braddugg A tender depiction of an innocent mind, soul yet no so well executed.Masoom (Innocent) brings up a tale of a boy who does not know his father. The father does not know that he has a son from an extra marital affair. Now in between this Father and Son is a family whom the Father DK (Nasseruddin Shah) married. There is Shabana as mother of 2 daughters who now has either adopt him as a child or disown him. Gulzar Saab who is extremely versatile and is great at subtleties has written this extremely competently and there is more of Gulzar in it than Shekar Kapur the director. The writing is so very nice that it merely needs a look through the eyes too convey what the scene means. Extraction of acting from their actors which ideally is done by director, falls flat in this. Shekar Kapur for whom this was his first film did not extract enough emotions through his characters as he should have. Already two of Indias finest actors were cast as leads so most of the job was done and when it came to extraction acting from children , Shekar could not meet up with challenge. Those forced shivering or those bland expressions did not show that the boy was innocent but rather made it artificial.This is not as great as it was told to me all through this years. The subject is beautiful but the depiction could have been far far better. Hail Gulzar for this more than Shekar Kapur.It's better if I do not talk about technical departments for this movie as most of it were just in place as if to do their job for a salary and not passionately. Passion was missing technically for a subject that was passionately written.Going with 3/5 for a good movie with a touching subject but the execution did not touch me so well.

Unborn P The movie starts with a peek in the happy married life of an upper-class couple and their children and contrasts it with the tragedy in the life an 8-year old boy who's mother passes away and he is taken into the care of a very old man also in his last stages of life. The story unfolds with the discovery of the complex and taboo relationship between this illegitimate son and the father and the resulting tension in the family. The focus of the movie is the emotions of an 8-year old who is innocent of the mistake committed by his father and how they and the family deal with it. The filmmaker Shekhar Kapur did best at sensitising how people look down upon forbidden relations and people who engage in it through the difficulty of the couple to come to terms with what happened in the past. The only sore point is that the movie's tone is entirely sympathetic towards the husband making the wife sometimes look completely unreasonable for almost the whole movie.I had watched this movie a long time ago but the impact is still fresh in my mind. It has some very memorable names like Naseeruddin Shah(husband), Shabana Azmi(wife), Urmila and Jugal Hansraj(kids) in it but watching it you realise why they became so well known for their acting. Both Mr. Shah and Ms Azmi are accurate in their respective portrayals of a loving couple who are torn between the broken sanctity of marriage and their responsibility as a father and mother. Also the kids surely win over the heart through their picture perfect expressions. The eyes of Jugal Hansraj really bring out the innocence and need of a forgone child to be loved so very well that no true father would ever want to let go of their child after watching this.Watching this makes me introspect and analyze my own level of innocence or the lack of it and I realise that although we're never going to get it back we could at least protect it in the eyes of our children.

Nimit Kathuria I saw this movie as I saw many other gems while staying awake late night.To my surprise I discovered I had already seen this movie albeit in a different avatar.I had seen this movie as an American movie Man, Woman and Child. Though the plot is almost a rip-off from that movie, the story's been adapted INTELLIGENTLY. The man in question in that movie is a Professor who gets a call in the same way as does Naseerudeen Shah.The family has a friend(read:Suri) whom they visit every weekend.The boy also beats his son in football as does Rahul in cricket.At the end the girls and Malhotra's wife, played by Shabana Azmi take back Rahul home in the same way.The two girls bond to Rahul in the same way.The wife gets the same advice from her friend as does Shabana Azmi. But thats where the similarities end.To suit Indian sensibilities, the girl(Bhawana) does not go naked on beach but they have sex in the middle of the lake, on a boat and Shabana does not ask him how she was on bed. TheIndian version,I found,was equally, maybe even more mature and subtle than the American one. But you have to give it to the Americans as regards the fun quotient and technical superiority. And the Indians score at the music front

rock_your_soul Over the last few years 'Bollywood' films have been given the coverage and exposure they deserve over here in the UK. Their rising popularity means that people who wouldnt have access to watching a bollyowood film, or would simply dismiss it as a foreign language film, therefore unwatchable, are now enjoying the magic and power of bollywood. Recently Channel 4 here in the UK have began to show bollywood films every few nights, and sometimes in the day. I have watched many of them, but Masoom is by far my favourite. On paper the storyline doesnt sound incredibly exciting or original, but what is on screen is purely amazing. The actors portray their characters with such knowledge and ability that you feel you are watching the family's home movie. The basic theme of this film to me seems to be the power of love. GK's love for Rahul battles against his love for the rest of his family. And it is Indu's love for GK, and her eventual love and respect for Rahul, that keeps the family from being torn apart. It is a film about strength, about having the strength to love someone no matter what they have done, Shabana Azmi's Indu is both fragile but incredibly strong and dignified. Naseerudin Shah plays GK with such courage, but also shows his weak side. This is a film that deeply effected me. The power of its central themes are amazing, and shows a side of Bollywood that is largely unheard of.