Silsila (1981)

Director:

Yash Chopra

Writers:

Mrs. Preeti Bedi (story)
Yash Chopra (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 July 1981 (India)

Genre:

Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Love is faith... and faith is for ever

Plot:

A story of love lost and found, but twisted by society's demands and conventions to appear as adultery.

Plot Keywords:

Adultery | Local Blockbuster | Marital Love | Based On True Story

Cast

Shashi Kapoor	...	Sqdr. Leader Shekhar Malhotra
Amitabh Bachchan	...	Amit Malhotra
Jaya Bhaduri	...	Shobha Malhotra (as Jaya Bachchan)
Rekha	...	Chandni
Sudha Chopra	...	Shobha's mom
Sushma Seth	...	Actress
Ravi Dubey
Sharmila Roy Chowdhry		(as Sharmila Roy Chowdhary)
Jagdish Raj
Vikas Anand
Ranvir Raj		(as Ranbir Raj)
Shyam Arora
Raj Bharti
Gauri Shanker		(as Mrs. Gauri Shankar)
Damyanti Puri

Also Known As:

The Affair (India: English title)

Runtime:

182 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

India:U

Filming Locations:

Film City, Goregaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Yash Raj Films

Trivia:

Amitabh Bachchan was deeply involved with the music of this film. This resulted in the Holi song "Rang Barse", which was sung by Amitabh Bachchan and composed by his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Traffic Signal (2007)

Soundtrack:

Neela Aasman

Yash Chopra's masterpiece

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.