sons, set realistic expectations from his sons, in reply son hurts his self-esteem are bound to stubborn. I loved his character and if this will ever happen in my family, I would have been same.
Movies like Avtaar are prime example where movies can work without music. All songs are with the mixed feelings. None of these songs are evergreen hits. There are only three songs stand out in the whole sound track - religious number - Chalo Bulawa Aaya, love number - Har Din Maheene Saal, and party number - Zindagi Mauj Udane.
Conclusion
Avtaar asks us an often-intriguing question and answers itself: ’’Can we depend on our family?” Avtaar is a emotional family drama that takes a look at the lives of parents who are left in lurch in their old age to fend for themselves by their children. It is a must-see for the current generation where family values are more than ever precious. No wonder its timeless classic.