Baghban seems to have been tailormade for the countless, nostalgic fans of Big B. He dominates from the first frame to the last and does every bit he has done in his career all over again, save the fights and the fisticuffs. He merrily sings four songs in his own voice, dances with abandon to a Holi, a Valentine's Day and a wedding anniversary number, glib-talks in various dialects, indulges in cute banter as he looks moonily into his screen-wife Hema Malini's eyes, cries copious tears with restraint and gets angry with dignity. Amitabh does get to do a lot here and he delivers with perfect efficiency and elan. He also chews up the entire lacklustre cast, save Hema and Paresh Rawal. Lovingly framed in soft focus, Ms Malini too looks fetching and elegant. She makes a rather unbelievably hip grandmom with her streaked hair and that electric smile. Take this fine-tuned couple aside and the film falls apart for two reasons: it has nothing new to offer and it exaggerates emotions and situations to the hilt.
The tale's absolutely moth-ridden, a combination of old-time Zindagi and Avtaar. Raj and Pooja Malhotra (AB and Hema) are forced to separate because none of their four sons can afford to take care of them together. So mom goes to one son and dad to the other with the understanding that they'll move in with the other two sons after six months. Salman plays the orphan "foster son" who helps the couple out of this traumatic passing the parcel.
Too much happens in the three-hour-long film. There are too many family functions, yet another soppy karva chauth and too much of romance. The plight of the couple also gets excessive, cliched and melodramatic. The parents are always absolutely right, they spend all their fortune on the kids, they make badam halwa and phirni for them and even save their granddaughter from being molested by her boyfriend. But the kids are ungrateful louts. They make their mom stay in the maid's quarters, refuse to carry dad's baggage.... The reality, obviously, can't be so gross and monochromatic. The film could have looked in depth into post-retirement blues, could have dwelled on the old world order as against the present-day MNC culture. Pity it just prefers to touch and let go.
US Top 5
1. School of Rock
2. Out of Time
3. The Rundown
4. Under the Tuscan Sun
5. Secondhand Lions
INDIAN Top 5
1. Baghban
2. Zameen
3. Khel
4. Koi Mil Gaya
5. Kuch Naa Kaho
Courtesy: Film Information
