Baabul
Tags: tragedy, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Balraj Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan) is a rich businessman, happy and content with his world. He and his wife Shobhna (Hema Malini) live happily together and they wait for their only son Avinash a.k.a. 'Avi' (Salman Khan) to return from his studies in the United States. After an absence of 7 years, Avinash comes back to India. He reunites with his parents at the airport and races home. Back home, Avi joins his father's business.
One day they decide to go golfing and Balraj accidentally hits the ball which ruins a painting. The young woman painting the picture, Malvika a.k.a. 'Millie' (Rani Mukerji) gets furious with Balraj and leaves. Later on, Avi runs into Millie on the golf course, and they start to talk. Millie tells him that a stupid old man ruined her painting and points out that it was Balraj; but she doesn't know that the 'old man' is Avi's father and he doesn't tell her. They start to hang out together while slowly falling in love with each other.
When Millie comes home, she is visited by her childhood friend Rajat (John Abraham). She tells him that she loves someone, which devastates him because he is also in love with her. One day, Millie goes to Avi's office to drop off a painting and finds out that Balraj is Avi's father. When Avi shows up, she leaves the office crying. He chases after her and says that the only reason he lied to her was because he loves her. She doesn't accept his apology right then, but when Balraj apologizes to her for ruining her painting, she forgives them both.
Avi asks Millie to get dressed up for a party at his house. When she arrives, there is no one except Avi. He proposes to her and she accepts. The whole family visits Millie's house to discuss marriage and everyone agrees, except Rajat. He tells Avi that he will let Avi marry Millie if only he promises to always keep her happy and never let her get sad. Avi and Millie get married and soon they are expecting a child. Millie's birth-pains begin while she is in yoga class. Avi rushes her to the hospital where they are blessed with a healthy baby boy. They name the child Ansh.
Ansh grows up to be a sweet and intelligent boy. The family throws a birthday bash for him on his birthday. They wait for Avi to get back home from work, but he never turns up. He meets with a road accident and dies; Millie is devastated.
Balraj seeks to bring happiness back into his widowed daughter-in-law's life. He gets into contact with Rajat. He learns that Rajat still loves Millie. Balraj asks Rajat to marry Millie. However, there is stiff opposition from Shobhna (Avi's mother) and Balraj's conservative older brother Balwant (Om Puri). Shobhna fears losing her grandson Ansh, while Balwant takes the traditional Indian view that a widow with a child should devote herself to raising her child and think of nothing else, and that a woman marrying twice is committing a mortal sin. However, Balraj stands firm and convinces everyone. In the end, Rajat and Millie get married, and everything is well. Avinash comes in as a spirit and blesses his dad with happiness.

Review: The penultimate moments are reserved for the lion to roar.¤ Dream Girl:: Not quite as good as "Baghbaan" in terms of characterisation for the simple fact that this time the Bahu hogs the entire lime-light resulting in animosity in the "Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" episode.¤ Rani Mukherjee:: Personally I found the character was presented in OTT.
Wonder why the character was presented with a complete "U" turn.¤ Salman/ John:: In their own right, they were just a regular fare.¤ Sarika:: Very short role but it was nice to see her in a Big B movie after Nastik.The usual "Baghbaan" cast Aman Verma, Avtar Gill, Sharat Saxena were adequate.Films from the baton of B R Chopra are noted for the social message that is interlaced in them.
Sadly not because its not quite a burning issue in contemporary times and it comes across as the character (Rani Mukherjee) sans practicality/ common sense to the extent of nearly classified as an emotional fool..
The director, I believe, wanted to cash on the star power of Salman and hence had given him lot of screen time but the script was simply not up to the mark to justify his presence.
However, the second portion, in its way, is anything but traditional...heck, it deliberately seeks to subvert traditions....and this is why I grew to eventually love this movie.In the romantic portion, Avi (Salman Khan) is the beloved son of a rich man, Balraj (Amitabh Bachchan).
So, he formulates a plan...to find Rajat (John Abraham) and bring him back to court Mili and, hopefully, marry her and give her a reason to live.While all this seems pretty reasonable for a non-Indian, there are Indian traditions that many follow that simply could not allow for Mili to remarry.
