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                                  Baghban

                              Review by JUDI Silva 

Poor Amitabh goes from playing a father in a movie whose story's tag line is, "It's all about loving your parents (K3G), to one where it becomes, "What parents?"

In his newest film Baghban (the gardener), Raj Malhotra (Amitabh) plays a middle-class husband who has four sons. Sons that he and his wife (Hema Malini) have sacrificed everything for and brought up the best way they know how. He's provided for them, and they've all grown up to become respectable businessmen.

                 

The problem arises when Raj, old and not so spry as he once was, needs to retire. Up until this point Raj and Pooja have been able to have a very prosperous life because of Raj's financial investments. Unfortunately, now that it's time to cash in on the investments he's made in his children, he comes up short handed. Immersed in their own self-centered worlds, none of them want to take any responsibility for their aging parents.

Where do you turn when you find yourself in this predicament? Raj and Pooja are left to depend on strangers' kindnesses. After everything they had, Raj must now encounter the hardships of trying to build it all back up again. Will the anguish that burns within him make or break him?

           

Ravi Chopra walks out on a limb with Baghban. As it is a film whose subject matter has not really been touched on in the Bollywood scene. It promises to be an emotional, hard-hitting story, which raises the question of whether parents can rely on their children in their old age.
          
Believe it or not, the story of Baghban was written 40 years ago. When visiting an old age home, Chopra himself learnt that the elderly people were very lonely and missed their children's love and affection. The incident touched him so deeply that he decided to make a film on it.

It should prove to be a very interesting and emotional film. Watch for its October release.