Anubhav

1971 139’ b&w Hindi d/s Basu Bhattacharya pc Arohi Film Makers co-dial Sagar Sarhadi co-dial/co-lyr Kapil Kumar co-lyr Gulzar c Nandu Bhattacharya m Kanu Roy lp Sanjeev Kumar, Tanuja, Dinesh Thakur, A.K. Hangal

Bhattacharya’s best-known film after Teesri Kasam (1966) began a series of melodramas about the problems of married couples (cf. Avishkar, 1973). The newspaper editor Amar (Kumar) grows distant from his wife Meeta (Tanuja) because his new assistant is her former lover Shashi (Thakur). Amar cannot accept that his wife is no longer enamoured of Shashi. The film is part of the early FFC- sponsored ‘art-house’ cinema. It is shot on location in one of Bombay’s best-known and most expensive high-rise apartment blocks. The soundtrack rather crudely takes its cue from Godard, interrupted by radio advertising jingles, combined with the leitmotiv of a ticking clock in addition to two popular Geeta Dutt songs, Mera dil jo mera hota and Koi chupke se aake sapne sulake.

Film