Baghban

The last movie which made me cry was Baghban.

Baghban (2003) is a powerful, highly emotional Hindi family drama directed by Ravi Chopra. It stars Amitabh Bachchan as Raj and Hema Malini as Pooja, an older couple who face rejection and disrespect from their four selfish adult sons after Raj retires. While praised for stellar lead performances and tear-jerking core values, modern views criticize its extreme melodrama and dated financial themes.

Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini give deep, heartfelt performances that make viewers feel their pain. The movie focuses on family love, sacrifice, and how society treats elderly parents. The mature romance and mutual devotion between the lead pair of Amitabh & Hema, feel real and touching.

In India, the elderly care, is issue of concern today. Either the children are staying away in foreign country, and the elderly parents live alone in India. The elderly parents need regular medical care and the help for daily needs but they receive regular financial support only from overseas which cannot fulfil their emotional requirements.

Senior Citizen living is becoming increasingly popular in India due to busy schedules of the children and the nuclear family status of today’s generation. Also the average life expectancy has gone up due to medical science advancement. This has made the issue more complex.

Traditionally, in Indian houses, it was customary that the elders will stay with the children and they will be fully taken care of by their son & daughter in law but the scene is changing now a days. Children feel burden of the parents and they are not willing to take this responsibility.

Look at the other side of the coin. The parents feel, that they have saved money and created some wealth which in turn is given to their son so that he takes care of them. At times they have to take loan or sell their gold ornaments to pay for the education of the children and in return they expect that the son should at least look after them during their old age. If the son refuses to take care, it is huge emotional burnout for the parents.

The Baghban depicts this drama powerfully, how the sons divide the responsibilities of parents in terms of the distribution of days of mother and father stay to different children and separate them from each other. Separating from each other at the older age is painful and difficult. The powerful character of parents played by Amitabh & Hema bring tears to the audience.

Baghban is an effective tear-jerker that highlights real issues about elderly care, but its black-and-white storytelling makes it feel more like a moral lecture than a realistic family portrait.

Thank you my dear readers for stopping by

Stay Happy & Keep smiling…