Drishti (I) (1990)

Sandhya and Nikhil have been married for 8 years and live a wealthy lifestyle in Bombay, along with a daughter, Rashmi. On their 8th anniversary, they invite several friends, chief amongst ... See full summary »

Director:

Govind Nihalani

Writers:

Shashi Deshpande, Govind Nihalani

Stars:

Dimple Kapadia, Shekhar Kapur, Mita Vasisht

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dimple Kapadia	...	Sandhya
Shekhar Kapur	...	Nikhil
Mita Vasisht	...	Prabha
Vijay Kashyap	...	Ramesh
Irrfan Khan	...	Rahul
Neena Gupta	...	Revati
Navneet Nishan	...	Gita (as Navnit)
Tamara	...	Roma
Karim Vakil	...	Arvind
Vinod Ranganathan	...	Gopal
Keneth Desai	...	Vasu
Tabassum Mansuri	...	Rashmi (Sandhya's daughter)
Alka Shrivastav	...	Woman looking for Rajan
Sumukhi	...	Shama (Prabha's partner)
Ganesh Vernekar	...	Chowkidar

Storyline

Sandhya and Nikhil have been married for 8 years and live a wealthy lifestyle in Bombay, along with a daughter, Rashmi. On their 8th anniversary, they invite several friends, chief amongst them Prabha and her husband, Ramesh; Revati, Gita, and an unexpected guest, a nephew of one their friend's, Rahul. Prabha gets very intoxicated during this get-together, and confides with Sandhya about her rocky marriage. One year later, Nikhil shocks Sandhya when he tells her that he has fallen in love with a much younger woman, Vrunda, and wants to leave her. Sandhya begs and pleads with him to no avail. He does contact Sandhya again after about a year, this time to ask for a divorce. Again, Sandhya pleads with him to return, but he refuses. Then a year later, the estranged couple meet again, and this time it is Nikhil who wants to re-enter Sandhya's life, and this time it is he who is going to be shocked by her candid confessions!!

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Plot Keywords:

remake

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

31 August 1990 (India)

Also Known As:

Vision

Company Credits

Production Co:

Udbhav Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

171 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Remake of Scenes from a Marriage (1973)

User Reviews

required viewing

Govind Nihalani's Drishti is totally Scenes from a Marriage. The male lead even looks and talks like Erland Josephson. The female lead can look as confused as Liv Ullmann. Nihalani infuses his characters with psychological struggles less complex than those of Bergman's, though not making them any less valid and cogent. The acting, obviously, is just as amazing.

The film is indeed beautiful to look at. Nihalani's compositions here are impressive, drawing out spaces that resonate with the alienation and breakdown between the couple. The interior shots, that take most of the film, are also remarkable in the use of various lighting sources and the ever flowing curtains. Also note the use of interiors versus open space that bring notable significance to the characters' mental landscape, illustrating the feeling of confinement and openness.

For anyone interested in films about marital discord, Drishti will satisfy, if not offering anything new. For anyone addicted to quality film-making, this is required viewing, especially when Indian art cinema is so buried underneath the country's overwhelming commercial films.