CAST & CREW
| Produced By | R. Venkataraman |
| Directed By | K. Balachander |
| Music By | Laxmikant - Pyarelal |
| Starring | |
| Kamal Hasan | Anita Raj |
| Karan Razdaan | Arjun Chakraborty |
| Mazhar Khan | Dr. Sriram Lagoo |
Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew
PLOT SUMMARY
Zara Si Zindagi is the remake of Balachander's Tamil hit Varumayin Niram Sivappu which had Kamal Hasan and Sridevi in the lead roles. Kamal Hasan plays the role of an unemployed graduate living in Delhi with his two room mates (Karan Razdan and Arjun Chakraborty). He falls in love with a struggling theater actress, Kusum (played by Anita Raj) who is also leading a life of difficulties having to take care of an ailing grandmother and an alcoholic father (played by Nilu Phule).
The movie is a flowing account of the various hardships the characters go through and presents a grim view of the urban unemployment of the decade of 80s.
MY TAKE
I had become a fan of this film ever since I saw it for the first time on cable television. Set in a simplistic backdrop of Delhi of the early 80s, this film captivates with its subtle situations and brilliant performances.
I guess the greatest strength of this movie is its story telling. There is an undertone of grave sarcasm in the portrayal of the unemployed men and at the socio-economic and the political scenario of the nation. I, in particular like the scene where the three men have a fake lunch and make a lot of noise and the shot towards the end where Kamal Hasan picks up an apple from the dustbin and bites into it. Even in the shots where you just have the three friends sitting, there is one thing or the other in the backdrop that makes you smile at the sarcastic note in the situation.
If Kamal Hasan delivers with visible exultant power, Anita Raj flows throughout as a gentle stream binding the entire film. I don’t think she has looked as pretty in any of her other films that I have come across. She excels with her subtle beauty and does well in her scenes to reach out with conviction.
Karan Raazdan, Mr. S, Nilu Phule and Dr. Sreeram Lagoo render the necessary support to the overall frame of the film and do well in their screen space.
MUSIC
The music is by the duo Laxmikant -Pyarelal who were probably the best in trade at the time when the film was shot. However, apart from the song ‘Zamaane se kuch log darte nahi’ the music is largely disappointing. The other song ‘School se college..’ shot on locations in Delhi gives you a glimpse of the city 3 decades ago and is enjoyable to look at but not really something you can hum later. Overall, just an average music plate.
Catch the song here:
OVERALL
Overall a 4 out of 5 attempt, the film excels on its simplistic story line and is a must watch if you are a Kamal Hasan fan.
PS: The movie is available on YouTube, in case you wish to watch it. You can buy a copy at Moserbaer’s website as well.
Naseeruddin Shah easily essays the character of a fun loving, full of life, jovial and fair sportsman (typical character sketch of someone who is supposed to die half way in any Hindi movie). At times, you tend to feel that he is straining himself or acting out of his mould and overdoing things a bit, but such is his acting prowess that even in sequences where he makes a fool out of himself, he tends to convince you otherwise. 
Vikram’s previous claim to fame was his role in movie ‘Julie’. He perhaps wanted to reinvent himself with this particular attempt and went onto produce this film, maybe with a view to make a mark for himself as an actor all over again. His character actually appears a little over the top and a little hard to believe. Overall, he still does well and is not totally lost in the scheme of things. 
Sulbha Deshpande on the other hand acts in her comfort zone and does well in her limited screen space. Keith Stevenson is better known for his role as the villain in Amitabh starrer ‘Akela’ and the Sheikh in the TV series ‘Zabaan Sambhaal Ke’. Though his role kind of moves the film along, his performance is just about average.
This movie had the right ingredients (Naseer, Smita Patil, Gulzar, Jagjit Singh) but I guess an average recipe. The result – individual flavors stand out in the dish. There are capable situations and potent sequences in the film that had the potential to move and entice the audience but the fuel burns out before the moment arrives. 
This movie is essentially an Indian mythological adaptation of the story of Aladin. The genie is replaced by a Goddess – Pataal Bhairavi (played by another regular in the Padmalaya camp – Shoma Aanand) who is invoked by uttering the magic words ‘Jai Pataal Bhairavi’ when holding the statue of the Goddess in hand -an easy substitute for rubbing the magic lamp. The difference here is that Goddess Pataal Bhairavi keeps repeating nonchalantly ‘Manav, bol kyaa ichchaa hai teri?’ (What do you desire, human?) till the time the wish to be granted is not mentioned which is kind of funny.
with Padmalaya studios and gave many commercially successful movies like Himmatwala, Tohfa, Pataal Bhairavi, Mawali amongst others even in the era of video and VHS invasion. Though most of these movies would now seem either heavily laden with fake emotions and thin plots or exceedingly funny (specially on the costumes, dances and dialog deliveries), the fact remains that these movies had a mass appeal as per taste of the people who used to visit cinema halls in the 80s. 
