The brilliant play of Hema Malini makes you empathize with her heroine, who is claimed as a negative character. I decided to watch this film because I’ve seen it mentioned many times in various places, as Hema Malini’s all-India favorite plays a negative role there. It’s really rare, I’ve only seen her in a negative role in ‘Dear Son-in-law’ before, but even there my sympathies were with her character, to be honest. While watching this film, I could not understand what is negative about her character: in my opinion, her behavior is completely justified, I sincerely sympathized with her, and given her vivid performance against the background of other lifeless actors, I generally believe that the central character of the story is her Madhuri, and not someone else.
Hema is divinely beautiful here, luxurious outfits and expensive jewelry emphasize its beauty, grace, and sensuality. She plays beautifully, I directly heard the gnash of teeth in moments of jealousy, when Madhuri can not contain his rage, and the moment when the lover hits her in the face with a whip, I thought that from such a look now the whole estate will light up.
Raj Kumar is a misunderstanding. This is the second Kristen Stewart, only in male form: the same forever open mouth, the missing look, the same empty face in any, even the most tense moments, the gait of a rag doll ... What his character feels, what guides him, is completely unclear. When he starts remaking Madhuri to his taste (she doesn’t know English, she doesn’t play musical instruments, she learns slowly – and what did you expect from a village girl?), I thought something like ‘My Fair Lady’ would start, but the tragedy that unfolded afterwards is not typical of Indian cinema. 10 years pass and an even older prince meets a young girl who sings beautifully, buys her from a drunkard father, forcibly marries her, and now Madhuri turns, though not an official wife, but still the mistress of the estate, just a mistress, a cohabitant, without a home, without honor, without position. And she has nowhere to go, she has nothing of her own, all her jewelry is the property of her new wife, as they are the family jewels of the prince’s family. And she is not ready to give her love, especially since it is quite obvious that the young wife is in love with another.
Rakhi Gulzar - I really like her appearance, but in my opinion, this role was chosen not quite well. Firstly, because of her sophisticated look, she does not attract a young girl who should be in the plot. Yes, and actresses, in fact, are the same age, which somewhat reduces the drama of replacing the older beloved with a younger counterpart, since youth is more attractive, and it is much more convenient to sculpt from it. Secondly, I hate the type of “orphan Marysi”, and the actress for some reason performed the role in this vein. Emotions are indistinct, what drives it - vague. Then she suffers that she marries under duress, then suffers from the fact that the old man spends little time with her. Then she suffers that her father almost killed her mother, then meekly embraces him, nicely communicates and behaves like the most exemplary and loving daughter. Now she loves a childhood friend, then she winds around an old husband. Then she suffers that she cannot be with her lover, then she suffers from the fact that her husband went to her mistress, and not to her. There was a feeling that she just likes to suffer, and for what reason, it does not matter.
There is a lot of music, but not habitually dance, but Indian classical music: it accompanies the action, and is sometimes an important component of the plot - it is at the concert that the prince falls in love with young Sumita, conquered by her singing, it is by playing the sitar and singing that she shows her superiority over Madhuri, who never learned either singing or music. Under the pretext of learning music, meetings continue with the ex-fiancé, whom the old husband (for some reason) trusts endlessly. Desert views of Fatehpur Sikri, which is rarely shown in films, the airy lightness of the Taj Mahal as a symbol of eternally unattainable happiness in love, magnificent outfits, rich interiors of palaces, the appearance of a live tiger in the jungle - all this makes the film a very beautiful sight: visual pleasure is not interrupted for a minute, it is really a pleasure for the eyes. It is only a pity that the game (or rather its absence) of the main character greatly spoiled the perception. But for the unconventional story, for the excellent performance of Hema Malini, for the incredible beauty of the frames and the heroine, for the experienced sympathy for a woman whom society makes dependent on the whims and desires of a man, for demonstrating a way of life that is already a thing of the past - thank you to the creators of this film.