Ghar - an amazing film!. Review on Ghar

Have you ever been a fan of a film without even watching it? Have you ever admired an on-screen pair without even watching them act together? Well, I have! And the on screen couple in view is Rekha & Vinod Mehra and the film...Ghar. Ghar found a home in my heart, during my childhood when, I would sit glued to the Television watching the songs from the film on the famed shows Chitrahaar and Chhaayageet.

Finally, a few days back, the grand occasion of watching my favourite film arrived in my life, when one of my office buddies gifted me the VCD of Ghar! I watched the film five times in two days and loved every single frame of the film.

Just thought of sharing some interesting info about Ghar with all my MS buddies:

Ghar portrays the story of a newly married couple, Vikas Chandra (Vinod Mehra) and Aarti (Rekha), who are deeply in love and move into their new apartment. The first one-hour of the movie is like a fairy tale where the ravishingly good looking couple share an adorable relationship and wake up to absolute happiness everyday.

As the couple sails through life, the fairy tale suddenly comes to an end when they go out to watch a late night movie and is stuck on the road trying to find a taxi, in the wee hours of the morning. Unsuccessful in finding a cab, they decide to walk back home and on an isolated road, they are accosted by four men, who assault Vikas, leaving him unconscious, and forcibly take Aarti with them. When Vikas regains his senses he finds out that Aarti has been gang-raped.

This incident becomes the talk of the town, leaving both Aarti and Vikas very embarrassed. The incident gets blown out of proportion when politicians use the incident to their advantage during their speeches during election campaign. Vikas feels hounded and haunted by this incident, and feels that everybody is treating him differently. Aarti, on the other hand, has been traumatized, and unable to trust any male. She feels Vikas is being extra loving to her and also that she should go away from his life. Their comes a phase when this couple are faced with a loveless relationship. Vikas fails in his attempts in making Aarti forget about the incident and get her back to normalcy. What happens then? Does the old spark come back into their married life? Well, that's for you to go and watch!

Ugly Duckling turned into a Graceful Swan: Ghar, released in 1978, kicked off that phase of Rekha's life when she, with the help of makeovers, underwent amazing transformation both physically and mentally, transforming from a plump, darkish girl, to a svelte stunner. This overnight transformation boosted her image in the Bollywood so much so that she reigned as number one for almost a decade! She is still considered to be a style icon.

Ghar also declared the arrival of a mature Rekha. Her typical roles were replaced by her very realistic portrayal of a devastated rape victim.

The purrrfect husband material: That's all I can say for Vinod Mehra. He is so innocently romantic in the film that I simply fell in love with him and his character. He plays the role of a loving and caring husband to such perfection that he makes the hearts of the entire female population melt. I am told that Rekha and Vinod Mehra were dating around that time and one must just see their on-screen chemistry to believe that they actually were! They look very much in love in this film. People might call their performance unparalleled acting but but if one carefully observes the way in which Vinod Mehra calls her 'Jaan' and Rekha calls him 'Sona', you know its not mere acting.

Ghar's director: Often Ghar's direction is wrongly credited to Gulzar! Surprisingly not many people know that Ghar was a NN Sippy production and was directed by Late Manick Chattejee. Manick Chattejee directed only two films, Ghar and other one is Bahurani (1989). Before becoming an independent director, he worked as an assistant to Basu Bhattacharya for films like Avishkar and Anubhav. When Farha Khan shot the song Pehla Nasha in slow motion, there was a huge hullabaloo about it being the first in the Bollywood history and blah blah. Well, to challenge that, major portion of the song Aajkal paon zameen par.... from Ghar was shot in slow motion. The film is not only aesthetically shot but also has some thrilling moments. One being the scene post the traumatic incident in which Rekha imagines that those four men are standing outside her house. Incredible background music with an equally fantastic acting.

Ghar's story, screenplay and direction: I was surprised to discover that the story, screenplay and dialogues of Ghar were all written by Dinesh Thakur. His name is not unknown to the people who love theatre. Dinesh Thakur is a well-known theatre personality has a group called Ank. Thakur's group has completed 25 years of existence and one of his plays called Hai Mera Dil celebrated its 1000th show recently. This actor and play director has written dialogues for two films; Ghar and Aastha. I believe he has written the story and screenplay of only one film, i.e., Ghar.

Ghar's Music: Ghar, a musical hit, has five tracks and all five are different from each other but has a common theme that is of Love! Who else could have composed those exceptionally romantic tunes other than my favourite Panchamda? Hats off to that man his caliber. He is truly the Boss! All tracks are my favourite, especially, Tere bina jiya jaaye na...

Ghar's Lyrics: Probably it is the lyrical excellence of this film that often confuses people that Ghar is Gulzar's film. Gulzar has contributed only to the lyrics department of the film and oh what a contribution! Gulzar, generally famed for indulging in tough-to-understand lyrics, has written such simple yet extremely meaningful lyrics for this film.

Ghar’s supporting cast: Prema Narayan, the popular character artist of the 70s and 80s, plays the role of Vinod Mehra’s friend Seema. She has really excelled in that small role. Prema Narayan is the same actress who starred in films like Umrao Jaan and Satte pe Satta and was the Leena of the song Leena O Leena (Swarg Nark).

Other supporting cast of Ghar include; Asit Sen, Madan Puri and Master Alankar.

To sum it up, Ghar is a treat for people who prefer watching intense and emotional films. Some people might find it boring because of its slow pace but I consider it to be an all-time classic; a perfect intense film, interspersed with melodious songs that form an important part of the narrative.