Paheli (1977) User Reviews

When does a girl become a puzzle for a boy ?

[jmathur_swayamprabha · 6/10 · 1 June 2012]

A boy and a girl of very young age become friends. They walk together, talk together, laugh together and play all kinds of tricks and nuisances according to their age. Nowhere they feel any gender difference between them. However one fine day, the boy feels that the girl has changed. She is no longer frank and free with him and shying away from him. The boy tries his level best to figure out the change in the attitude and behaviour of the girl towards him and sort out this issue but cannot. The girl has suddenly become a puzzle (PAHELI) for him. Can you tell him - why ? Watch Paheli (1977) to understand this puzzle.

Paheli (puzzle) is a movie from the flag-bearers of simplicity in Hindi cinema - Rajshri banner and true to their tradition (maintained in that period), they have made this story with a rural backdrop and selected teenager newcomers to play the principal roles. It's a lovely movie which touches the the chords in the romantic hearts again and again throughout its duration.

Montu (Satyajeet) is a schoolgoing teenager who lives with his widower father, Brij Mohan (Nitin Sethi) in the city. During summer vacation, he visits the village with his friends which is actually the hometown of his family and where his grandmother (Durga Khote) resides. There he happens to meet two teenager girls - Gauri (Nameeta Chandra) and Champa (Poornima Jayaram). Firstly, the girls play mischiefs on him and his friends but soon thereafter he gets friendly with them, especially with Gauri and when his friends return to the city after a couple of days, he doesn't go with them because he has started enjoying the village life, the love of his grandma and most importantly the company of Gauri. The twosome (Montu and Gauri) keeps on wandering about the village, the fields and all the nearby places. Innocent love has blossomed in their hearts but they being yet to grow-up, are not able to perceive it that way. They only know that they like to be with each other, eat together, sing together, laugh together and play together. Montu comes to know that being an orphan, Gauri is not comfortable in her home and gets a discriminatory treatment from her fostering aunt (Deena Pathak) as against her cousin sisters. He also happens to meet some golden-hearted people like Balraam (Arun Govil), his sweetheart, Kanak (Abha Dhuliya) who is the daughter of the Vaidya (Ayurvedic physician) of the nearby village and his aged and widow mother (Leela Mishra). After having a very nice vacation, Montu returns to the city with a promise made to his grandma as well as Gauri to come again next year.

Comes the next year and Montu is again in the village to spend his vacation. However despite the village being the same, there is a lot of change visible to and felt by him. The biggest change is the behaviour of Gauri. The girl who was after him like anything, teasing him, playing tricks on him, laughing with him, singing and dancing with him in the rain, showing him everything in the village and the nearby locations, bringing water-chestnuts for him to eat (because he is too fond of them) and doing what not for him; is shying away from him. Whenever he visits her, she does not come before him and talk to him. Why ? Asks his heart. The teenager girl has become a puzzle for this confused boy. He comes to know that Gauri's close friend - Champa has got married and now a groom is being searched for Gauri too. He is hurt less by this fact that Gauri may be married to someone, more by her maintaining distance from him. Feeling lonely and painstruck in his heart, Montu decides to go back to the city, never to return. When he is about to leave, Gauri arrives to bid farewell to him with his favourite chestnuts as a parting gift. And suddenly, the puzzle behind Gauri's seemingly strange behaviour gets resolved before Montu. And after that, he gets the biggest and the most pleasant surprise of his life from his grandma.

This lovely and touching movie tells that during puberty, girls get mature faster than boys. They come to understand the male-female attraction and the importance of their union through the sacred knot much earlier than the boys. And that's why girlish shyness comes to fore when there is attraction linked to the opposite sex in the heart of the girl concerned. The boy may not be able to understand it if they are of the same age group.

The artistes have been chosen quite wisely. All have next door looks and appear to be out of the real life people around us. Many characters including the heroine are débutantes. But these newcomers alongwith the hero - Satyajeet and seasoned character artistes like Leela Mishra, Durga Khote and Deena Pathak have delivered natural performances. They look ordinary but win hearts.

Blind lyricist-cum-composer Ravindra Jain has prepared ear-soothing songs for the movie which contain the fragrance of the Indian soil as well as the Indian culture. The songs have been admirably sung by Hemlata, Suresh Wadkar, Chandrani Mukherjee etc. The best song is - Sona Kare Jhilmil Jhilmil, Roopa Kare Kaise Khilkhil which the hero and his female friends sing while enjoying the downpour from the sky.

