User reviews

It is a musical,set in the background of Chitradurga in Ksarnataka, during Tippu Sultan's time. The film an adaptation of Kannada Novel Hamsageethe, written by one of the top Kannada writers ThaRaSu. Too many deviations and the film fails to reproduce the real flavor of the novel. The film is marked by excellent music and good acting by key actors. Some of the songs sung by Mannadea nd Lata Mangeshkar are unforgettable. The famous classical singer Pandit Bhimsen Joshi has rendered a key song, in an excellent manner. Musical score by Sankar and Jaikishan is excellent. Bharat Bhushan as Gopal and and Nimmi as Gopi are excellent. Shyam Kumar shines in a brief role as Tippu Sultan

Basant Bahar (1956) : Brief Review -

A fine musical love story which leaves you with the only regret that a potential classic is spoiled by overuse of sacrificial torment. Basan Bahar is set in ancient era of Tipu Sultan and so expectedly it uses the theories of that time and classical music tones of that era. Gopal, an emerging legendary singer falls in love with a courtesan Gopi and the result of this affection changes their lives upside down. Basant Bahar has too many conflicts for one film, i mean such that can easily make 2-3 films out of it. This overuse of situational conflicts spoils the Middle portion of the film and after that it tries to save its neck and it survives too, but is just that those conflicts in the middle portion don't make much sense. Couple of big ones are completely unacceptable such as Gopal not showing up at important night when Gopi was waiting for him and he just madly follows a roadside singer indicating that he chose Music over her. The second one followed by that is, when he comes back he chooses her by giving up music which is completely opposite to why he didn't meet her that night. Afterwards, film recovers very nicely and makes some solid situational drama to end the film on good note. The only problem is it's just too much drama for one film. Love, tragedy, sacrifice, family drama, music, passion, torment and little bit of politics at end and what not, it just seems like overflowing tub. Bharat Bhushan and Nimmi look great in their roles and the supporting cast is fine too. Music is just terrific and it's the best part of of the film as well. Writing could have been easier while adapting the original novel of TaRaSu but it doesn't try anything of that sort. Nawathe's Direction is top class, he presents every scene properly, handles a long story very well but lacks the genius techniques to have those flaws been removed. Nevertheless, it's a very good one.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.