Masoom

A happy family in Delhi: husband, wife and two daughters. Then a letter arrives. It emerges that the man has a son from a relationship years earlier, that the mother has died, and that the boy has nowhere to go. He comes to the house, and the real test falls to the wife. The film is not interested in betrayal. It is interested in the innocent child paying the price: nobody is made a villain, everyone behaves understandably, and that is exactly what makes it heavy. The form is calm and unshowy. The domestic scenes run long and the child actors are left to be natural. The source is Erich Segal's 1980 novel Man, Woman and Child. The screenplay, dialogue and lyrics are by Gulzar, the music by R. D. Burman, and the songs became some of the best-known in Indian cinema. It is Shekhar Kapur's first film as director. He would go on to make Bandit Queen and Elizabeth. Naseeruddin Shah plays the father, Shabana Azmi the mother and Jugal Hansraj the boy. It won Filmfare awards for best actor, lyrics and music, and the critics' award for best film. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian family drama, Gulzar's writing and quiet melodrama. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace. The film stays almost entirely indoors and its plot hangs on a single question.