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Silsila (1981 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Silsila' is a 1981 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film co-written, directed, and produced by Yash Chopra. The story revolves around the love triangle of Amit (Amitabh Bachchan), a romantic playwright, Shobha (Jaya Bachchan), his wife, and Chandni (Rekha), his former partner. 'Silsila' follows the incidents faced by Amit and Shobha in their forced marriage, which drifts them apart, and his encounter with Chandni that leads to an extramarital affair. The soundtrack was composed by ShivHari, with lyrics from Javed Akhtar, Hasan Kamal, Meera Dev Burman, Nida Fazli, Rajendra Krishan, and Harivansh Rai Bachchan.
'Silsila' attracted considerable attention from the media when it was in production due to its casting. Principal photography took place in Amsterdam, Bombay (now Mumbai), Delhi, and Kashmir from November 1980 and May 1981. The film, however, failed at the box office after premiered on 14 August 1981, grossing only . At the 29th Filmfare Awards, the film received nominations for Best Actor (Amitabh Bachchan), Best Actress (Jaya Bachchan), and Best Music Director (ShivHari). Critically, it received negative notice for the story and the cast's performances.
Plot
Orphaned at a young age, the brothers Shekhar and Amit Malhotra live independently. Shekhar is the squadron leader of the Indian Air Force, while Amit is a Delhi-based romantic playwright. They have fallen for Shobha and Chandni, respectively, and plan to get married on the same day. However, Shekhar dies in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, leaving the pregnant Shobha alone. Therefore, an obligated Amit breaks up with Chandni and, in order to avoid social pressure, marries Shobha, leaving Chandni heart-broken.
Tragedy strikes once more after Shobha loses her child in a car accident. She is treated by Dr. Anand, who marries Chandni, surprising Amit. With no child to bind them together, Amit and Shobha drift apart. Amit runs to Chandni and secretly rekindle their romantic relationship. They meet on the sly until a night when Chandni, in a car, driving, with Amit hits a passerby on the way home from a tryst. The police get involved but Amit manages to hush the matter up. However, the affair is endangered since one of the police investigating the accident is Shobha's cousin, who wants to expose them.
Amit decides to not longer continue his loveless marriage and wishes to reconcile with Chandni. The news shatters Shobha, who has genuinely fallen for Amit but believes that her love will make him return. Anand is also aware of Chandni's infidelity and feels devastated. When he leaves on a business trip, Amit and Chandni secretly leave the town to start a new life. Anand's plane, however, crashes and causes them to rush to the wreckage site. There, Amit is confronted by Shobha, who reveals that she is expecting his child. After Anand is rescued, Chandni realises her love for her husband and decides to live together with him. The film ends with Amit and Shobha living happily in their marriage.
Cast
Cast adapted from Rotten Tomatoes:
* Amitabh Bachchan as Amit Malhotra
* Jaya Bachchan as Shobha Malhotra
* Rekha as Chandni
* Shashi Kapoor as Shekhar Malhotra
* Sanjeev Kumar as Dr. V. K. Anand
* Sudha Chopra as Shobha's mother
Production
'Silsila' was directed and produced by Yash Chopra for his banner Yash Raj Films. He co-wrote the screenplay with Sagar Sarhadi, who also co-wrote the story with Preeti Bedi. According to Sarhadi, Chopra "fell madly in love with the subject". The dialogue was written by Romesh Sharma. The film is about an extramarital relationship, the first time for a Hindi-language film; after he failed with action films, Chopra had decided to make a romantic film for his next venture.
Chopra's biographer Rachel Dwyer described the casting as complicated, for which the film was controversial before release. Speculations about the relationship between Amitabh Bachchan, who was married to Jaya Bachchan, and Rekha was common in gossip magazines and newspapers at the time. Chopra called his ability to cast the three his greatest achievement. He initially considered Parveen Babi and Smita Patil for Rekha's and Jaya Bachchan's parts, respectively, but abandoned the plans owing to their unsuitability in playing their respective roles. On the recommendations of Amitabh Bachchan, who had agreed to star in the film in 1980, Chopra subsequently replaced them with Rekha and Jaya Bachchan. Rekha designed her own costumes and jewellery. This was her final collaboration with Amitabh Bachchan.
'Silsila' was shot by Raju Kaygee. Filming was done from November 1980 to 14 May 1981, starting in Kashmir and later Amsterdam, Bombay (now Mumbai), and Delhi. Wanting no exposure from the media, Chopra did the filming privately with the entire cast and crew. He described the production as "real life coming into reel life" but said that there are no incidents on the sets and all the lead actors were co-operative. The Delhi schedule sometimes took place at 5.30 PM when the weather was cold; Rekha recounted how she hated it and that she did so only for Chopra. The film, edited by Keshav Naidu, runs for 166 minutes. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma provided the background score.
Music
The soundtrack to the film, released by Saregama on 18 May 1981, was composed by ShivHari. The lyrics were by Javed Akhtar, Hasan Kamal, Meera Dev Burman, Nida Fazli, Rajendra Krishan, and Harivansh Rai Bachchan. "Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum" was one of the songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar in her concert "Lata Live". Akhtar, who previously collaborated with Salim Khan in screenwriting, turned to lyrical composition and "Dekha Ek Khwab" was his first written song. Akhtar was chosen after Chopra hearing his poetry and being astonished by it. "Rang Barse Bhige Chunar Wali" became one of the most-played songs in the Holi celebration.
Release and reception
'Silsila' was released on 14 August 1981 and failed at the box office, which Chopra believed due to the audience's attentions mostly given to the controversy, resulted by the casting, rather than the plot. Around a week later, a screening was held at the Mumbai Metro and collected , with being donated to the Nargis Dutt Foundation. Sunil Sethi of 'India Today' criticised the clich storyline and called the cast uninteresting. In his review, Sethi concluded,
"But 'Silsila' itself is pure polyester yarn. It's a lot less real than the so-called dirty, distorted and damaging stories that appear in the gossip press which the stars claim are so distressing. At least they read better, look better and may be include half-truths here and there. 'Silsila' looks good, too, but is a distortion of half-lies, which is worse."
Dwyer wrote that Amitabh Bachchan's then popular screen persona as an "angry young man", which he got from 'Deewaar' (1975), was incompatible with his role in 'Silsila' as a lover. The film received three nominations at the 29th Filmfare Awards: Best Actor (Amitabh Bachchan), Best Actress (Jaya Bachchan), and Best Music Director (ShivHari). It marked the beginning of the setback in Chopra's career; in spite of this, he called 'Silsila' one of his favourite films in a 2011 interview.
References
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