Baabul - Movie Review

Published: June 6, 2009

By JENNIFER HOPFINGER

Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Rani Mukerji, Hema Malini, John Abraham, Om Puri

Mothers and their enduring sacrificial love have long been celebrated in Indian films. In Baabul, fathers get a turn at admiration. The title is a Hindi term of affection used by daughters for their dads. However, the film starts out as a story about a father and son. Balraj (played by Amitabh Bachchan) is a wealthy businessman, and he and his lovely wife Shobhna (Hema Malini) adore their good-natured only child, Avi (Salman Khan), who returns after a seven-year stint in the U.S. to work at his father’s company. Balraj and Avi are best friends. In fact, they refer to each other as “buddy”—excessively so—and they’re constantly clowning around together, almost to the point of annoyance. But all their happiness is a set-up for the problems to come.

They hit their first snag when Avi falls in love with an artist named Milli (Rani Mukerji), who doesn’t like him back. But Balraj does what he can to help Avi get the girl, and she eventually reciprocates Avi’s feelings. Milli is best friends with a musician named Rajat (John Abraham), who secretly loves her, but her feelings for him are strictly platonic. Rajat is heartbroken when Milli accepts Avi’s marriage proposal, but he gives his blessing and then moves to Europe. Although Avi is pretty cheesy and his courtship of Milli saccharine sweet, he’s so smitten with her, so devoted to his dad, and eventually so attentive to the son he and Milli have, that you can’t help but like the guy.

When the story takes a sharp turn halfway through the film and their perfect little world is shattered, we learn the extent of Balraj’s paternal love, this time for his daughter-in-law, as he goes to great lengths—at the expense of tradition and his family’s sense of honor—to ensure her happiness, even in the face of intense pressure from his wife and his older brother, Balwant (Om Puri). Balraj summons Rajat back from Europe—his return is clearly foreshadowed earlier in the film—to help Milli pick up the pieces. In sacrificing his own happiness, Balraj earns the title of “baabul” from his daughter-in-law.

The main actors—all giants in the Hindi film industry—are at their charming best. John Abraham won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award in 2007 for his performance as Rajat.

The film’s powerful emotional charge overrides the plot’s predictability. Baabul is a melodramatic masterpiece and a tribute to selfless fatherhood.

Baabul is rated Must See.

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