Saat Rang Ke Sapne

I must admit that I am biased towards the Bollywood movies from the 90s. To be more precise, I think the latter half of that decade produced some of the finest hindi movies to date. Almost another decade later when I look back, I can't but appreciate them with utmost sincerity. Though comparing between movies is not my primary objective here but as an audience I can definitely have my own view that may or may not align with yours one.

Though I remember the time when "Saat Rang Ke Sapne" (Dream of Seven Color) was released, I never felt compelled to watch the movie itself. In 1998, number of great movies were released and this movie definitely did not shine like others.

However I had always been attracted by some of the soundtracks from this movie. Tracks like "Aati Hai To Chal", "Jhoot Bol Na" and the title track were simply amazing and I took notice of them when I listened to them for the first time. Perhaps the biggest reason behind watching this movie after so many years was simply to watch gorgeous Juhi Chawla. Well over 20 years later, I finally watched the movie and I think I did not miss much.

Plot: The story of this movie initially evolves around a fairly wealthy family of a brother and sister in rural India. Brother Bhanu (Anupam Kher) could not take the humiliation of his sister Yashoda (Farida Jalal) when she was forced out from her husband's family as the mentally disturbed husband killed himself and his child. Bhanu who is in his mid forties is not married and vows to avenge her sister's insult. Unaware of each others feelings, dramatically the servant of the family Mahipal (Arvind Swamy) and Bhanu both falls in love with the same woman, a dancer Jalima (Juhi Chawla).

Though Mahipal initially did not like Jalima, he eventually figures out his growing affection for Jalima. On the other hand Bhanu misunderstands Jalima as if she also loves him and continues to dream about marrying her despite the fact that he once loved another woman Janki (Aruna Irani). With a twist of the story both Maihpal and Bhanu learns that Jalima actually loves Mahipal. However, as the story unfolds we learn Bhanu finally decides to marry the the woman who waited so long for him thus brings all the problems and issues around Mahipal and Jalima to an end. I had to cut the corners to make it short but there are few more interesting part that I willingly skipped.

Verdict: The plot of this movie is as colorful as it's name suggests. As far as I can understand, this movie was largely shot in Rajasthan. At least the desert & the clothing's of people on this movie gave me similar understandings. Never been to India but I think I have seen Rajasthan enough to come to this conclusion. The Manipuri Dance on the title music track confused me for few minutes. Perhaps the most confusing part was the sudden appearance of Mahipal to a place where no one can understand Hindi. It seemed liked they were speaking some type of Southern Indian language (correct me if I am wrong). How in the world a bullock-cart can reach to South India from Rajsthan over night is beyond me.

While I think most of the key character on this movie played their role exceptionally well, I honestly think the story itself failed to grab my attention as an audience. It simply doesn't have that charm that may compel someone to actually watch the movie. If I had to summarize the whole movie in short, I would say this movie vividly portrays a typical Indian society from an era that has long been lost and it depicts the rigid patriarchal socioeconomic hierarchy that has strong religious connection with it. Saat Rang Ke Sapne is a below average Bollywood movie from the decade that I honestly think was the golden age of Indian Hindi language based cinema. Unless you are a huge fan of Juhi Chawla, I really won't suggest you this movie. I mean seriously who wouldn't fall in love with young and stunningly beautiful Juhi?