Sadma (1983)

A head injury causes a woman to regresses to childhood. Lost and confused, she is eventually befriended by a school teacher.

Director:

Balu Mahendra

Writers:

Gulzar (dialogue), Balu Mahendra (screenplay)

Stars:

Kamal Haasan, Sridevi, Gulshan Grover

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kamal Haasan	...	K. Somprakash 'Somu'
Sridevi	...	Nehalata Malhotra 'Reshmi'
Gulshan Grover	...	Balua
Silk Smitha	...	Soni
Paintal	...	Paintal
Arvind Deshpande	...	J.K. Malhotra
Viju Khote	...	Police Inspector David
H.J. Imam
Birbal	...	Shamu
Leela Mishra	...	Somu's Neighbor 'Nani' (as Leela Misra)
Ashalata Wabgaonkar	...	Mrs. Malhotra (as Asha Latha)
Padma Chavan	...	Madame (as Padma Chauhan)
Jansi
Iftekhar	...	Train Passenger
Somayajulu

Storyline

Nehalata is a carefree girl who meets with a car accident and looses her memory. She fails to recognize her parents and her mental state is just that of a child. She goes missing and is kidnapped and taken to a brothel and named Reshmi. Somu, a school teacher, reaches brothel and finds that she is unstable and being forced into prostitution. Next day, Somu takes Reshmi away with him to Ooty where he works as a teacher. Soni, the wife of his senior, lusts for Somu; but he ignores her, as he his main priority is taking care of Reshami as he has developed feelings for her and wants her to recover. Meanwhile, Nehalata's parents get lead of her being in Ooty and take help of local police to trace her.

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Plot Keywords:

train station | brothel | dog | train | amnesia | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Singer GonjaSufi sampled the song "Yeh Fiza" for his song "Sheep".

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Connections

Referenced in Mast (1999)

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Soundtracks

Aye Zindagi Gale Laga Le
Sung by Suresh Wadkar

User Reviews

How heart-breaking it can be when a dreamlike experience becomes a never-been...

Sadma has one of the greatest and most unusual stories ever in an Indian movie. It is well directed, well narrated, and naturally acted. The film has bits of comedy, drama, but it is better described as a realistic, enjoyable and beautiful journey which remains keepsake-less. It lets the viewer experience a real pain on-screen. I'm obviously talking about the climax scene which is so touching that nothing can be good enough to explain what you feel about it. It can be really difficult when an experience of a lifetime, a story of love and a relationship of pure humanity are gone with the wind as if they had never been. I can easily relate to this because I experienced something similar in life. Don't know where the writer had taken his inspiration from to write this extraordinary story and this fine script, but Balu Mahendra must be applauded for handling it so well on-screen.

Kamal Haasan and Sridevi are nothing short of spectacular and superb in their respective roles. As the caring and worldly school teacher Somu, Haasan plays his role with depth and visible understanding of his character, and his final scenes are of the film's strongest. Sridevi, in one of her most memorable roles, plays a young woman, who, as a result of a head injury loses her memory and is in a mental state of a five-year old girl's. That means she actually has two roles to play (which this actress has done plenty of times). As the conscious woman before the accident, she is graceful and beautiful, but it is the other role that marks this performance. To play a little girl trapped in a young woman's body must be very difficult for any actor, but Sridevi does it with incredible ease and conviction, making her character both funny and moving.

It's extremely difficult to lose someone, but to lose someone who does not even know he may have ever had even an opportunity to interact with you is much more saddening. This is the basic concept of Sadma. All I can say is do yourself a favour and go watch it.

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

8 July 1983 (India)

Also Known As:

Грустная история

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Color:

Color