whitegreen The following review of "Tehzeeb" (beautifully written) is not by me & appears on the following url: http://www.indiatraveltimes.com/cinema/tehzeeb_2.htmlKhalid Mohamed's new film Tehzeeb draws its title from the name of the central character played by Urmila Matondkar. Tehzeeb is the daughter of Anwar Jamal and Rukhsana Jamal. Their other daughter, Nazneen or Nazo, is mentally challenged. Tehzeeb is a film drawn upon a clash of characters. The Jamal couple met as lovers and married against the wishes of their parents. Anwar came from a rich family, but was a failure as a businessman. In contrast, Rukhsana was a star singer who was totally preoccupied with her career. Her soaring success and fame created a chasm between husband and wife and neither side strived hard enough to stop it from widening. The two daughters also got very little out of this strained relationship of their parents. Tehzeeb was too young at the time of her father's death, but she grew up with the belief that her mother had shot him. This belief defined her attitude and behavior towards her mother. Starting with this state of mind to a reconciliation between them and the moments of happiness that follow is a story reminding all of us of our own relationship problems within and outside the family. Tehzeeb has a theme with a potential of being developed into a classic family drama. Khalid, however, has no such objective in mind. In our film industry, compromises for the sake of a good box-office is the rule and Khalid is no exception. Khalid says: The story of Tehzeeb has emerged as much from conversations and interviews with friends and psychoanalysts, as from a continuing self-probe about one's imagined relationship with a mother whom I cannot remember. She passed away in an air crash when I was two. Said to be beautiful and larger than life, the absence of a mother's memory caused me to wonder how I would have reacted to her persona. What if she had become a successful public personality? Would I have ever been overawed by her? Or would I have challenged her about her responsibilities to the home and the hearth? He explains his dilemma in tense words: Towards this aim, initially I believed an acknowledged remake of Ingmar Bergman's 'Autumn Sonata' would be in order ... While working in the idiom of popular cinema, I had to reach my reality of what could or what would have been vis-a-vis a son's relationship with his mother. "Idiom of popular cinema" is the overriding factor. Six songs and almost as many dance numbers have been incorporated, some of them seem to be uncalled for, others are attuned to the theme or the situation. Even the cultural milieu of a modern Muslim family gets polluted in the process. One has to shed conservatism before settling down to an enjoyable evening. But the film does set you thinking. All the three female actresses in the main roles, Shabana Azmi, Urmila and Diya Mirza, have emerged as very intense performers. Diana Hayden, doing New York publisher Sheena Roy's role, and Namrata Shirodkar's Aloka Karnik, the upcoming singer, are merely cameos. Arjun Rampal as Salim Mirza, the writer of pulp fiction who is Urmila's husband, has a very interesting and somewhat complex role.

husnain ali Urmaila is a great actress. It was nice to see Shabana Azmi in this film because I like her old films such as Amar,Akbar,Anthony. Arjun Rampal was good in this film and Dia Mirza was good at playing a dramatic character in this film who shoots herself but hopefully does not die because her sister Urmila,brother in law Arjun Rampal pray.I liked the way that most of the main characters were Muslims.The songs were O.K. and I give the storyline on it's own a 9/10 and I give the acting a 9/10 as well.The songs get an 7/10.This film is interesting so thats why I gave the film a 9/10 overall.I found the ending sad because Shabana Azmi dies.

pranayet_writer I'm highly surprised with the high voting average (7.4/10 when I last checked) that Tehzeeb received. I mean, yes, the film is very intelligent, with very strong actors playing their parts beautifully - Urmila Matondkar as the simple, happy daughter but with a resentment towards her star-singer mother, Shabana Azmi as the star-singer mother who is very charming and gushy but is thought by Urmmila to have murdered her husband and ruined her children's lives, Dia Mirza as the mentally retarded daughter - um. how can you be retarded and still put on makeup and curl your hair on your birthday and other days, I wonder? I guess her mom and sister did that for her. - who is, in my opinion, a spoiled brat, because ordinary two-or-four-year-olds are not pampered so much, and Arjun Rampal as the cute, innocent, loving (and lovable?) husband of the daughter; but what was Diana what's-her-name and Namrata doing there? What were all those crappy, unnecessary songs doing there? They completely stopped the story and made us all eager to change the channel to hum dil de chuke sanam, which was playing and which had much better songs. Sure, some of the atmospheres in Tehzeeb were quite dark and suspenseful, but why ruin the effect with sudden lighthearted moments when we want to get on with the true serious story? I can only think that the director got scared with some of the effects or something. However, the fact that the retarded girl did not recover from her attempt to shoot herself with her brain fully repaired, and the mother dying when her daughter went to her to ask for her pardon, were very nice touches that set it apart from most bollywood happy-ending flicks. But then again the movie got ruined by the clips at the end. This movie is supposed to be serious, not funny!Still, all in all a nice almost-art movie. 6/10.

AishFan For the first half of the movie, there is absolutely no story. It gets really annoying as nothing happens. However, the film's pace suddenly accelerates during a power-packed confrontation scene between Urmila and Shabana Azmi. The characters have been developed excellently. Songs are lovely. The picturization of "Meherbaan" and especially "I want to be free" are terrific. What I find the best about this movie is the well-portrayed relationship between Urmila and Shabana. Looking from Urmila's point of view, it seems that her indifference towards her mother is right, while Shabana is selfish. However, from Shabana's point of view, her actions seem totally justified, while her daughter's attitude is very hurtful. What makes this film unique is that the audience can sympathize with and understand both contradicting points of view. The ending is very poetic and (the following might be a spoiler) brings out the pain of Shabana's life and how, unfortunately, Urmila lived her entire life based on misunderstandings.