1992's Muskurahaat

Yesterday afternoon, lazily, I was browsing through the TV channels. On a channel called, Zee premiere, movie called 'Muskurahaat' was being shown. A slightly complicated story made into an awesome movie- watching Muskurahaat really made me smile from the heart.

Released in 1992, Muskurahaat was the first Hindi film written and directed by Priyadarshan. Music by Ram-Laxman was fairly pleasant with a few catchy tunes to hum for the entire day. The movie's main caste included Jay Mehta, Revathi and Amrish Puri with a talented bunch of supporting actors and actresses.

The movie is shot at Ooty, where Amrish Puri (Justice Gopichand) lives as a retired judge. Jay Mehta (Pritam) is a tourist guide in Ooty and son of Justice Gopichand's friend. The movie starts with Revathi (Nandini) coming to Ooty. As an eager guide to guide a beautiful tourist, Pritam comes to Nandini's help. For his disappointment, he finds out she is a mad girl. Pritam is shown to be a man with a good consciousness who, though unwillingly, takes up the responsibility of taking care of Nandini. The twist in the movie comes just before the interval when Nandini reveals she is not mad and tells she is looking for her father called Justice Gopichand. Pritam promises to help her. The rest of the movie is all about Nandini trying to get close to her father.

Priyadarshan's movies always have an awesome surprise element in them. In Muskurahaat, he beautifully surprised the audience by narrating Nandini is not mad. Another twist in the story comes when in the end Justice Gopichand reveals Nandini is not his daughter.

The movie is a proper Hindi masala mix- with perfect emotions, actions, drama and the best of all comedy. What I like about the movie is that Priyadarshan has mixed an amazing sense of humor in a complicated plot which otherwise would have been a very serious movie. The tantrums of Nandini as a mad girl, Pritam's efforts to get rid of Nandini initially and later on Justice Gopichand's attitude as an old man- they are all instances of practical humor which probably go unnoticed in the competitive film industry.

Muskurahaat shows superb performances by Amrish Puri and Revathi. Their acting has given justice to every effort put by Priyadarshan. All in all the movie is a masterpiece from the days of my childhood. But today also it leaves a muskurahaat on my face.