Sooryavansham

Sooryavansham review :

A Padmalaya production featuring Amitabh Bachchan in a father- son role; Sooryavansham came in summer of 1999 just a couple of months after Big B's Lal Badshah which managed to make money in the Northen interiors despite the heavy criticism. Sooryavansham wasn't that lucky and it tanked at the box office in no time!!

Surprisingly, the film became a rage when it premiered on Sony Max and must have been screened atleast thousand times on this channel. Today, it has become a cult classic with memes popping up on the poisoned kheer and what not!!

Amitabh Bachchan was terrific in the older avatar of Thakur but seemed out of place as his youngster son. Maybe, a younger star like Ajay Devgn or Akshay Kumar would've worked here but then jaane bhi do yaaro!!

Curiously, Rekha dubbed for the lead heroine Soundarya as well as Jayasudha who played the mother. Her familiar husky voice elevated both the ladies performance to a significant extent. Anupam Kher and Kader Khan provided the comic quotient efficiently. Current heartthrob Ishan Khattar's parents Rajesh and Neelima appear in small roles.

Sooryavansham is also memorable for Bachchan crooning his own number "Chori se chori se"... it was his lean phase when he was trying to gain his ground in his much touted second innings. But as they say, legends never go. They just adapt to the time. That's exactly what Bachchan did after facing failure since his ill fated Mrityudaata (1997). He re-invented himself with Kaun Banega Crorepati and Mohabattein in 2000 and hasn't looked back since!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

Amitabh is the main reason I am giving this movie a 7. He is quite convincing in the roles of both father and son. Some of the plot lines, though, are not as convincing, especially towards the end. I concur completely with another reviewer who felt that the comedy attempts were unnecessary and want to add that the comedic music cues were grating and distracting. I came very close to fast forwarding during these sequences. The subtitles were also very hard to follow, primarily because they were so small and because of their fancy font.

The acting was good throughout, especially by Amitabh and all the female characters. The music was OK and some of the songs were quite memorable. I still cannot understand, though, why so many Bollywood films do not have subtitles for the songs. The film quality is not what one would expect from some of the more recent Bollywood films, blurry and choppy at times -- at least on my DVD.

Technically, the DVD had other problems -- while the various features went from top to bottom, one had to press the right key to go from top to bottom. Also, two thirds of the way through, the subtitles stopped and I had to return to the chapter and start the subtitles again.

Though Big B as father was top class but as a Son he looked quite tired and old. A fresh different face would have done wonders in the Box Office collections. A typical South Indian Platter with a bit of North Indian Tadka.

Though a flawed film. This movie is the best Bachchan film in years, with the Big B giving a restrained performance. The comedy sequences are out of place, with little relevance to the plot. It's a shame that this movie flopped. Die hard Big B fans will enjoy this film

Movie is good ,satisfying,gives lighter moments,have some stupid but funny scenes.Ii is touchy and a good emotional drama.A good time pass for 186 minutes. It is the movie which shows a father -son relationship with some moral values.A illiterate person can be successful due to his qualities,his moral values and etc etc.. Amitabh is a legend and this movie is a good example of his high class acting.His role as a Hera is simple superb. It is much different from movies which show simple fight scenes, copied stories. Sooryavansham for everyone and not for a particular age-group. In my views this movie is at least one time watch.