The movie begins with the gentle tune of “Dil dhundhta hai fir wahi fursat ke Raat din” as a merc travels through the winding roads of Darjeeling, and you know you are set for a soul stirring journey for the next two hours or so.
It had to take Gulzar to make a poetic movie with the right kind of entangled characters and give it almost Shakespearean flair.
Sanjeev Kumar plays a rich ageing bachelor returning to Darjeeling after 25 years to find solace and correct the mistakes of his past life.
He is looking for his sweetheart whom he had to desert owing to some circumstances.
He comes across Kajri, a spitting image of her mother, his sweetheart.
Unfortunately Kajri is now a prostitute and Sanjeev takes it upon himself to rescue her.
What follows sets the “Mausam” for the movie.
The performances are fantastic with the conversations between Kajri and her “Seth” glittered with Gulzar’s fabulous dialogues.
The music by Madan Mohan is hauntingly melodious. Once you hear “Ruke Ruke se Kadam” it will stay in your head for long.
A special mention needs to be given to Salil Chowdhury’s background score. It totally gels with the onscreen activity.
Gulzar, while adapting the story from The Judas Tree, has kept the script very relevant.
On one hand you have Sanjeev Kumar trying to be the father figure for his love’s daughter as a repentance of his past scenes.
On the other hand you have Sharmila playing Kajri, falling in an almost incestuous love with the rich ageing man, finding him to be the one person who “treats him as a woman and not as a thing”.
The movie is laced with humour but the underlying melancholy of the theme remains prominent.
For a nice lazy Sunday, Mausam makes a serene poignant watch with fantastic performances from the lead pair.
#DaMoRating: 9/10
Disclaimer: I usually don’t cut points for cult classics but when there is a Gulzar movie, I expect a minimum of 5 excellent songs. This movie had just 4 excellent and one okay okay song. So 1 point cut…cut….cut.
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