Beta (1992)

There is nothing new or fresh about this movie, it contains all the usual stereotypes in the form of wicked stepmother (check) feisty daughter in law (check) relatives who are hangers on (check) a shy and retiring husband who's overpowered by his wife (check). What keeps this film endearing are the stellar performances mostly from the female protagonists/antagonist, good music and an easy to follow storyline

Raju is a motherless boy who engages in way too much self pity for my liking, he cries himself to sleep every night thinking his mum will one day arrive, he also creates drama on the day of his birthday when he thinks his mother would actually walk into the room

True enough a new mother walks into his life on his birthday in the form of Laxmi (Aruna Irani) whom his father had just married, our little Raju is very happy

Laxmi however is only after their wealth but unknown to her is the fact that only when Raj marries and at the consent of his wife can the will be transferred.Laxmi along with her brother in law Totaram (Anupham Kher) thus begin her conniving game


she overpowers her husband (Akash kurana) torturing him mentally and physically and eventually makes him a prisoner in his own home

She also convinces Raju that education won't get him power, that real power comes from working in the fields all in the name of making him illiterate thus little Raju leaves his education and starts working on the fields. Raju grows up in awe of her and shows immense support and respect to her

One day he meets Saraswati (Madhuri Dixit) and takes a liking to her, over time the two fall in love and they get married

Laxmi is quite threatened by Saraswati as she's educated, Laxmi had been hoping Raju would marry an illiterate, whom she would be able to manipulate into transferring the property to her


Following their marriage Saraswati moves in with them, she find out that Laxmi doesn't have his best interests at heart but is infact only interested in getting her hands on his wealth.Thus follows a highly meldoramatic showdown between mother in law and daughter in law with some superb camp bitchy dialogues like those you can see below

Battle of the diva's

Beta was an enjoyable watch, there are very few bollywood movies that i've been able to watch in one go, Beta is one of them, the cheesy over the top melodrama + mother in law versus daughter in law showdowns were very soap opearish but such things excite me, the movie felt very much like a Cinderella slash Seeta aur Geeta affair. Another thing i loved about Beta was its ending i expected it to be over the top with a major masala style revenge dished out but it had forgiveness as a theme rather than revenge

Another thing i loved about Beta was the strong female character in the form Sarawati who wasn't the atypical self sacrificial, she was decisive and wasn't afraid to air her opinion. Madhuri did indeed carry this movie on her shoulders as she shines, she was also oozing some serious sexual appeal with all the chest thrusts, lip bites, and heavy breathing, this movie was a Madhuri show




Also a delight to watch was Aruna Irani as the wicked Mother in law, you just wanted to hate her, which meant she got her part down to a T, plus after a decade of supporting roles, this finally earned her a filmfare best supporting actress award


Anil Kapoor was impressive but i don't think his performance as Raju was enough to get him the Filmfare Best Actor Award i've seen him in better roles and in fact Aamir Khan is said to have been gutted he didn't win the best actor award for his role as Sanjay in 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander' for which he had been nominated in the same category as Anil's performance in Beta, Aamir as never attended the filmfare awards show ever since

Good music from Anand -Milind, i loved them all on first listen, there's 'khushiyon ka din aaya hai' where a happy Raju celebrates the joys of finding a new mother, the sweet 'main teri tu mera' & 'Koyal teri bolhi' and of course how could one talk about this movie without mentioning 'dhak dhak laga' with a highly sensuos Anil & Madhuri




Total Score: 7/10 ( soap opera masala at its best)

According to Imdb Beta is a remake of a 1989 Tamil film Enga Chinni Rasa, has anyone seen that, how is it in comparison to Beta?

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