Not such an immaculate conception….

I saw the movie in the early 80s with Aruna when we were dating. I loved the movie. Shekhar Kapur directed it with sensitivity. Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi were at the time only committed to acting. Naseer had struck a purple patch at the time. Unfortunately I discovered it was virtually a frame by frame, line by line copy of Erich Segal’s “Man, Woman and Child” which I saw a year or two after the Hindi copy. That took the gloss away somewhat. Martin Sheen was brilliant in the original, I loved this role more than his epic performance in the Viet Nam war movie, Apocalypse Now. In keeping with the grand old Bollywood tradition of shamelessly copying without crediting the source even in the passing, forget about actually giving credit, Masoom actually picked up the Filmfares for Best Music Director ( RD Burman) Best Actor ( Naseeruddin) and Critic’s Award for Best Film (Shekhar Kapur). I am sure both the director and actor were aware of the original but sadly didn’t show the integrity to acknowledge the “inspiration”

The music by Rahuldev Burman is superb and original. I loved all the songs. I think this one stands apart. https://youtu.be/qfrdkbQHw48

The soulful vocals are by Aartee Mukherjee and the delicious, well crafted verse is by the one and only Gulzar. I loved the dard in her singing.

दो नैना और एक कहानी
थोड़ा-सा बादल, थोड़ा-सा पानी
और एक कहानी

छोटी सी दो, झीलों में वो, बहती रहती है
कोई सुने या ना सुने, कहती रहती है
कुछ लिख के और कुछ ज़ुबानी
थोड़ा सा बादल…

थोड़ी सी है जानी हुई, थोड़ी सी नयी
जहाँ रुके आँसू वहीं, पूरी हो गयी
है तो नयी फिर भी है पुरानी
थोड़ा सा बादल…

इक ख़त्म हो तो दूसरी, रात आ जाती है
होठों पे फिर भूली हुई, बात आ जाती है
दो नैनों की है ये कहानी
थोड़ा सा बादल…

A wonderful movie that I would have undoubtedly loved much more had I not known it’s genealogy.

Que sera sera……

Have a wonderful weekend, enjoy the sunshine on a cool day. Isn’t it amazing? Here we are shivering on a day with maximum temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, and my son in Minneapolis joked about the maximum temperature there being 21 degrees Celsius, too?

In India, we are of course talking of a temperature that many degrees above zero and he is referring to Minus 21 degrees Celsius…..

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