a garden of dreams nurtured by a Gardener
A must see movie for todays generation and parents. The plot is good , the movie is well made, the cast gives good performances.
Amitabh steals the show with his over-flowing affection for his children and his display of emotions mixed with sadness. Words flow like a tear jerking poetry when he gives his final speech and whatever he says makes a lot of sense.
STORY
Not a very novel plot. A lift from oldies like Jaisi Karni Waisi Bharni, Ghar ek mandir and to some extent Sansar and the recent Om Jay Jagdish.
Its about an old couple (old ??? wait I am coming to that) who have sons, daughters in laws, grandchildren and have a happy family.
When the father retires he wants the children to take care of him , but the children have other plans.
How the parents suffer and later realize the ulterior motives of their children and how they teach them a subtle lesson forms the crux of the movie.
Now welcome to Lava’s dissection corner
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1. To begin with, the parents looked way too young to have a teenage granddaughter. If they wanted to retain Hema’s youth and freshness through out the film then , they could have stopped with just an eight year old grandson.
What was the need to have a glowing, designer saree clad Hema and a hep, youthful Suman Ranganathan (sheessh what has she reduced to ) to play granny and mom to a teenage girl respectively ?
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2. However good the children maybe, I fail to understand, which sensible parents today, give away all the money to their kids and not retain anything for their old age ?
Amitabh , despite being a successful bank employee, does not have any retirement plans or even a small house in his name , when he retires.
I think, although children, are expected to take care of parents the latter still have some assets for themelves for their ripe old age.
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3.Hema looked very pretty, romantic and well dressed all through. Sadly her bonding with her sons was sorely lacking. She seemed more a romantic wife who loves to dressup to please her husband than a mother who has taken great pains to bringup her sons.
The mother in her was not at all visible, unlike Jaya Bachan in K3G (not that she was not irritating) and Waheeda (in om jay jagdish).
I am also sure that if the wife role had been taken by Reema Lagoo, Himani Shivpuri or Farida Jalal, then more stress would have been shown to the actual family bonding then the husband and wife romance. I felt that the script was a little customized to Hema’s existence in the film.
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4. Amitabh doesnt have money , lives with his son, yet has the money to waste on a phone call where he sings to his wife ?
Is this how couples in their late 60s behave ?
Has anyone seen Mahaan ? Same thing happens in this movie. An aged Amitabh makes in international phone call to his wife Waheeda and sings a 10 minute sad song while she clings to the phone to listen to his song rather than ask him to speak something sensible.
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5.The behaviour of the son and the daughter-in-law was unpardonable. It was defly rude and sad. But to be frank, todays working couples with children have a very busy life style.
But I think, its alright for the father in law or the mother in law to help in the kitchen, or buy groceries or help in clearing dishes, rather than just wait for lunch or dinner to be cooked and served by the daughter in law.
Amitabh is shown at times to expect a little too much from the couple. Their treatment was no doubt bad, but to some extent, this was the best they could have done for him.
He could have inturn helped his daughter -in-law in some kitchen chores, taken care of other household stuff like paying bills, helping the kid with his homework and most importantly avoid typing on his type writer in the middle of the night.
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6.Salmaan as goody two shoes has acted well , but I couldnt bear the sight of a modern Mahima later putting pallu on her head sitting with Salmaan in a Mandir worshipping hema-amitabh as gods. It was really going overboard and dramatic.
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7. Paresh Rawal and Lillette Dubey were refreshing and did a good job as Amitabh’s friends.
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To summarize
Baghban sure tackles the subject of ’’who will take care of aged parents’’ well. In todays rat race where more and more people are maintaining nuclear families (some settle abroad) without taking care of their parents and also where more and more women are becoming liberated and career conscious, and not willing to waste time serving their inlaws or parents, it is really time to situp and set the priorities in life.
Do we really want the the extra money we make and our privacy ???
OR
spend quality time spent with parents - who made us what we are today , and do our bit when its our turn.
In short Baghban is touching , well crafted and has a good message.