NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

activecell by far, nishaant is the best of Hindi language cinema i have yet seen. this film provoked powerful emotional responses, a sense of dread and tension. the impossible situation that befalls schoolmaster and his wife is so terrible and the decisions that they are forced to make are so absolutely destructive. gritty, grimy and bleak, this film had me pulling hairs out of my head; oh the injustice, oh the pain. on the other hand, this film is made from the light of an Indian sun, burning wildly with exoticism and ethnicity. There is also a kind of beauty and tender touch that leaves your heart melted to your chest, in particular the moments of love shown between mother and son, husband and wife, Vishwam and Sushila are all played incredibly well. On a lighter note, I'm declaring that through my endless passion for beautiful women both in cinema and in general, that Shabana Azmi is simply just hot. her performance as Sushila is so natural and her beauty so rare, i find it hard to place a contemporary in Hindi cinema to match.

kramachandran This movie is a timeless classic. One more feather to the cap of the director Shyam Benegal. This movie was nominated for Cannes film festival and unfortunately did not win any award. Again Benegal takes us on a tour of rural Andhra and he does it with his characteristic grace and élan. The camera work is as usual good which can be expected of a Benegal movie. The music is good and above all , all the actors have turned in performances of their life time. Smita Patil, though in a not so significant role, excels. Shabana as usual shines. The fall of the feudal system because of it's excesses is very ably painted on the celluloid screen. Again this movie was a commercial failure, and the time of it's release was witnessing a birth of a phenomenon of Bollywood , Amitabh. Maybe that was the reason for this movie's failure at the box office. But again the movie going masses in India have always treated the alternative cinema in a not so fair manner, so this movie was no exception. The only small defect that anyone can point out in such movies, is the facial makeup of the main characters. Always the heroes and heroines are a stand out from the general crowds. But again one may condone them as a matter of artistic or artiste's liberty.Any collector of movies should cherish this movie.

Cera I saw this film when it was released in the 70's, I was about 15 or so. I watched it again yesterday on DVD and once again was blown away by it brilliant acting, story, dialogue and subject matter.I love Indian mainstream cinema, it has a big place in Indian culture, which very unfortunately and sadly is dismissed by many as kitch, but popular culture is popular culture and it has it's importance in society.This movie on the other hand, is a perfect example of the other side of Indian cinema. I really wish movies by such great Indian directors (contemporary), can be shown in the West in regular cinemas (not small little places in remote parts of cities). To balance the mainstream of songs, dance, melodrama etc., we have this other cinema, which is so amazing, intelligent and brilliant, and very unfortunately has not been exposed to the NA market. It's just too sad!

shahkaal Nishant is a film that I first saw when I was about 12 years old and it had such a strong impact on me that I have felt the urge to view it again every 3-4 years. Nishant is the most dramatic and episodic of the three films that comprise Benegal's first trilogy - "Ankur", "Manthan" and "Nishant". The trilogy speaks to the coming of age of democracy and the last throes of the dying feudal system in India.In the early 70's, director Shyam Benegal harnessed some formidable talents in this set of films and the cast and crew is a who's who of modern Indian cinema. All the films were made on low budgets and are technically very spartan but this actually helps set the mood for the on-screen proceedings - making everything seem very real. The rural Indian locations, the performances of the extras, the weaving of local art and dance into the stories, the local dialects - all help make this film feel very real.In a nutshell, it is the story of a powerful local landlord (Amrish Puri before he became a caricature) who has two decadent alcoholic brothers (brilliantly wicked Mohan Agashe and Anant Nag), and one naive sibling (a very young Naseeruddin Shah), and who rules his village with an iron fist. He has inherited feudal power which is in slow decay. While he metaphorically rapes the people's land and crops, his brothers more literally prey on the women of the town - while their pet police patel (amazingly good Kubhushan Kharbanda in his pre-Shahkaal days) and village priest (writer Satyadev Dubey) collaborate in silence.In this time of discontent, a schoolteacher and his young wife (Girish Karnad & Shabana Azmi) arrive in town. Shortly thereafter, she is abducted by the two brothers as a gift for their youngest brother. The rest of the story deals with the schoolteacher's quest for justice - first through apathetic official channels and finally through revolution - leading to some very unpredictable and tragic consequences. The film starts slow, seethes and simmers and finally climaxes, set to a beautiful song by Priti Sagar, in a horrifying sequence that is among the best in Indian films - although it is very unlike Benegal.This is one of the best Indian films ever and as politically as relevant today as it was in the 1970s - especially given the many parallels that still exist in the world today. I give it a 9/10 - deducting one point because it fades when compared to the later films of my idol - Dev Anand.