Arguably emminent director Yash Chopra's worst self-indulgence ever. The only halfway interesting thing about this suffocating over rich piece of Indian junk food is the costumery and Amitabh's super stylish wardrobe -- notable are some of the flashy, dazzling, primary colored saris worn by Rekha in nearly every scene in which she appears -- (just stills of these would be a more rewarding than sitting through the whole film) -- Amitabh's carefully tonsured headdress --er -- hairdo.... and his white suits with flaired trousers, a homage to -- in fact a throwback to --mod American and English male fashions of the sixties (already out of date by 1981) -- The song picturizations on Amitabh and Rekha are not just bad --they are Sickening -- traipsing through fields full of Dutch tulips -- argh --embarassing -- Mister "Big B" is just not cut out for Romantic roles of this kind -- (a wide range as an actor he does have, but Romance is the one thing he does like a robot going through the motions) -- the whole thing looks like a prequel to Shahrukh Khan 15 years later! -- However ... the near-miss lip-sync kisses, and one kiss actually planted on Rekha's lips in long shot, are daring for the time --very daring, one might say ... But Amitjjii, flailing about on top of her and slobbering all over Rekhaji --just doesn't work for me --especially not on the heels of just having viewed SHOLAY -- Purely ridiculous, embarrassing -- Maybe if he slapped her around a little ...or maybe if there was a little more comic relief by Aswaniji ... The theme of the jaunty heroic jet pilot killed in action (previously the likes of Rajesh Khanna and Raj Kapoor -- in this case Shashi Kapoor.) has been worked so to death that it practically constitutes a sub-genre of Indan films on its own ... but there were some nice jet fighter landings and takeoff scenes -- somebody ought to make a compilation of just such dashing Indian fly-boy scenes!
While eagerly looking forward to SILSILA because of the star cast, the star director, and all that has been written about the alleged kinky real-life triangle amongst Amitabh and Rekhaa/Jaya -- I started getting under-awed from the very first song/dance tulipy picturization opening the film and soon found myself saying --"What IS this? --This is absolutely NAUSEATING ... not to mention ridiculous -- one soap opera set piece after another following upon one comic strip coincidence after another.. (and just then ... while Rheka is at the wheel driving they happen to hit a kid crossing the street, and the cop at the station turns out to be Jaya's brother-in-law...Kulbhushan Kharbanda! -- c'mon, give us a break...) -- but I did dutifully watch it all the way to the family-values-must-prevail required ending, out of sheer determination ... with gritted teeth. The only halfway decent performance in the ENTIRE flick was Sanjeev Kumar as the look- the-other-way devoted surgeon husband of Mme. Rekha -- This flick while gorgeously mounted (as are all Yash-chop films) has just about every tired cliché in the book and caters SLAVISHLY to every salacious preconception the Indian public had about the stars at the time -- UGH-ugh, and Ugh! Three thumbs down. Only to be included in a "Worst of Bollywood" (and Worst of Bachchan) retrospective -- Incidentally -- this was made the same year (1981) as Rheka's sublime UMRAO JAAN -- and that's one to put in one's pipe and smoke it!
While eagerly looking forward to SILSILA because of the star cast, the star director, and all that has been written about the alleged kinky real-life triangle amongst Amitabh and Rekhaa/Jaya -- I started getting under-awed from the very first song/dance tulipy picturization opening the film and soon found myself saying --"What IS this? --This is absolutely NAUSEATING ... not to mention ridiculous -- one soap opera set piece after another following upon one comic strip coincidence after another.. (and just then ... while Rheka is at the wheel driving they happen to hit a kid crossing the street, and the cop at the station turns out to be Jaya's brother-in-law...Kulbhushan Kharbanda! -- c'mon, give us a break...) -- but I did dutifully watch it all the way to the family-values-must-prevail required ending, out of sheer determination ... with gritted teeth. The only halfway decent performance in the ENTIRE flick was Sanjeev Kumar as the look- the-other-way devoted surgeon husband of Mme. Rekha -- This flick while gorgeously mounted (as are all Yash-chop films) has just about every tired cliché in the book and caters SLAVISHLY to every salacious preconception the Indian public had about the stars at the time -- UGH-ugh, and Ugh! Three thumbs down. Only to be included in a "Worst of Bollywood" (and Worst of Bachchan) retrospective -- Incidentally -- this was made the same year (1981) as Rheka's sublime UMRAO JAAN -- and that's one to put in one's pipe and smoke it!