Silsila (1981)

Silsila Movie Trailer 1981

Crew

Directed by     Yash Chopra
Produced by     Yash Chopra
Written by     Mrs. Preeti Bedi,Yash Chopra,Sagar Sarhadi,Romesh Sharma
Music by     Shiv-Hari
Cinematography     Kay Gee
Editing by     Keshav Naidu
Distributed by     Yash Raj Films

Cast

    Amitabh Bachchan as Amit Malhotra
    Jaya Bachchan as Shobha Malhotra
    Rekha as Chandni
    Shashi Kapoor as Sqdr. Leader Shekhar Malhotra (Special Appreance)
    Sanjeev Kumar as Dr. V.K. Anand
    Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Inspector Kulbhushan
    Sudha Chopra as Shobha's mother
    Sushma Seth as Actress

Story

Orphaned at very young ages, Shekhar Malhotra (Shashi Kapoor) and Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) are survivors and lead independent lives with Shekhar being a Squadron Leader with the Indian Air Force, and Amit a emerging writer. Shekhar has fallen in love with lovely Shobha (Jaya Bachchan), while Amit woos attractive Chandni (Rekha). Amit finds professional success in as playwright in Delhi with a successful premier and launch in the literati circles. This decisively wins Chandni for Amit, and they share a brief courtship period, and affairs couldn't be better.

Chandni's parents almost arrange her wedding when they learn of her love for Amit. Both brothers plan to marry together. But fate has something much worse in store for them when Shekhar is killed in a plane crash, leaving behind a pregnant and devastated Shobha. Taking pity on Shobha's plight, Amit marries her and writes to Chandni to forget him. This news breaks Chandni's heart, and she goes on to marry Dr. V.K. Anand (Sanjeev Kumar), who is very much in love with her.

Tragedy strikes once more, and Shobha loses her child in a car accident. With no child to tie them together, Amit and Shobha drift apart. Amit happens to meet Chandni and they secretly rekindle their romance. They meet on the sly, until one day when Chandni accidentally hits a passerby. The police get involved, but Amit manages to hush the matter up. But their secret meetings will no longer be secret anymore for the police inspector in charge of this accident is none other than Shobha's cousin (played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who is determined to expose Amit's affair with Chandni. Soon Amit decides that he can no longer continue this loveless marriage and wishes to reconcile with Chandni. This news shatters Shobha but she does not lose hope. She believes that if her love is true he will return to her. Amit and Chandni leave town to start a new life elsewhere but tragedy strikes. Dr. Anand's plane crashes causing both to return to the wreckage site. There Amit is confronted with Shoba who in a fit of emotions reveals that she is expecting his child. There Chandni herself realises her love for her husband. The film ends with a song portraying Amit and Shoba living happily with a message "Love is faith and faith is forever".

Did you know?

1. There were several cast changes for this movie. The original star cast was Amitabh Bachchan, Padmini Kolhapure and Parveen Babi. Then Smita Patil replaced Padmini Kolhapure before finalising with Jaya Bhaduri and Rekha, who had been recommended by Amitabh Bachchan.
2. Musicians 'Shiv Kumar Sharma' and 'Hari Prasad Chaurasia''s debut as the composer duo known as Shiv-Hari.
3. Amitabh Bachchan was deeply involved with the music of this film. This resulted in the Holi song "Rang Barse", which was sung by Amitabh Bachchan and composed by his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan.
4. Amitabh Bachchan and Lata Mangeshkar recorded their portions of "Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum" separately. Years later, when they were on friendly terms, they expressed their regret at having to do so when they could have gotten to know each other.
5. This is the only movie in which Shashi Kapoor is the Elder brother of Amitabh Bachchan. All their other movies in which they are brothers, Amitabh Bachchan is the elder one.
6. The song "Neela Aasman" is actually based on a tune that Shammi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan composed together while shooting for Zameer. During the making of Silsila, Amitabh Bachchan called Shammi Kapoor to ask permission to use the tune. Shammi Kapoor had totally forgotten about it, and when reminded, he happily said: "Go ahead! Do whatever you want to with it!"