Life changes and throws us in a disarray and we need to accept and live through it. This movie shows how decisions taken to care of loved ones end up straining the same relationships. But one needs to live through it to accept it and let the love prevail. The movie is about 2 best friends, Rewa (Tabu) and Sia (Sushmita) who want different things from life. Rewa gets married to Dhruv (Sanjay Suri) and wants to have a child, whereas Sia wants to focus on her photography career and keeps resisting the proposal from the enchanted Saahil (Palash Sen). Rewa is in distraught after she suffers a miscarriage and comes to know she will never be able to become a mother again. Seeing Rewa's desire to have a child, Sia volunteers to become a surrogate mother for Rewa and Dhruv's child. As time goes by, Rewa is jealous of Sia for all the attention and support she is getting because she is bearing a child. This coupled with the strain in Sia's relationship with Saahil because of her decision to become pregnant, complicates the interpersonal relationships between the main characters. But they all go through the period and face their own emotions as well of each others and by the time the child is born, their love and care for each other pulls them through. Rewa is more appreciative of what Sia has done for her and Sia is more appreciative of how much Saahil's love mean to her. This is a movie with the heart at the right place. The emotions and turmoils that each of the character faces is the essence of the film. It is beautifully shot and has excellent cinematography. Even after almost 2 decades the movie doesn't look dated. Lyrics from Gulzar are great but the songs aren't very impactful, even the background music is not complimenting the storytelling style. The sloppy editing makes it difficult for the viewer to stay engaged, but the story just about saves the day. Also the characters of Sia and Saahil seem a little inconsistent and under developed. All the actors on their end play their parts earnestly.

A highly anticipated movie, for it was from Meghna Gulzar, daughter of celebrated poet-writer-director Gulazar. And more because, 'dil chahta hai' by Farhan Akhtar (son of another famouus poet-writer Javed Akhter) before this had created a wave of anticipation from this new breed of directors...anyways...the movie written/directed by Meghna Gulzar, is about four people and their journey through a period in their lives where their lives get entangled due to a twist of fate. The film's theme - surrogate motherhood has been dealt with in other hindi movie before this, but none so sensitively. This is the strong point of the movie, where Gulzar's sensitivity shines through his daughter's work. Some of the scenes in the movie are handled very well and all the lead actors do a very decent job giving a very sensitive performace. Sanjay Suri and Tabu look great together on the screen and both of them emote very well, Sushmita is good in parts but sometimes her character itself seems confused, thus making her look less convincing. Palash Sen's charcter is the weakest link, it's never clear in the movie, why he does what he does. That's where Meghna fails as a writer. Also the movie has a very jerky narrative in the first half where the viewer is deliberately confused and I wonder if it was intentional...or was the director trying to build some kind of suspense ? I believe the movie should have been played chronolgically. I'll be be lenient to the director and attribute this to her inexperience. The music is good, but the songs break the narrative, especially in the second half. But in all, a good subject, fair treatment (there is much room for improvement though) and great visuals make this a decent family movie. Also being her first movie, I'll give her a cool 7.0/10.0. But we expect a lot better from her.

Meghna Gulzar's directorial debut is a fantastic effort. She takes a rather serious topic of surrogate motherhood and produces a gem of a movie that is very real-life. Sush and Tabu give one of the most convincing performances of their individual careers. Sanjay Suri is fantastic as usual.Its a shame that he doesn't get as many chances as some other clowns like Fardeen Khan! Though I would say that the movie is slightly slow for everyday viewer. Cinematography is exceptional and all songs are part of the movie. I would highly recommend this movie to someone who looks for some substance in their movies.

Very poor marketing strategy. While every effort at intelligent cinema should be encouraged, this effort was like going up the wrong tree. Every movie maker need to know their audience. In particular for a picture with an unconventional theme as this. The sad reality is even in 2002 this kind of movie is not appealing to the masses. A movie can this could have made a great TV serial. The subject is itself not new. I remember seeing a similar movie 25 years ago starring Victor Bannerjee, Sharmila Tagore and Shabana Azmi.

Filhaal has a lot of beautiful things in it. Sushmita Sen and Tabu are two of them. And I don't just mean their looks but also their performances. Sushmita's performance, in my opinion is the best by an actress so far this year. Meghna Gulzar directs and writes the film beautifully for the most part. Manmohan Singh's camerawork is a feast for the eyes as is Nitin Desai's art direction. They have done it beautifully together. Sanjay Suri gives in a very mature performance and it is a joy to see how much he has grown since Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi. You can really see that Meghana is her father Gulzar's protege in every single scene of the film. But a couple of things stop the film from being a great one. First of all, the Palash Sen character is poorly written, though he does an earnest job of performing it. And secondly, Anu Malik and Gulzar work magic with some of the songs, especially 'Le Chale Doliyon' and the title track but at least two songs in the post interval portions should be removed. Other than that a good solid debut effort. Looking forward to more from this budding new director. Along with Tanuja Chandra and Farhan Akhtar, I believe she is one of the few new directors who have really gotten into the profession to make good entertaining films. 8/10.

