Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin (1987) User Reviews

good political drama, largely neglected

[ajji-2 · 8/10 · 30 December 2003]

i saw this film many years ago. it's about a group of old men (and a woman), who are friends & used to be radicals or activists in their youth. the film studies how they have changed over the years, & how the world has changed. this interesting little drama (completely devoid of typical Bollywood cheese)

deserves a wider audience.

Excellent movie...not widely recognized

[BostonBrahmin · 9/10 · 22 May 2004]

Sudhir Mishra's first movie and is about freedom fighters who are disillusioned by the state of affairs in the country. They wonder if this was what they all fought for in their younger days.

Although Mishra's other movies have been well recognized by the audience, this one has just faded away. Perhaps it is because he strayed from the run-of-the-mill Bollywood formula when this was made in the late 80s.

Deserves more credit and a must see.

I looked around for DVDs on the web but sadly could not find any!

Great movie with a fine sense of atmosphere

[harmanjitsingh · 8/10 · 13 June 2005]

Three freedom fighters get together in the twilight of their lives near a college in modern India. The college is witnessing an agitation by the students against the authorities and the police for shielding a criminal, who is the son of the college's chairman.

All three of them seem to be haunted by something terrible which happened during their youth. They are unwilling to even acknowledge the existence of that event.

The drama that is being played in the college reaches a climax when the police raids the college violently and a few students are injured and a policeman killed. The honest student leader is the prime suspect and the police launches a hunt against him.

As an atonement for what had happened in the past, the three old men, along with a old woman friend, who brings catharsis to them for what happened in their pasts, shelter the young college leader.

They are unable to save his life eventually, but the very fact that they tried, strikes a poignant chord as they leave the town in a train, peaceful and strangely free of guilt.

The film is a scathing indictment of politics and corruption in India and contrasts idealism with human frailty very gracefully.

Absolute work of brilliance.

[drrajeevshukla · 10/10 · 7 March 2020]

Disillusioned n flawed freedom fighters & the path to redemption through contemporary situation. Loved it when watched in DD.

Nostalgic Classic Cinema

[amitkp2023 · 10/10 · 26 September 2022]

This is a realistic Cinema and not formulla Bollywood. A Beautiful story of 3 old College batchmates (Manohar Singh, Habib Tanvir and BM Shah), who after retirement, sets out on a casual memory tracing journey to their College. The nostalgic journey brings back old memories. They come to know that their college ex-batchmate Ismat Mirza (Kusum Haidar) is also in the same town. The present times at their old College is also witnessing turmoil with Student Union politics. An honest student leader, Rohit (Pankaj Kapoor) is entrapped falsely in the political twists & turns of events. A journalist Savita (Sushmita Mukherjee) tries to unravel the truth of the happenings.

Will the three friends along with their female college ex-mate Ismat Mirza (Kusum Haidar) be able to save Rohit? Will they able able to come to terms with their haunting past (a parallel story of the same college during Freedom Struggle days), and absolve themselves too in the process? Will their journey culminate in Atonement and Peace finally?

A Requiem for the foregone past memories ! A nostalgic cinematic journey for batchmates of youth.