Paheli is by no means an outstanding or some great movie but it's a touching and lovable movie whose characters are heart-conquering. Indian villages are no longer the ones as shown in the old movies of Rajshri banner. However the simplicity, innocence and cleanliness in hearts shown in them is something to cherish forever. Virtues of life and family values are also there to adopt and preserve for the generation next. If you love simplicity and Indian villages, watch Paheli and lose your heart out to its characters.

When I saw this little gem of a movie from Rajshri- Paheli, I got so much sucked into its world that I found it very hard to get back to my world.

[dwnpiyush-336-40603 · 10/10 · 6 April 2012]

Paheli is a sweet story of a city boy visiting his grandmother in his ancestral village and a village girl who becomes his companion there. The movie has no big known names and was the launch vehicle for all its young actors including Arun Govil. Montu (Biswajeet) has just completed his school and decides to visit his grandmother in their village in his summer vacations along with some friends. There, he meets Gauri, an exuberant and full of life village girl who initially teases him a lot for his city ways and then strikes a great companionship with him. Montu's friends find it difficult to adjust to the village life despite the love and affection thrown at them from all quarters and leave for the city after two days. Montu stays behind and falls in love with the village and its people. He and Gauri spend some great and joyous time together- exploring the vistas and everything else the village had to offer. They run around, they fight, they argue, and they learn from each other. Theirs is the sweetest age of first love, and the movie revels in their joys of discovering it without actually realizing it.

Finally the time comes for Montu to leave the village and return to the city where he has to enroll in a college. He makes a promise to both his grandmother and Gauri that he would return to the village in his next summer vacations one year later. That one year passes rather quickly and he hurries back to the village, only to realize that many things have changed in the one year that has gone by, including Gauri who has started behaving rather weirdly in his company. Montu cannot make any sense of this frustrating paheli (puzzle/riddle) that he had to contend with. He wants Gauri to be the same way as she was one year back, but cannot realize a simple truth that was staring at them from all quarters- The simple truth that she and he were grown up people now. But everything gets sorted out at the end of course.

The movie is a delightful take on adolescent love. It smells of and exudes our Indian values and culture- the values that getting somewhat diluted in the current times. It is like an experience and transported me to a different world altogether- a world that is peaceful and compassionate. But most of all it introduced me to Gauri- a character that I absolutely loved. Nameeta Chandra, the girl who plays Gauri, does a great job of it and is truly the life and soul of the movie. After watching this movie, I did quite a search on her and realized that she almost disappeared after doing this movie (she did a devotional movie Ganga Dham with Arun Govil and a bit appearance in a Masala potboiler in the late 1980s- that's it). It is unfortunate as I found her enthralling and would have loved to see more of her. I guess I will have to make do with watching bits and pieces of Paheli every now and then. It is truly an unknown gem by Rajshri, and it's quite strange that there are not many reactions on the movie online. Though many people have commented really fondly about this movie and Nameeta on its YouTube songs links. So I guess I have not really gone mad!

I have written about more such lesser known Hindi movies on moviesandnomore.blogspot.in

Great, innocent romantic comedy

[imdb01 · 10/10 · 1 October 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** The same village. The same nature. The same fascinating atmosphere. But this time Monto did not find anything interesting. Everything appeared different. Why? That was the `Paheli'. Only the previous year after giving matriculation examination, he had come for the first time to the village on his father's insistence to spend few days with his grandmother. His four schoolmates had also accompanied him. In two days they got bored and left the village. Monto would have also left but he could not hurt the feelings of his grandmother. So, he stayed behind. And Gouri who used to tease him became his great friend. Together they found joy in the green valley. So when ultimately he left the village, he promised his grandmother that he would return next year in the vacation.

Accordingly, he returned to the village. But in one year he found that Gouri had changed beyond recognition. She would not talk to him. Wherever he sought her, she ran away from him. He could not know the reason for her strange behaviour. When he asked his grandmother, she replied that Gouri had grown up.

Monto was puzzled. Gouri understood his predicament. But she could not break her silence and behave in carefree manner as she used to, only a year ago. When Monto decided to go back, even the grandmother could not stop him. When Gouri came to know of his departure, she did not know what to do? Could she reveal the truth? Would he understand the reason for her metamorphosis? Find the answer to this `Paheli' on the silver screen.

wonderful movie

[kaushandi · 10/10 · 31 July 2011]

It is better than sharukh khan movie. It is a classic movie. 1970s best movies can be seen this way. Neat, Clean, and refreshing...Everybody may want to watch this movie. It can also cure depression. Music is great. Lyrics are outstanding. Direction is simple right from the life...Ramnagar and Jim Corbett National Park is shown in the best way possible....It is perfect example of medium class rural Indian story...It is hidden because of multi starred paheli which is overloaded with big performers whose performance is outperformed by small artists like who were doing debut movie. Pure things are hidden and natural and refreshing as always.