The giant climactic scene where Balraj is confronted by his family (when they object to Mili's remarriage) is simply brilliant and Bachchan is given a marvelous monolog...one that grips you by the heart and won't let go.
Well all i can say that I really enjoyed this film it was very unique and different compared to other Indian films that i have watched in the past,i mean most Indian films nowadays have the same sort of storyline, a man meets woman, they fall in love, a sleazy item number to make the movie sell and the happy couple get married, LoL but there was something different about this film that made me go and watch it in the cinema and i am very glad that i did go and see this movie.Basically what the story is about Sallu meets rani's character, fall in love, have a child and get married.
Sallu parents are played by Big B who's role in this movie was just fantastic and the beautiful Hema Malini who i have admired and watched her films since i was a child.
Sallu And Rani get married and have a child and then sadly he dies in a car crash, i mean when i saw the scene i was pretty shocked, it was really well directed.
So Rani is alone with the child and she and her in laws find it hard to come to terms with his death.Rani had a best friend whom she has known since she was a child played by John Abraham, he too gave a great preforms in the film and was well suited for his role.
Now John has been in love with Rani since he was a child and never told her how he felt, Big B decides that the best thing for everyone is to get Rani and John married, he was the right bloke for her and loved her dearly.Rani does not approve at first and them comes round and the last half and hour of the film would be the best part of the movie in my opinion, all of Big B's family are against the Marrige taken place and they try to stop it, apparently in India women should or are not allowed to get married if there first husband has passed away, i mean why????
So Big B gives this wonderful speech and Om Puri agrees for the couple to be married, so John and Ran do get married in the end and live happily ever after.The songs were mind blowing in the film also, and the Saree's were really lovely too.
Storyline: Balraj Kapoor (Amitabh Bhachan) is looking for happiness for his daughter in law Millie (Rani Mukherjee) after his son,Avinash (Salman Khan) who is madly in love with his wife Millie.
What Millie does not know is that her best friend Rajat (John Abraham) is in love with her but he wants Rani Mukherjee to be happy so he does not say anything to her when she is getting married to Avinash.
But as you know in the Indian religion a widow is not allowed to get married after her husbands death so Balrajs older brother (Balwant) does not want Millie to get married again but later he realises what Millie must be going through so lets her get married to Rajat..
Movie has an OK storyline & good concept of Vidhwa Vivah (not sure how much it holds true in 21st century though, its far more different now) but the execution does not give enough time to emotions.
The movie moves so fast that its difficult to enjoy the happiness & feel the pain of characters.In first half of the movie it's like a budding love story (Chalte-Chalte), an existing love triangle (KKHH), father-son relationship (Viruddh/Waqt), a happy family story and lots of stuff.
Movie does has a few gud moments but hardly any time to really enjoy or feel them.Amitabh & Rani have been gr8 as always Amitabh-Hema still look stunning.
Songs & Music also seems fare.In all the movie is fine & okay for one time watch.
the dramatic payoffs are simply comical and the audience was left laughing at a scene where sympathy was expected....salman tries to bring comic relief to the first half, but due to bad direction and worse dialog, one can't help but feel exasperated.
and Rani Mukherji and AB Sr. have none of the magic one has come to expect after "Black." the less said about john Abraham, the better.
(Two words: Acting School!) in the second half the cast and crew tried it's best to put the audience to sleep, (and a few did in fact doze off) but i kept up with caffeine and bore the film (as it bored me) so i could warn others about this heinous crime against film making!)let's now come to talk about the branding...
i'm here to watch a film, not an advertising campaign!!!OVERALL: The Good: The kid, Rani Mukherji's bathroom-mirror scene, Amithabh Bachchan's 3 minute monologue at the endThe Bad: Everything else you have to endure to GET to the end!!The Ugly: the dialogs, the dialogs, the dialogs, the direction, the costumes and jewelry!Final word of caution, watch at your own peril!.
If one were to write a documentary about clichés, they could use this movie to supplement any single example of cliché that one could possibly think of.Lets begin by talking about the story line.
While the father son relation between Amitabh and Salman was passable, there seemed to be absolutely no chemistry between Salman/Rani.
