Silsila

After the death of his elder brother, Amit finds out that his late brother's fiancée, Shobha, is pregnant. Taking pity on the devastated young woman, he decides to marry her, leaving behind the love of his life, Chandni. Chandni later marries a famous doctor. An accident during which Shobha loses her child and is taken care of by Chandni's husband, causes Amit and Chandni to meet again. There begins a new extramarital relationship between the two, through which the story deepens and grows.

This is Silsila, Yash Chopra's take on relationships and adultery in a modern 80s India. A romantic drama, it is quiet, serious and focused, and is shot beautifully like every other movie made by Chopra. What I particularly appreciated about this film was the matter-of-factness with which it was made and executed. There was not any overdone melodrama, no unnecessary subplots, and the writing did not go overboard. The story is simple to follow, the script and the characters are very well written, and the film is generally subtly made.

Chopra's portrayal of relationships is very well done. The dialogues are excellent. At times some proceedings were difficult to relate to or identify with, but who knows, maybe one should really be in a particular situation to understand its meaning and its effect on people at times of pressure. This is the reason I believed the story. Leaving the seriousness aside, as a film, Silsila is simply entertaining. It flows well, it is interesting, and is aided by several melodious and memorable songs composed by Shiv-Hari.

Rumour had it that Silsila was based on the true triangular story of Amitabh-Jaya-Rekha. Jaya Bhaduri is Bachchan's real-life wife and Rekha was rumoured to have been involved with him back then in an extramarital affair. This adds to the film's authenticity, but more than anything, the acting is natural to make it work the way it did. Bachchan is as great as always. Jaya Bhaduri is brilliant as his intelligent, sensible and smart wife Shobha, and displays her character's fear, strength and determination with great depth and conviction and as naturally as ever. Rekha gets less scope, yet she is wonderful in her restrained portrayal of Chandni. She is extremely beautiful and acts with grace.

Silsila has some other limited appearances by Shashi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, the former being fine and the latter being exceptional. The main complaint with the film was its ending, but I quite liked it. The viewers must have been torn between two probable versions. The reason behind Amit's decision was a bit unjustifiable, but anyway, this is one of the better and more interesting works of Yash Chopra. It is well written, directed and acted. I recommend.

People call Lamhe Yash Chopra's biggest risk but in my opinion Silsila was his biggest risk. That is because with Silsila he tried to make us feel sorry for adulterers Amitabh and Rekha. He succeeds in achieving that, we as the audience are made to feel that they are not bad people and it is more of a case of unfortunate circumstances. That is one problem I had with KANK, they way it was written I failed to garner any sympathy for Shah Rukh and Rani and that is a major flaw.Amitabh and Rekha are lovers but Amitabh marries his deceased brother's wife who is carrying his child leaving lover Rekha heartbroken. They actually try to forget about each other but fate has other plans for them and they are soon reunited.

The music, as per usual in a Yash Chopra production is exceptional and perhaps the music he has had in any of his movies. My favourites are either Dekha ek khwab or the holi classic Rang Barse. Speaking of Rang Barse I love the acting of Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bachan in that song. When the song starts they are happy with Amitabh's and Rekha dancing together but towards the end they start to get insecure, such great acting. Now onto the acting, Amitabh,Jaya Bachan,Rekha and even Sanjeev Kumar were all exceptional.

When released it flopped but made its money back through reruns. Apparently people were unhappy about the fact that after Amitabh spends all the movie thinking about Rekha when they do run away together he ends up going back to his wife. That in my opinion was Yash Chopra's only fault and yet I still enjoy throughly despite the ending. After this movie was released rumours started to circulate that Amitbah and Rekha did have an affair during the filming of Silsila. I can't say whether it's true or not, its just some interesting trivia. In my opinion Silsila is the best Bollywood movie based on adultery and is miles better than Karan Johar's KANK.

This film is amazing in so many ways. Acting, chemistry of Rekha and Amitabh, songs and the beautiful scenery. I discovered this film from the song Dekha Ek Khwab, which was also originally mentioned in the Netflix documentary The Romantics. I wonder why the film didn't do well in the box office. The only thing I'm doing to say is that the ending could have been better. Shobhas character is shown to be dependent on Shekhar and marries her younger brother as she is becoming a mother. I feel like this part makes no sense because you should be able to show a woman that she can be independent. And the ending could have been better. Instead of showing Amits character going back to Shobha because she is expecting again, they should have shown that they parted ways and that Amit goes back to Chandni.

I've been dreaming of watching Silsila since 1981 and recently it has come true. I read an annotation in CineBlitz and Yash Chopra's interview in one of the Russian newspapers and thus expected to see something outstanding. Unfortunately I was disappointed at the plot. Shobha turned out to be a 100% selfish person. Amit was striving for his happiness and love but did not have enough strength and courage to win. Chandni was tearing apart yet she made her choice however Amit betrayed her again... Yash Chopra challenged moral principles speaking about adultery but even here those principles (or maybe stereotypes??) were not broken. How happy Amit and Chandni were when dancing at the festival! Do they not deserve to be together? I think they do. And remember the last words of Amit that he has burned his love and that Shobha is his wife and he is her husband. Looks like there is no parallel between love and marriage. And that is sad. However I got a pleasure from watching the movie. Nice actors and tears-provoking acting but not good to watch second time due to the above said.

Silsila is based on the true story of Amitabh, Jaya, and Rekha. As with many great movies that don't follow the typical Bollywood format this was a big flop when it was released, and yet there is no one today who hasn't seen it. Like most Yash Chopra films this one looks great and so are the songs, especially the first two: "sar se sareke" and "ladki hai yaa sholaa" (I probably didn't spell that right). Unlike most of Amitabh's films this is more of an ensemble piece and the whole cast delivers. Amitabh gives a powerhouse performance as the poet whose life is suddenly shattered and he's forced to give up his happiness for Jaya. Jaya is also perfect and matches him all the way. Sanjeev Kumar steals every scene he's in especially the one at the airport with Rekha and the one when he's talking to Jaya at the hospital. Rekha is good although her performance is the weakest of the four. Shashi Kapoor does what he can in his small role. The subject matter was handled nicely by the writers (they never get too preachy) and there are many scenes, especially the ones between Amit and Jaya, and Rekha and Jaya where you wonder how that scene took place in real life. They also succeed with making you sympathize with all 4 individuals - (that might be why they were all willing to make the movie). I give this movie a 9 out of 10. The only thing that stops me from giving it a 10 is the ending. We aren't given a reason as to why Amitabh makes the decision that he makes. Also the big revelation from Jaya at the end of the movie doesn't really make sense. Apart from that the movie is flawless and a must see.