We see several stories containing love-triangles on screen(and read in books too). However it’s a rarity that a real life love-triangle is depicted in a feature film. It happened in Bollywood in 1981 when Yash Chopra who was considered as highly skilled in presenting romantic dramas on screen, came up with Silsila starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri(Bachchan) and Rekha in principal roles. It was perceived by all and sundry as the portrayal of a real life love triangle because Amitabh and Jaya were husband-wife whereas Amitabh and Rekha who were a highly popular screen couple those days, were said to be in love.
This particular characteristic of the movie made it the talk of the town before its release and a lot of hype was generated around it. It was(and still is) a matter of surprise as to how Yash Chopra made Jaya and Rekha to do a movie together(that too with such a story) especially when Jaya had already sought retirement from movies and was busy in her family life. But fact is fact. Yash Chopra indeed cast Jaya and Rekha in the film performing the roles they were performing in real life - Jaya as Amitabh’s wife and Rekha as Amitabh’s sweetheart(perhaps). But despite all the hype, the movie flopped on the box office. Morever, it was severely criticized by the movie critics.
The story of Silsila(sequence) is that Amit(Amitabh Bachchan) and Chandni(Rekha) are in love but due to the sudden demise of his elder brother Shekhar(Shashi Kapoor), Amit has to marry Shobha(Jaya Bachchan). Chandni marries Dr. V.K. Anand(Sanjeev Kumar). However sometime after that, Amit and Chandni happen to meet again and the flame of their old love reignites in their hearts. They decide to leave their spouses and start life afresh with each other but the society forbids them to do so. In the end, Amit saves the life of Dr. Anand from a plane accident and thereafter himself and Chandni return to their respective homes and their respective spouses.
The portrayal of this story on screen renders an impression that director Yash Chopra himself got confused as to how to take this story to a logical(and acceptable) conclusion. The plane crash incident in the ending reels appears to be an evidence of his confusion because it’s superfluous for the main story. Extra-marital affair and leaving own spouse for the sake of someone else outside the wedlock is not acceptable even today, what to say about that period. Perhaps Yash Chopra wanted to make a bold movie but could not muster courage to do so and developed cold feet to finally portray only what was acceptable in the Indian(or any other) society. In my view, he could not understand as to how to justify a love affair outside the wedlock. One year prior to Silsila, director Vinod Pande had come up with the bold story of wife’s leaving her husband in Ek Baar Phir. However the story of Ek Baar Phir was different and the husband’s character was that of a bad person in that.
The critics rightly criticized Silsila because despite the beauty of the movie, the good performances of all the principal actors and the highly admirable musical score; it could not appear on screen as a well-made movie. The narrative moves in a lacklustre way and the movie fails to impress at most of the places. It’s a faulty movie which adopts a bold story but does not treat it in a proper manner. The scenic beauty of Kashmir is eye-soothing, no doubt. The music composed by famous Santoor player Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and famous flutist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasiya(jointly called as Shiv-Hari) is extra-ordinary. All the principal actors have done justice to the assigned roles. Despite all these pluses, the whole is not better than the sum of the parts. And that must have been the reason for its commercial falure because the public had gone to watch the movie with high expectations which the movie failed to fulfill.
Silsila is considered a classic now. It’s a beautiful movie for sure. Perhaps with the transformation of the(Indian) society, people’s opinion changed about its story and message. However any extra-marital affair is not desirable in general especially when the spouse of the concerned person doesn’t have any glaring flaw in his / her personality and behaviour. In normal circumstances, it’s very difficult to justify an extra-marital affair even when it is with an old flame. And that’s the problem with this movie.
Yash Chopra could never come out of the shock of commercial and critical failure of Silsila. Perhaps it was a movie very close to his heart. And that’s why when he made another romantic movie(a love-triangle only) after a few years, he kept the name of the principal female character as Chandni only(which is the name of Rekha’s character in Silsila. Contrary to the box office outcome of Silsila, this movie - Chandni(1989) proved to be a huge commercial success.
Jaya Bachchan had already sought retirement from movies. After Silsila, she again made herself busy in her domestic life. However this reel life love triangle put a full stop to the(supposed) real life love triangle because Amitabh and Rekha(whose pair was extremely popular in the audience) did not do any film together after Silsila. Otherwise also, Amitabh maintained(and is still maintaining) a distance from Rekha thereafer. It also proved to be the last movie done together by Jaya and Sanjeev Kumar.
My final words - now considered a classic, Silsila can be seen because it’s a beautiful romantic musical. However it’s to be understood that old flames should not be allowed to reignite once the male becomes the husband of someone else and the female becomes the wife of someone else. Memories have their own place in a person’s life but they shouldn’t be allowed to overpower the realities of practical life.
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