First of all, they seemed to just rush the love story, deciding that it wasn't really all that important, as Salman wouldn't even be in the second half of the movie.The comedy in the first half wasn't great either.
Parts were OK, but the writers obviously thought they did a better job than they actually did.The second half of the movie proved to be one of the most predictable and boring scripts ever.
Avi (Salman Khan) falls instantly in love with Millie (Rani Mukerji), and after much wooing and a little trouble, wins her.
Balraj shows his great love for Millie as he defies traditions to make her happy again.The first half of this is a delightful romance following the happy life of Avi and Millie.
I think this movie is very good...For people who like family movies & believe in the "PARAMPARA" things (specially the oldies)....then just watch this film.......
John's acting in this film was OK, though i don't think he is suited for these kind of emotional films....he looks better in films like Dhoom.....
Salman was good but he had a small role...only till the interval....Rani & Amitabh were very good as usual....& hema malini was OKThe film was stretched till the interval & after the interval everything goes at a fast pace....but overall, I think the film was very good.....The dialogues were OK in the starting but in the end they were quite powerful...especially the 1 pushpa (the widow) says....I THINK U SHOULD GO & WATCH THE FILM.......
Rani and Salman have almost electric chemistry, their court ship is a high light of the movie, and in fact it is the first half of the movie is quite happy and dream like, which I am sure was the intentions of the filmmakers.
When tragedy strikes, the film takes a turn and I guess this is where a lot of the debate lies in terms of the movie's theme and "message" which is admittedly handled a little awkwardly especially Puri's almost instantaneous turn at the end of the movie, but over all as over film-making, it was one of the best Bollywood movies I have seen this year..
He makes u cry many a time and for everyone who like to see with "Less style and more substance" unlike most movies of today, so see Baabul.
Despite of critics "right from the beginning you will know there will be a happy end..." there was an important message in the end of the movie.
I usually wait for a hidden message watching Indian movies and this was a very strong one.
It was one of the best movies with excellent Amitabh Bachchan and Rani.
I don't like this film for it's really boring,story of a father who wants to satisfy her bride after the death of his son.like every Hindi movie the boy comes from big cities like New York or whatever & just after the entrance,he meets a typical Indian girl,they marry each other during one man still loves the girl & has dined his love to see her happy...
You can watch this film which takes a lot of time of you & after it ends you are totally board.Amitabh Bachchan does the better job.as a satisfying father to do the right move whenever necessary.Salman Khan is a bit old to play a young man comes from abroad to fall in love in India.he doesn't play like he should.Rani Mukherjee is my sort of favorite actress in Bollywod,but i got to confess that she isn't prepared for such a role,Hema Malini is unused.she walks in the stage to prove she is there.
Do i recommend Salman Khan to accept himself as a 41 years old man.he is not Prem Choudhary of Maine Pyar Kiya no more.maybe he is Aditya Sekhri at Lucky: No Time for Love,that's all with the film.boring fast food..
After fifteen minutes, we both decided that this film was unwatchable.In those few minutes.......a father meets his son in an airport.
if u have anything more to add please do..i hope someone will read this and for future reference not make a movie so boring.i feel like a good storyline was just thrown out the window..
someone falling in love, getting married and having a baby, husband dieing and then remarrying; is that what u need to watch in a 3 hr long, so called family drama movie ?!
John Abraham, as good looking he might be, needs to learn little bit of dancing too if he wants to survive in bollywood; but then i might be wrong..
Really, if they wanted to show that widows can remarry then they should have made it like this : Even though Sallu dies, Rani gets over him in 5-6 yrs.
After some time she starts dating John and falls in love with him and then they get married and then all the drama.
Including the fact that it looked like as if Rani didn't even wanted to get married .
Throw in the bad acting { even from John} , boring songs, and a movie soooo slow that it successfully put me to sleep .
Especially in an year where really good different movies were being made ?Those who are against widows remarrying will continue to do so even after watching this movie.
Great movie, fantastic performances by AB and Rani.
Rajat, a singer and Millie's childhood friend, has more than just friend-like feelings for her but he does not express them, especially not after Millie tells him how much she has fallen in love for Avi. Millie and Avi marry and are blessed with a son, Ansh.
