Alternate Movies

Step into the cinematic world of the mangeshkhar sisters.Sai parajpaye's saaz is supposedly the cinematic version of asha bhonsle's real life.

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Sisters Mansi (Aruna Irani) and Bansi (Shabana Azmi) are the daughters of Vrundavan(Raghuveer yadav) a marathi stage play artist.After the death of their father the elder sister mansi makes it big in cinema.Bansi also wants to acheive something in the music world.Mansi thwarts her moves, bansi breaks her relationship with her sister and becomes a famous singer.she is at the peak of popularity but she looses her voice, will she get her voice back, what happened to the sisters is the rest of the movie.

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Sai has taken life of one famous personality and explored that person as a star singer,a women in public life,mother,lover,wife,musician and a professional. As a women, bansi's life is an inspiring one.From a submissive house wife she become an independent woman, a professional singer and a well known star.The transformation, wasn't an easy one.She had to sacrifice so much, she had to stand up against her husband , sister and follow her heart to her destiny,her calling, the world of MUSIC. sai paranjpaye's idea of capturing the life of a famous star as an inspiring independent women was good. But i think she failed somewhere in the execution.

Because the movie is based on real life characters and a melodramic story line, sai looses her edge.There is no simplicity, humor and sweetness in the movie.The screenplay involves too many characters and is not clear, sometime it feels like it is just a sequence of events that doesnt connect to the central theme.You can see the vintage sai at the starting of the movie, when the movie is about the two little sisters growing up, later it become biographical.

There is an interesting scene where bansi talks with her psychiatrist in a restaurant. She tells him the sad story of her lover who dies in an accident.The already depressed singer is very sad at the end of the story, as soon as she finishes the server in the restaurant comes up to her and asks for her autograph. she is forced to switch the mask from a fragile women to a celebrity. she acknowledges him and signs for him.The down sides of being a celebrity.



Ayesha Dharker
Credits:
Good acting by zakir hussain.The maestro never shows a sign that he is an inexperienced actor.Yogita deshmukh of kairee plays the role of young Bansi and Ayesha dharkhar(Terrorist) comes as the daughter of bansi.



This movie is a makeup man's nightmare and i guess Abhay mohite tried did his best.The two veteran actress come as young sisters with eye bags.

Bupen hazarika

Music:

Music is by 4 music directors.Bhupen hazarika,Raj Kamal,Yeshwant Deo & Zakhir hussain and they do justice to the proverb "Too many cooks spoil the broth".All the songs have a different feel and as most of the songs are singers singing for some music director, the sai paranjpaye's trade mark of beautiful songs blooming out a nice situation is lost.The peppy western "kya thumney hai keh diya","jaya veera","raat dhalney lagi" stands out from the rest of the songs.



Songs
1)Jai Veera
2)Sunney waaley sun lete hain
3)Bhadal ghummad ghummad(1)
4)Phir bhor bhai jaana
5)Badal chandi barsaye
6)Raat dhalney lagi
7)Neediya hai sapna hai
8)Lehraye Tiranga
9)Kya thumney hai kehdiya
10)Bhadal ghummad ghummad(2)

Awards:
Javed Akthar bagged the 1996 National award for best lyrics.

winnie paranjpaye

Trivia:
#)Bhupen hazarika appears in a song as a music director
#)winnie paranjpaye appears for a few seconds in a party scene
#)The movie was the result of shabana azmi's casual question on why sai hasn't made a movie on the famous singer sisters.

Links:
Varsha bhosle on her mother asha
Shraddha pandit