Filhaal marks the directorial debut of Meghna Gulzar, the daughter of the great filmmaker and poet Gulzar and the popular actress Raakhee. Gulzar is one of my favourite directors so I was quite interested to see what his daughter had to offer. Filhaal is quite a nice film even if it's not perfect, and is generally a watchable drama about family life, human nature, and the fragility of relationships. The premise looked interesting to me: another film based on surrogate childbirth. Mainstream Indian filmmakers really like such themes because they allow them to create melodramatic tearjerkers which often give audiences an opportunity to indulge in their tears. Thankfully, Filhaal is far from being one such movie. It is for the most part subtle and restrained in execution, and although it does have its moments of high emotion (which all of us have), it never looks soapy or overly sentimental. Not everything about the film is convincing, and at times it lacks the ability to captivate, in spite of its appreciable concept. The film stars Tabu and Sushmita Sen and they seem to have a very good rapport with each other. Expectedly, Tabu does very well, but Sushmita gets a meatier part and she is convincing as the supportive and loving friend. Sanjay Suri is also very good, although his role is very passive and at times it feels that he's just there. The film's music, composed by Anu Malik, is so-so, but Asha Bhosle's "Filhaal" is one gem of a song which efficiently enhances the narrative. Overall, Filhaal is not an extraordinary film and at times it loses the point. I think the ending was very sugarcoated, but anyway, I think it's a good debut for Meghna Gulzar and is worth the watch, at least once.

Contains Spoilers!! I am back in Delhi after a Diwali celebration back home with family in Bangalore. One of the highlights of my visit was a delightfully spent afternoon catching up with my best friend from college, Lakshmi and her one month old son Aditya. It is in this very same twilight post College days where Filhaal begins with four friends stepping forward into the real world. Two of them Reva ( played by a very talented Tabu) and Dhruv ( Sanjay Suri) get married and are keen on starting a family. Reva's best friend Sia ( Sushmita Sen) forges her way with a career in photography - all the while resisting all of Sahil's charms for marriage. This background established, Filhaal, directed by Meghna Gulzar ( no introductions here!) is about child bearing in the subcontinent. Considered a defacto succesion to the act of marriage, it is only when things start going wrong for the woman when she begins to question how much of her identity comes from being a mother. Rewa is who Meghna Gulzar picks to bear the start of all that can go wrong with pregnancy. In her, Ms Gulzar questions the importance an Indian woman acquires with motherhood. Not hovering over her inability to sustain a pregnancy, it is Rewa's tryst with accepting an alternate solution - Surrogate motherhood - that is engaging about this film. Ms Gulzar's bold theme for a first film in an industry that is almost always played over the top is commendable. Her use of flashbacks to narrate her story helps pepper up a rather solemn plot. Unique to her treatment of this theme is Ms. Gulzar's ability to retain the freedom we assocaite with our college days in all her character's decisions. This is helped by the fact that the husband ( Dhruv) , boyfriend ( Sahil) and both families are unrealistically acquiesent and powerless. Sia, the surrogate, played by a charming Sushmita Sen is naive in her eagerness to accept the role of carrying Reva's child through a nine month term. Sushmita Sen with all her talents, in Filhaal, is failed by yet another insipid character. In contrast, Tabu once again comes out all guns firing - completely honest in her protrayal of Rewa's internal struggle. This is a movie about women and in retrospect I feel that Ms Gulzar's pseudo society ( husbands and boyfriends included) helps free up the room for us to focus on these women and the issue at hand- motherhood. Music, a must in most Hindi movies, here is quite a let-down. Despite good lyrics from Gulzar, the music ( both background and songs) is always one step behind the plot. The dramatic cinematography and amazing locations for the song sequences doesn't help much sadly. In wrapping up her story, Ms. Gulzar is hasty and impatient. A cheerful Sushmita Sen walks away from a child she carried for nine months. Rewa is reunited with her cheated motherhood, a big let-down for those of us who would have liked to see her triumph in her trials. Surrogate motherhood is left behind to - well - whoever else who gives a damn.

Filhaal.. the moment, the present.. is an intelligent movie educating the complications and conflicts that would follow a surrogacy pregnancy. Sia and Rewa, 2 very good childhood friends see each other through thick and thin of life. When Rewa has a miscarriage and loses ability to conceive, Sia steps in to offer her womb for the home of their baby. The bollywood audience has previously been mislead on the concept of surrogacy from the movie Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, where the husband is pushed into having an extra marital sex with a prostitute in order to be able to make her pregnant with is child, therefore the bearer of the family name. Here we see middle class people, dealing with middle class problems in relationships which most of us can identify with in our everyday lives. Rewa being jealous, and Sia being emotional over her pregnancy, is all legitimate walks of life which we can not change regardless of whether we are best friends or siblings. I like the way the true shade of human is shown here, the color gray, instead of the usual Miss goody two shoes. The way the story slowly unfolds is simply brilliant yet solemn. Sushmita's best performance as yet, Tabu is brilliant as always. I have been looking forward to Meghna's next film ever since.

The Gorgeous Cinematography that has been a patent of the Indian Cinema is evident in the title song scene-incidentally this is a real melody of a song. Sushmita Sen, after Aankhen where I thought that her performance was underrated, she has prevailed again with a very expressive perf.,whereas Tabu has the eternal quzzical look and she is grossly overarated as an actress similar to Salman Khan and Sharukh Khan. The hysteria about the acting prowess of these so called Stars has to stop since the intelligence of the viewer is being questioned. On a recent poll I have seen Salman Khan is rated as a better actor than Sharukh Khan and he in turn is voted better than Amitab Bachchan. This is absurdity at peak to say the least. There is some immaturity in direction akin to the immature and naive anwers that Beuty Pagent contestants come up with. But for a new Director this is excusable. The movie is watchable.

I was expecting more from this film than I received since the story line is interesting and both the female leads were great. Poor editing, some of which made no sense at all from the beginning to the end, seriously hampered this film and I agree with others who felt the film would have been more effective had it been chronological instead of choppy and disorganized. There were times when I wondered if a reel had been taken out of order. The first 45 minutes was very confusing. Thank goodness that the characters and the actors portraying them were interesting enough to sustain the film.