Beta
Tags: romantic, cruelty, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
Beta is the story of Raju (Anil Kapoor), the only child of a widowed multi-millionaire father who can provide his son with anything he wants except Raju's only desire — a mother's love. Raju's father believes he can please his son by marrying Laxmi (Aruna Irani), thinking that she will care for Raju as her natural son. Raju becomes devoted to his stepmother, does whatever she asks of him; she convinces Raju that Raju should remain naïve and uneducated otherwise he would work for others rather than be self-employed. Raju grows older his stepmother increasingly isolates his father from the family, is considered mentally incompetent, and locked in a room of the family home.
Raju meets Saraswati (Madhuri Dixit) and following her abduction and assaulted at a fair, he rescues her. They fall in love and, despite the villagers believing she is no longer chaste, he marries her. Saraswati discovers that her stepmother-in-law's love for Raju is a rouse to discredit the sanity of Raju's father and unable to interfere with the plan. Laxmi has the family fortune diverted to Raju's stepbrother, the natural result of the marriage between his father and stepmother. He shares the greed for the family fortune. A battle of wills between the stepmother and the stepdaughter-in-law ensues.
Laxmi sees that her influence over the family is challenged by Saraswati who insists that Raju's father leave behind his prison and return to the family circle as there is nothing wrong with him. And she makes Raju aware of the intentions of his step-mother. Laxmi starts to abuse and embarrass Saraswati with all the family members present. Saraswati is ready to leave but then, to protect her husband and her house from Laxmi's intentions, she decides to apologise to her mother-in-law. Saraswati then cleverly starts exposing Laxmi's every effort and intention in a dignified manner so that her husband will not be offended. The medical school degree of Raju's step-brother was bought rather than earned through studies and Laxmi is set up to slip on the pavement so that the over-protectiveness that she has instilled in Raju will force her remain in bed as he will serve her without pause; Laxmi never has a moment to herself and her scheming.
Saraswati becoming pregnant prompts Laxmi to attempt to kill Raju's wife and unborn child with poison, saffron and milk. Saraswati discovers this and returns to her direct approach by telling Raju. He continues to refuse to believe the treachery although she takes an oath upon her unborn child's life. Raju defends his step-mother and offers to prove that Saraswati is wrong. Raju drinks the milk and then coughs up blood. He comes to the realisation of what Saraswati said was all along his step-mother's intentions. In his usual innocent manner, he asks her why, that all she had to do as his mother was simply ask for the wealth—he would have happily agreed to give her it all. He tells Laxmi that his wish to die in peace would be accomplished if she, to at least once with a clean heart, call him 'her son'. His words so deeply touch Laxmi that she realises her cruelty has been directed at the only son who all along had ever loved her. Raju's step brother physically confronts his mother as he wants to continue with the plan but the dying Raju saves her.
The film concludes with Raju recovering, agreeing to give up to his mother his worldly possessions, and leaving home with his wife and father. At the last moment, Laxmi begs him not to leave, claiming to have learned the error of her ways. She tears-up the legal papers and tells him that all she wants is nothing more than 'her son'.

Review: The devoted son, the devious stepmother, and above all -- the smart wife named Madhuri!.
Beta is extremely melodramatic and for the most part suffers from very poor writing.
Like most of Indra Kumar's films, it has a fantastic story which is poorly executed on-screen.
The very inept depiction does not withhold the film from being entertaining and watchable though, and that's mainly thanks to its interesting concept, superb soundtrack and brilliant star-cast.
The film has three main characters: the son, his devious stepmother, and his wife who enters the picture like a saviour.
Kapoor plays Raju, a devoted son to his wicked stepmother who would kill and give his life for her if she asked.
Since she entered the house as his father's second wife, she has used the boy who had carved for a mother and deviously left him illiterate.
In addition to that, she quietly made her husband's life miserable by making the entire world think he is mentally imbalanced and imprisoning him - all for money.
But soon Raju marries Saraswati, a young and smart woman who, unlike her loyal and innocent husband, shortly discovers her mother-in-law's true character and swears to destroy her plans.The film's story is, as said, fantastic.
But the film itself suffers from a poor script and some amazingly annoying attempts at comedy.
Having said that, it is filled with many great moments and scenes of romance and drama, it has some very worthy dialogues, the development of story is effective, and the songs are very melodious and pleasant.
That's what keeps the film generally engaging and entertaining, but if there is one aspect that particularly manages to keep it intact, it must be the acting.
Anil Kapoor, playing the title character, does get a bit let down by the very immature character he is given.
But while his character's overly loving and often childish attitude does get irritating at times, his sincerity is much more powerful and is strong enough to make this performance memorable.
Aruna Irani is simply outstanding as the vicious Laxmi and is thoroughly convincing.
However, Beta is clearly Madhuri Dixit's film.
She is mind-blowing as Saraswati.
She always could rise above a poor script, and here she gets to play a courageous and sensible woman who is unafraid to fight everyone for justice, and she does just that.
Her expressive eyes, forceful line delivery, smart attitude, decisiveness, hot dance numbers and overall persona -- are all spot on and contribute to making this performance unforgettable.All-in-all, Beta is not a film for everyone, but I think as a mainstream Hindi entertainment, it is brilliant.
Some may find it overblown, but I still think it is one of Indra Kumar's better works (along with Mann, his best, and Dil).
I found the film totally enjoyable and I liked the film's last scene, which was superb and quite satisfying.
The film remains memorable for its music and for its actors, especially Madhuri, and it's easy to see why.
