Ijaazat (1987)

Star cast: Naseerudin Shah, Rekha and Anuradha Patel
Director: Gulzar

My only regret about this movie is, why did I never catch it any sooner. Yesterday had I not stumbled on the "mera kuch samaan" song after long I would not have ever discovered this movie. Another brownie point of this movie the songs, they are such beautiful renditions that you would not to skip on them and get on with the movie. They add their poignancy to the story.

So the storyline is basically, of this guy Mahinder (Naseerudin) who has been engaged to this woman Sudha (Rekha) for five years now and has been warding off marrying her as he is involved with a more mercurial and unpredictable woman Maya (played by Anuradha Patel). When he goes back to Maya to take her to meet his Grandfather and ask permission to marry her and break it off with Sudha, being the free bird that she is, he is not able to find her and ends up marrying Sudha. The marriage starts on the note of honesty, with Sudha being fully aware of Maya's presence in Mahinder's present and past and slowly starting to even appreciate her finer qualities. Sudha, is shown as a woman who is much more stable and righteous which warms up Mahinder to her. They slowly start to fall in love. But when they are back from their honey moon, Mahinder gets to know that Maya has tried to commit suicide and therein all the complications and misunderstandings start.

What I really liked about the movie other than the fine acting by all the protagonists is the acceptance of faults in each other's personality and of the past without creating too much of a melodrama over it. The movie is about the fondness one develops for other's while living together and adjusting to their quirks and eccentricities and yet after years of separation finding each other at the same page but of course with drastically changed circumstances, because well, time takes a toll. This movie definitely goes down in my favourite list and I think I liked it over the movie Ghar even, even though Ghar was more about the woman being stronger and the man being a philanderer. I guess I like Ijaazat more is because I connect to the quandaries of the characters more, I see the honesty of intentions. The characters in the movie are all correct in their positions, but fail because of the lapse of time.

All in all I think I am going to have another go over this movie sometime soon. It's 5 out of 5 stars for this movie.