Arth (1982)

My Rating: 4/5

If you haven't watched this movie, then you have really missed something so important as far as Hindi Films are concerned.

The story is very much simple. You may feel that now but remember the year in which it was released and I would like to salute the writer-director Mahesh Bhatt for presenting and highlighting the issue of extra-marital affairs at that time!
It's a story about an extra-marital affair between Inder and Kavita, a popular film actress and the consequences of this affair on his marriage and his wife, Pooja. Kavita turns psychic and slowly starts feeling insecure about being in such an undefined relationship while Pooja leaves Inder's life to enter a life full of self respect, independence and dignity.

All the songs, be it Tum ye jo itna muskurarahe ho.. or Koi ye kaise baatayein.. are touching and heart-melting..Jagjit Singh and Kaifi Azmi deserves the credit which they got. Direction is too good and last but not least, the performances by almost all actors which keep you engaged till the end. Shabana Azmi delivers a flawless Pooja with such a calm and restrained performance. She excels truly in that party scene when she first faces Kavita. Kulbhushan Kharbanda plays the troubled man with much needed consciousness. Rohini Hattangadi and Karan Razdan are too flawless. But more specifically, I watched this movie for one actress and that is Smita Patil. Hat's Off to her!!! She has sparkled in whichever scenes she did and brought the warmth and craziness required to play an 'other' woman. Terrific performance by late Smita Patil.

Watch it if you haven't..at least for the peformances by Smita and Shabana..both truly compete!!