The first half of the movie is filled with a lot of 'masti' and light entertainment in form of song and dance sequences and Millie and Avis' love.
As for the main characters Balraj and Millie, both, Rani and Amitabh do a fantastic job and play their roles with persuasion.
Amitabh is in his best form and Rani adds another outstanding performance to her already impressive list of excellent-played characters.
'Baabul' has it all: Fun, love, dance, happy and sad moments as well as very good performances from the whole cast but fantastic ones from Amitabh and Rani.
however, Salman khan with eye bags, and Rani looking washed out this time, it's a little hard to digest, that they are so new to the game of love !
In fact, Hema Malini looks much more prettier than Rani, even at this age !
then the sudden accidental death of Salman, and now it's the second chapter, in specially, Rani's life !aware of her earlier friendship with Rajat, played reasonably well, but some how giving an impression of miscasting against Rani, and in this particular role, some questions arise, like why did he not try to find out, how Rani is, when he loved her so deeply ?
Then there are all those tension mounting in the family situation, when Amitabh decides to bring Rani and Abraham together, but every body is against !
Premrog, another movie, handling this problem, was much more touching, because it was a period film, and dealt with the traditional household of Lanlords !
The point of the movie seems to be that widow remarriage is a good thing.
Where Balraj Kapoor (Amitabh Bachchan) tries to get happiness into his daughter-in-law Malvika Talwar's(Rani Mukherjee) life who is sad and depressed due the dead of her husband and Balraj Kapoor's son Avinash Kapoor(Salman Khan) by getting her to marry Rajat(John Abraham).
I can't believe this movie wasn't titled 'Buddy' - that's how father-and-son Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan keep referring to each other throughout this predictable film with a widow-remarriage theme.
A few cups of tea and golf lessons later, the couple receive the blessings of Bachchan and Hema Malini and settle down to a lifetime of family life.Almost.Salman gets run down by a car while coming back to his young son's birthday party (apparently he was never taught in school to look left-right-left while crossing roads).Enter Rani weeping.
He turns to John Abraham, Rani's childhood friend who still cherishes a secret love for her.From then on, the film trudges on towards its destined end.
She's not alone - Hema weeps, Rani weeps, John weeps, Big B weeps and in the end even Om Puri (when he suddenly decides he has sinned by berating widows) can't help shedding a few tears.On second thoughts, this film is still worth a watch despite its storyline.
The story, about a young girl being widowed, and the challenges she faces to try and get married again, is really an interesting idea, even though I am not sure whether it still is a common social problem amongst Hindustanis.There's two reasons which make the movie quite bad: Salman Khan and Screenplay/Dialogue.I don't know what people see in Salman Khan, but by the gods, this man CAN NOT act.
Were they out of money after Amitabh, Malini and Rani signed up?I found him so irritating that I could not suppress a small 'yay' when he gets run over by a car, halfway through the movie.
"Great" I thought, "now let's get on with the people who CAN act and make it a good movie".The second reason: at about three quarters of the movie, I suddenly realized something: if at this, or at any point in the movie, any of the characters would suddenly be played by another actor, it probably wouldn't change any of the dialogue, screenplay or anything else.
Okay, in all fairness this movie didn't deserve to flop and perhaps it wouldn't have had it not been for the controversial issues surrounding the plot and well, yeah maybe that Salman Khan.
Nevertheless, I would say definitely see it (if you haven't already) for the stellar cast, awe-inspiring leading performances by Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee, as well as memorable supporting turns by John Abraham (who manages to upstage Khan, with very little effort might I add), Om Puri and Hema Mallini.In summary, the film revolves around a young man named Avinash (played by Khan) who returns home to India upon studying overseas and bumps into the girl of his dreams, Milli (played by Mukherjee).
They should have cut a lot of the Avinash scenes because in all essence, the meat of the movie had to do with Milli and her father-in-law.2.
The whole scene surrounding Avinash and Milli bumping into each other at the airport but not formally meeting has been so overdone in Hindi movies that I could have done without seeing it one more time.
The drag racing scene between father and son at the beginning of the movie, how irresponsible and unnecessary was that???