"Tumhare Chehre Ke Jhuriyon Mein Mere Jeevan Ka Saaransh Hai"

Was up watching the 1984 movie Saaransh on Zee Classic late last night.Unlikely, most of the time that , an 80's hindi flick would keep me up all night considering, that according to me, it was the decade of cliches in Bollywood.You may beg to differ but 80s were a decade that saw little experimentation barring a few notables like Masoom ,Ijazat etc and were largely marked by brazen dialogues mouthing "main tumhare bacche ki maa banne wali hoon" or some such , garish song and dance sequences (remember the jitender and sridevi number "tohfa tohfa laya laya") matched by equally flashy outfits .

Saaransh ,on the other hand had me completely glued . A compelling story of an ageing couple in suburban Bombay trying to come to terms with the death of their only son, Ajay,in a mugging incident in faraway USA.With no income coming in for retired Headmaster Pradhan (Anupam Kher) and his wife,Parvati (Rohini Hattangadi) , they sub let the room that once belonged to the son to small time actress Sujata(Soni Razdan) involved in a discreet relationship with the spineless Vilas, son to a local politician crime lord.She soon transforms from a stranger to a confidante.

Anupam Kher and Rohini H's performances are so real and their grief so all encompassing that you find yourself  nodding in total agreement when she says "Hamara Ajay wapas aa raha hai ", reacting to the news of  Sujata carrying her love child whose paternity Vilas retracts from claiming under duress .Suddenly , the old couple is thrown into a scuffle with all and sundry ranging from the local goons employed by Vilas's father to the corridors of power,basically the world in general exposing , along the way, cracks in society's attitudes to single women, corruption and economic disparity, all in an effort to bring Sujata to justice.

While Pradhan is doing all this to find reasons to keep living , Parvati is selfishly protecting Sujata believing she is,in fact carrying her son, Ajay .One cannot grudge her conviction in the punar-janam of sorts because Rohini as Parvati is brilliant in her role as a grieving mother alternately bordering on insanity.It is hard to believe this was Anupam Kher's debut film, so accomplished is he in the craft that one can't help but feel moved when he attempts to pull Parvati from the depths of despair as he tells her "Tumhara anth hai. Mera anth hai .Magar jeevan anthheen hai.", loosely translated to mean, you will end someday and so will I but life itself is endless. It has to go on.