Nirupa Roy does a cameo as the Ramu’s ever woeful ‘Maaaa’ and Dimple Kapadia makes a guest appearance gyrating as if she has hurt her backside (supposedly seductively) to a song that goes ‘Chumma chumma –2, mujhko bana le Priya-tamma’ sung by none other than Salma Agha. Yup, our very own Pakistani import who sings in such a heavy nasal voice that all 
Dimple Kapadia fans are left to wonder that what financial crisis forced Dimple to even accept this song let alone dance to it. The camera angle (and this is what I noticed in all Padmalaya films) is ridiculously low for all such ‘thumkas’. (I shall prove my point when I discuss Himmatwala and add a screen capture of Sridevi dancing before another low placed camera).
However, Raja’s eccentric grandfather had put forth a condition following which Raja must spend 30 crore rupees in 30 days to inherit the entire sum. The conditions attached forbid him to make any property or buy anything for himself. He is also not allowed divulge the secret to anyone else including his best friend Govind. How he spends the entire sum until the last minute is what the film is all about.
The chemistry between Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah is amazing. Together they lift an otherwise ordinary script to a position where it becomes an enjoyable watch. The humor is situation oriented and is definitely lot better than the slapstick affair that was so characteristic of the movies in the 80s. 
Personally I like the sequence where Raja had just taken up the challenge of spending 30 crores in 30 days and he hires the security guard (Praveen Kumar aka Bheem of the TV serial Mahabharat) 
and changes his salary from 1500/- a month to 1500/- a day and then hires Dilip Tahil at 15000/- a day (Now that is good even by today’s standards, considering that he is assigned a post of being Raja’s personal photographer). 
The fun part begins when he goes on to redesign the room of the hotel he is staying in and takes along all his friends from the slums (who go on to do the laundry at the hotel’s swimming pool), spends 10 lakh rupees on getting the 
special ‘Bidi’ from Gangu Bai (played by Lalita Pawar), plays cricket in the hotel suite (in turn breaking a chandelier among other articles, contesting an election and yes, playing a cricket match against Sunil Gavaskar’s XI. Oh yes, our dear Raja is the strike batsman of the local team Dharavi XI 
and nurtures a dream of breaking Gavaskar’s record. The match with Sunil Gavaskar is the surprise package in the film and the legendary batsman plays himself in the movie. 
However, Poonam Dhillon had little to do and Aditya Pancholi was more like a situational prop (like many other of his films during that time). I still do not know why was Mandakini cast at all in this story. I guess with little more slick editing this movie could have been a major money spinner at the box office. 
The movie portrays a canvas which is larger than life and unrealistic and yet it does so in a fairly simple way. I guess if cinema inspires a moviegoer to dream, this movie is the dream that all people nurture in one way or the other. 
Sparsh (Devnagari: स्पर्श, Touch) is a 1980 Bollywood feature film directed by Sai Paranjpye starring 
Years later I wrote my first play for a school performance loosely based around the character played by Naseeruddin Shah. The play was stalled due to some reasons but I could never completely forget the movie. Sai Paranjpe is better known for her lighter movies like 'Katha' but she teams up with Basu Bhattacharya here (who is again known for movies around mature subjects around matrimony mainly - Avishkar, Aastha and Griha Pravesh to name a few) to render a tail that touches your soul and makes you feel for people who are denied the gift of vision like no other movie ever previously did. 
The movie was largely shot in a blind school in Delhi and most of the children who acted in the movie were actually visually impaired. This not only adds to the realism of the movie but renders it that earthy and genuine feeling which makes you wanting to reach out to every single kid in the movie. 
Naseeruddin Shah is an acting institute in himself. He delivers with a conviction which surpasses and sits high over his other performances till date. The beauty with which he underplays his character and strives to keep his dignity and self reliance intact and is a complex emotion to understand and depict on screen. 
Personally I find the scene where he gets furious on the waiter in the restaurant when the bill is presented to Shabana Azmi, depicted exceedingly well. While Naseeruddin Shah portrays the dignity of a visually impaired person striving to find his way in the world, Shabana Azmi plays the widow who finds her solace in working for the blind school and is struggling to adjust to their 'different' world. 
There is a scene where she stands in the classroom and asks the students to introduce themselves. She begins by saying “Yahan se shuru karte hain” and points to a child forgetting that she is in a blind school and the words 'here' and 'there' have little meaning. The entire sequence is simple yet very powerful and moving.
Om Puri is hardly recognizable in his lean young version as compared to when you see him today. There isn’t much there in the script for him and he renders in a brief supporting role as another fellow visually impaired friend of Anirudh. 
I always believed Mohan Gokhale could have gone on to play bigger meatier parts. It is sad that his talent was largely wasted in side roles in most of his movies. Probably one would remember a tele serial called 'Mr. Yogi' as one of his main works which was aired during early years of Doordarshan.