This movie although good in parts is a classic example of the exploitation of the female body to put across a message that really has nothing to with eroticism.
Zeenat Aman is clad in incredibly little clothes that leave little to the imagination. Considering that this movie came out in the late 70s, this itself is a major milestone! In scene after scene, under waterfalls, on village roads, along dusty village paths and also in full public view, she wears blouses that reveal more than they cover and micro mini lehengas that would leave any male onlooker gawking in wonder and agape! I wonder the name of the Indian village where women dress in this manner.....
Anyways, onto the movie. Zeenat Aman is Rupa, the only daughter of a musician who lives in abject poverty. Since her mother dies in childbirth, she is considered inauspicious by most of the people in the village and the father himself shows no great affection to the girl when she is little ( played by a young Padmini Kolhapure ). In an unfortunate accident while cooking puris on her ’’Janamdin’’, hot oil splashes onto a side of her face and leaves it badly burnt and scarred. Needless to say that this makes an already depressing situation worse. One just groans at the thought of such calamities being visited upon a family living in such penury.
Rupa grows into a young woman and from then on, it is Zeenat Aman’s skin show. She remains unmarried because of her scarred face but just to balance things a little bit, has the gift of a beautiful voice that mesmerizes Shashi Kapoor as Rajiv, an engineer at the nearby dam construction site. Rajiv falls in love with the voice and eventually that body. Strangely though, he is not squeamish about her perpetual covering of one side of her face. ( Is that why she has exposed so much of her body ? ) Rajiv and Rupa’s tryst end in him professing his love to her and they even share a passionate lip-to-lip kiss without him even noticing that this is a scarred girl. Rajiv asks Rupa’s father for her hand in marriage and the much suffering father readily obliges assuming that he already is aware about Rupa’s condition.
The wedding night turns out to be a shock for Rajiv and he disowns Rupa saying that she is an impostor and not the girl he fell in love with. What happens next ? Just watch the movie....
The movie has been made well. but the one thing that is hard to believe is the fact that the young village girls are in such little clothing while the others around them are perfectly dressed in normal village attire. What was Raj Kapoor thinking ? It would have probably been ok to show the heroine in this minimum dress when she is alone with the hero or in dream sequences, but dressed like this in public infront of fathers, uncles and rustic villagers ? Tsk, Tsk...
I would suggest this movie to be watched by young couples; you will appreciate the eroticism and thought behind it. I am sure a lot of guys would want to see it for Zeenat Aman. The woman cannot act, but I must say that this is one of her better performances