Ghar Dwaar (1985) User Reviews

Clean, regressive cinema

[sharanidli-719-955505 · 4/10 · 22 June 2013]

I caught Ghar Dwar on a bus from Gaya to Patna yesterday. What really impressed me initially was how "clean" the experience was: the camera- work was steady without ever threatening to be spectacular; the scene composition, the dialogues were all middling, which, when compared to the bilge that was dished out in the mid-eighties, borders on the remarkable; and, most interestingly, the editing was superb-- never was one allowed to linger on a scene for longer than required, even the comedy track (featuring the dependable Kader Khan and the excellent Ashok Saraf) didn't play out like extended intrusions.

However, the story itself is very ordinary: if one could write a program to auto-generate scripts from the eighties using a standard algorithm, this would be the most likely outcome. You have all the unimaginative tropes: a loving but poor family (with extra-ordinarily strong sibling love) headed by a sacrificial and saintly couple who are put through all sorts of tests, an evil daughter-in-law from a rich household chiefly responsible for the aforementioned tests, a man (Raj Kiran) blinded by love for the aforementioned daughter-in-law, and a clutch of penny-pinching money-lenders.

All of this makes for a tiresome viewing, but on a bus with speakers blaring, one has little choice. As a cautionary note, this movie has a couple of wife/woman-beating (admittedly, they were negative characters) scenes that really makes one squirm. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the audience in the bus really seemed to enjoy them.

Must watch movie.

[aloksrivastava-89708 · 10/10 · 17 November 2023]

Today I saw Tanuja ji's film 'Ghar Dwar'. It is an excellent film. How graciously Tanuja ji accepted the role of a middle-aged and old woman in this film is commendable, her own daughter Kajol, who is in her mid fifties, still does not have that guts which her own mother has. If the actors of that time like Rajesh Khanna Saheb, Tanuja ji had not sacrificed for young generation actors and had competed with these actors, then their number would not have come. The new actors of this era and the middle aged actors who compete with the new actors should watch this film and similar films and should learn. The old actors should learn what kind of roles they should play now and the new actors should learn that by showing these films to these old actors, they can make them aware about the imbalance caused by these old generation actors. Watching and learning from these types of movies will not only in the interest of bollywood film industry but also in the interest of the whole nation.

Trivia

[chrndpanand · 3 April 2020]

In this movie Tanuja's real mother Shobhna samarth has played the role of her Mother-in-law