Utsav

I had been longing to watch this movie for several reasons. One - it was from Shashi Kapoor (noted for sensible productions like Junoon, Kalyug, 36 Chowringhee Lane, Vijeta etc). Two - Girish Karnad helming the affairs who is quite able in his own right. Three - the songs which I literally grew up with (watching over and again in Chitrhaar, and cursing!). Four - the original choice for the lead pair was Amitabh & Rekha which transformed into a lacklustre Shekhar Suman & Rekha. Nonetheless, its "Utsav - Celebration of art" and it truly lived up to the expectations. Noteworthy is that everything in the movie was classified as an art including robbery & sex.

As mentioned earlier, music was one of the strong motivations to watch the movie and needless to say the songs are top- notch. Its noteworthy to mention that Lakshmikant-Pyarelal were in top form (a la Himesh Reshamiyya) when Utsav was released and the music of Utsav was completely different to their genre and yes, a bit hit. Lyrics by Vasant Dev are exceptional. Probably after Satyam Shivam Sundaram, one gets to hear such poetry in its purest form.

The only shortcoming was was language which I felt that there was enough room to improvise as it did not maintain consistency. In Hindi cinema after Navrang, perhaps one get to hear such pure dialogues and lyrics.

The sets are massive and attempt to create the Gupta age is noteworthy.

Vasantsena - nobody except Rekha.

Samsthanak - the character per se was a mockery and needless to say ill- suited Shashi Kapoor.

Annu Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Harish Patel, Khulbushan Kharbanda, Gopi Desai, Anupam Kher entire NFDC was present except the biggies Naseer, Om Puri & Shabana.

It was good to see innocent Master Manjunath. Reminded me of Malgudi Days.

Neena Gupta suited the fiery Mandolika. Anuradha Patel was quite pretty and well suited for the role of Aditi. Amjad Khan was passable.

Shekhar Suman was the weakest link. How on earth did me manage to lead a lead role opposite Rekha - beats me!