This film could have easily been titled Bahu (daughter-in-love) after her character.
Anyway, I recommend you to watch Beta.
Remember not to expect that much, and you will be happy..
Not only one of Madhuri's best but also Anil's best!.
Some of the comments I couldn't disagree more.
Yes the comedy was dodgy, but in which Hindi movie in that era has the comedy not been dodgy?!
9/10 Hindi movies are far-fetched and this is why we watch them.
Beta could have been better written, but as it is, it isn't written badly.
Acting from Anil and Madhuri is A-class, as well as Aruna Irani and Anupam Kher.
Without the class side actors, this movie would have been nothing.
One of my best Anil movies of all time..!Indra Kumar's other movies I really enjoyed was Raja and Ishq, I disliked the others.
Mann had potential but still really disappointing from a creative maker like Mr Kumar..
Indra Kumar's best.
Family dramas like this one were all the rage in the 80's/early 90's so on paper Beta would have felt like more of the same.
Beta however is heads and shoulders above other movies of it's kind thanks to the cast.Aruna Irani deserves a very special mention, she was superb in a negative role and in my opinion this is her best performance.
Madhuri is also tremendous, the scenes between her and Aruna Irani are electric.
Anil Kapoor does well too in the male lead but in my opinion he is overshadowed by the two women.
Among the supporting actors the late Lakmikant Berde deserves a special mention as he is hilarious in this movie whilst Anupum Kher does well in a negative role.
The songs are simply excellent, particularly Dhak dhak karne laga and Koyal se teri boli.Yes the ending is a tad bit too melodramatic and unrealistic but that's what the audiences went for at the time.
Indra Kumar has made some pretty enjoyable movies like Dil, Ishq, Mann and Masti but Beta is without a doubt my favourite from himHe did very recently try to make another melodrama Super Naani but the movie was a total washout.
I seriously believe that these days nobody would go for movies like Beta, they were most definitely a product of their time in the nicest way possible.
I revisited it only a few days ago after having not seen it in at least two decades and it was just as good as I remembered.
So on a closing note I would just like to say that Beta is without a doubt one of the best Anil Kapoor- Madhuri collaborations..
Madhuri at her best.
Clearly one of Madhuri's better performances.
The film could have been treated better by the director though.
Watch the film if you are a fan of Madhuri..
best time pass movie.
I saw this movie after 25 year of the released.
thus is old classic bollywood movie.
with decant drama,song,dance.with average direction.
this movie is about mother and her son.
Anil kapoor has no mother .
so his father marry to another women .
his step mom his very bad she want only his property.
hole movie is about this.
what happen when madhuri comes.
you can watch.
good: this movie has good drama .
good story .
some good song also such as dhak dhak karane laga .you can enjoy heroin hot body in this song.
bad: bad thing is length of this movie.this movie is very long length almost 3 hr .
I got boar by watching such long movie.
Final: this is classy entertains movie.
can be watch with family.
and also free available on you tube..
Highly melodramatic.
Indra Kumar is known for weird sense of cinema, he gave blockbusters like DIL, BETA but if you see his comedy in his films there are really stupid surprisingly nowdays he is doing only comedy.
His films in 1990s had comedy in first half and emotional in second half.
The film is a remake of Kannada film, Mallammana Pavada (1969), starring Rajkumar, and B.
Saroja Devi.
It was remade to Telugu as Abbaigaru, and again to Kannada as Annayya.
The entire track of Aruna torturing her husband and keeping Anil's character illiterate may sound hard to believe but is well handled, Anil's romance with Madhuri is well handled though melodramatic a bit The entire Madhuri vs Aruna track is well handled, but there are some stupid comedy scenes involving Anupam Kher, Bharti Achrekar Also some scenes are hard to digest like the entire track where Adi Irani and his wife Kunika are made to work in the field The end is even more melodramatic, Anil after having poison suddenly gets up and bashes the goonsDirection is decent Music is good, Dhak Dhak was the biggest hit though which is a copy of Ilayaraja's super hit song "Abbanee teeyani debba" of the 1990 Telugu movie Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari starring Sridevi and Chiranjeevi which in 1991 was dubbed into Hindi as Aadmi Aur Apsara.
The song "Koyal Se Teri Boli" is a copy of the Tamil song "Kondai Seval Koovum Neram" from the movie Enga Chinna Rasa by K.
Bhagyaraj, with a similar storyline.Anil Kapoor handles his role perfectly, Madhuri Dixit is superb in her role, Aruna Irani is exceptional despite being few years older to Anil, Adi Irani(brother of Aruna in real life) is as usual,Kunika is as usual, Laxmikant Berde does have some funny moments, Anupam Kher and Bharti Achrekar irritate, while Akash khurana is good as usual, Satyen Kapoo and rest are decent.
Strong dramatic performances weakened by inept comedians(?), over the top writing, and implausable ending..
I totally agree with the reviewer who said that this is Madhuri's film.
I only wish she could have had even more scenes, a better script, and been more involved in the climax.
Her performance and the performances of all the dramatic stars caused me to give the film a 7 instead of a 5.
Anil Kapoor did his best in a thankless role where, at times, he is extremely immature and a big momma's boy.
His character was frequently tedious.
The comedy(?) was grating and frequently brought the tension and story to a complete halt.
Do the masses really like this kind of stuff?
INDIRECT SPOILER.
The ending was both implausible and unoriginal and left me shaking my head wondering what really happened.Music and photography were all top notch, especially some great shots of Madhuri by herself and with Anil.