Banaras

This movie really captures the city of Banaras and all the spirituality associated with it. The songs are also so uplifting and upbeat. My Kathak dance class is even doing a dance to one of the songs, Om Namah Shivaya. Of all songs, it is the most spiritual, which is why my teacher chose it. But back to the actual movie. The movie as a whole is so enlightening and floods the viewer with positive energy through its religious significance. Also, the movie was very well directed, with its setting, acting, and song choice. It has the power to suck you in whether or not you are the religious, spiritual type. I may be a little biased toward the movie moreso than not having parents from Banaras. However, it is still one of the best Hindi films.

Ek Dhun Banaras Kee.

I've been looking forward to see this movie. This movie is not just about a man meets a woman en they fall in love. No, Soham (Ashmit Patel) falls in love with Shwetambari (Urmila Matondkar). Sweta is from a higher class in society and Soham is an orphan from the lowest class. The outcome of this relationship is predictable. The outcome is predictable. Sweta's brother finds out Soham's background and tells this to her father (Raj Babbar). He gets angry and doesn't want Sweta to meet Soham anymore. She gets angry to and explains why she loves Soham. Soham is a student of Babba (Naseeruddin Shah) and she believes Soham is more than a man. Then the parents of Sweta agree with a engagement and a wedding. But then the night before the wedding Soham gets a weird feeling. He gets killed that night.

Police tries to find out who the killer is, and tries to get in touch with Babba via Sweta. But Babba seems not to be someone Sweta thinks he is! The way to find the killer seems almost impossible. This movie is almost refreshing. There was a similar line you could pull with the movie Mohabbatein in the relationship between Sharukh and Aishwaria. The songs were beautiful. Ashmit is a very bad actor, so is Urmila. When she dances she makes movements with her head and her mouth I have seen in a lot of her movies before. Only the words 'what the hell is she doing?' come into my mind. Naseeruddin had a very small role to make things up with the other bad performances.

In the beginning you can see Raj Babbar on his death bed. This gives a lot away from the story. That is a pity. Even though it was worth watching.

Virin G.

Does this movie have some typical bollywood masala scenes? Sure it does. Could certain dialogues of Baba-ji have been better phrased? Possibly. Ashmit Patel's acting is perhaps just OK.

Yet, here is a movie that touches us spiritually and makes us think about human behavior and how we can evolve spiritually. It gives us examples of narrow mindedness and repentance. It reminds us how we like to think we are so rational and yet, true peace of mind can not be obtained merely through intellectual gymnastics.

Urmila's acting is great in my opinion. Raj Babbar and Dimple Kapadia play their roles well too. The movie has got some nice, melodious songs. There are some nice views of Banaras.

The movie is only around 2 hours. How often does one see that in Hindi movies? Highly worth watching.

Excellent movie. Immensely thought provoking and "hat ke type" story. Music, direction and photography are superb and acting of lead star cast is stunning. Specially Urmila did wonderful job, she got the suitable role and did it well. Ashmit impressed me. Dimple, Raj Babbar and Nasseruddin had done hundreds of such role so played their part with ease and positive impact. Super natural subject line is always hard to present but direction and script really are praise worthy. Music is very touchy and blended nicely with scenes and situations. Movie is very lucid, though slow, unlike todays funky movies. Story is gripping and dialogues related to spirituality are admirable.

At the time of watching this, I wasn't bothering with many films at all. The reason being, it seemed most films were dramatic for the sake of drama, and in the process, they sacrifice the purity of the message. That didn't happen here. The film has a subheading of 'A Mystical Love Story'.. And thats exactly what you get. When I weigh everything up, other comments posted here, my own experience, then I come to this conclusion: I'd say This film achieves what it set out to achieve & The story doesn't falter in its culmination. I felt quite satisfied at the end, and not just tantalized by some over-dramatic cheap thrill with no lasting message.