Sooryavansham

Sooryavansham review :

A Padmalaya production featuring Amitabh Bachchan in a father- son role; Sooryavansham came in summer of 1999 just a couple of months after Big B's Lal Badshah which managed to make money in the Northen interiors despite the heavy criticism. Sooryavansham wasn't that lucky and it tanked at the box office in no time!!

Surprisingly, the film became a rage when it premiered on Sony Max and must have been screened atleast thousand times on this channel. Today, it has become a cult classic with memes popping up on the poisoned kheer and what not!!

Amitabh Bachchan was terrific in the older avatar of Thakur but seemed out of place as his youngster son. Maybe, a younger star like Ajay Devgn or Akshay Kumar would've worked here but then jaane bhi do yaaro!!

Curiously, Rekha dubbed for the lead heroine Soundarya as well as Jayasudha who played the mother. Her familiar husky voice elevated both the ladies performance to a significant extent. Anupam Kher and Kader Khan provided the comic quotient efficiently. Current heartthrob Ishan Khattar's parents Rajesh and Neelima appear in small roles.

Sooryavansham is also memorable for Bachchan crooning his own number "Chori se chori se"... it was his lean phase when he was trying to gain his ground in his much touted second innings. But as they say, legends never go. They just adapt to the time. That's exactly what Bachchan did after facing failure since his ill fated Mrityudaata (1997). He re-invented himself with Kaun Banega Crorepati and Mohabattein in 2000 and hasn't looked back since!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

This has to be the best Amitabh Bachchan film since his comeback. Amitabh's acting is superb in this film. The songs are not that great with exception to one (Koray Koray Sapne). These are the kind of films Amitabh should be choosing, the kind where his characters grow. If you have a chance to watch this movie, do it, because it is a great movie, with great dialogue. I give it an 8 out of 10.

This movie teaches us many things. I can't explain all of it , here. Watch the movie , you'll understand yourself. A must watch.

Though a flawed film. This movie is the best Bachchan film in years, with the Big B giving a restrained performance. The comedy sequences are out of place, with little relevance to the plot. It's a shame that this movie flopped. Die hard Big B fans will enjoy this film

Amitabh is the main reason I am giving this movie a 7. He is quite convincing in the roles of both father and son. Some of the plot lines, though, are not as convincing, especially towards the end. I concur completely with another reviewer who felt that the comedy attempts were unnecessary and want to add that the comedic music cues were grating and distracting. I came very close to fast forwarding during these sequences. The subtitles were also very hard to follow, primarily because they were so small and because of their fancy font.

The acting was good throughout, especially by Amitabh and all the female characters. The music was OK and some of the songs were quite memorable. I still cannot understand, though, why so many Bollywood films do not have subtitles for the songs. The film quality is not what one would expect from some of the more recent Bollywood films, blurry and choppy at times -- at least on my DVD.

Technically, the DVD had other problems -- while the various features went from top to bottom, one had to press the right key to go from top to bottom. Also, two thirds of the way through, the subtitles stopped and I had to return to the chapter and start the subtitles again.