Mental illness is a subject that generally serves as a sideplot in Bollywood, for example the typical Bollywood movie would have the mother losing her mental balance after the death of her husband (Meri Jung). With that in mind I approached Baseera with an open mind and was very surprised by how mental illness is so pivotal to the plot. Rakhee is superb in the lead as a woman who becomes mentally ill after seeing her beloved sister as a widow and how she returns to her home after 14 years after making a recovery. Unfortunately her husband has married her beloved sister in her absence (not to mention fathered a child by her) and how the family try to keep up the pretense that everything was as the woman left her house all those years ago and what happens when she finds out. Yes the scenario is improbable to say the least but the cast really make the movie work. Other reviews have stated that the ending is bad but the way I see it is that the scenario is so tricky that there was no possible good way to resolve the situation. Shashi Kapoor is tremendous as her husband and Rekha as her husband whilst former 80's actress Poonam Dhillon and Raj Kiran lend excellent support. It was only after seeing it that I found out that the immensely talented Gulzar Sahib had a hand in writing this movie, which explains why this movie is of such high quality. All in all Baseera is a highly enjoyable drama and far better than the usual masala flicks.
