Parineeta
Parineeta
| 10 June 2005 (USA)
Parineeta Trailers

Since childhood, Lolita has been in love with her next-door neighbor, Shekhar, whose father, Navinchandra, is a wealthy but heartless businessman. When she discovers Navinchandra's plan to seize her uncle's home and turn it into a hotel, she decides to seek help from Girish, a steel tycoon. Shekhar, however, suspects romantic motives are behind Lolita's entreaty.

Reviews
Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??
ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Suman Shakya Although the movies have evolved a lot in terms of technicality, good stories are still in a dearth. Especially the literary quality has been a missing gem in the modern cinema. In the B/W era, the film makers like Bimal Roy adapted stories from novels of distinguished writers like Rabindranath Tagore and Saratchandra Chattopadhya and brought the essence of the novels on the screen.In the term, "Parineeta" fills the void to some extent. Well, you'll miss the literary essence of the novel in this film as it is set more into a modern day setting though the story is claimed to be of '60s. Based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya's novel, "Parineeta" (literally meaning a married woman) tells the story of womanhood, friendship, commitment, and humanity and has been given a backdrop of three Bengali families living in a neighborhood of Calcutta. The story perpetuates a kind of interest throughout but the climax looks a bit bizarre. The period details and dialogues could have been better, Despite its shortcomings, the film is still welcome for the piece of rich literary work it recites. Besides, it notes a remarkable entry of one of the better actresses in Hindi Cinema, Vidya Balan.Rating: 2 stars out of 4
Lavinia Stan The modern adaptation of a 1914 novella of reputed writer Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Parineeta tells the love story of Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan), son of ruthless businessman and developer Navinchandra Roy (Sabyasachi Chakraborty), and Lolita (Vidya Balan), his much poorer neighbour, who know each other since childhood and marry secretly on an auspicious day by simply exchanging garlands. To prevent Navinchandra's cunning schemes to evict Lolita's family from their stately home, newly arrived Girish (Sanjay Dutt) takes them under his wing, providing financial support and entertainment. In a rage of jealousy, Shekhar agrees to marry Gayetri (Dyia Mirza), but on finding the truth, defies his father and brings Lolita home, acknowledging their relationship to the world. Fine-tuned performances of newcomer Vidya Balan and veteran Saif Ali Khan, superb cinematography and costumes, painstaking attention to recreating Calcutta of the 1960s, touching and engaging music, and the talented hand of first-time director Pradeep Sarkar make Parineeta one of the best Bollywood movies of all times, despite an overcooked ending that has very little credibility and sits somewhat awkwardly with the rest of the film. For any Westerner wishing to delve in the world of Bollywood without getting burnt by silly melodrama, superficial acting and over-the-top tearjerkers, this critically acclaimed period movie is an excellent starting point.
kramachandran This is a badly made, poor remake of Bimalda's classic Parineeta. The story is based on Sarat Chandra's book of the same name and it is a distortion of the original. Well one can appreciate some degree of creativity but not sham creativity. The acting by everyone is affected and the entire movie is a sham. Shekar's father's choice of words in abusing Lolita ( Balan ) sounds cheap and morbid and destroys the spirit of the original story. Again the scene where Shekhar ( Saif ) slaps Lolita is quite out of place with the flow of the movie and the characters, is quite jarring to the senses, and could have been easily avoided. Similarly the sex scene between Saif and Balan is quite unbecoming the movie and a cheap gimmick to attract the audience. When a creative work is not faithful to the original and destroys it's spirit, the work falls apart. The song "piyu bole" is quite OK. Another silver lining in the dark cloud of this movie is the scene where Saif stands up for himself and rebels against his father. This is a positive departure from the original and deserves credit. On these counts this movie deserves 3 stars. The song and dance by Rekha smacks of artifice and it is a put on. The song is tuneful but I remember having heard it somewhere before and if Iam not mistaken the tune appears to have been plagiarized. Well, agreed the times have changed from then to now. But then this movie is not even reflective of the modern times.This is what happens when the modern Bollywood film makers get increasingly obsessed with impressing the NRIs and grabbing the lucrative NRI entertainment market. Such movies end up neither belonging to India nor to any other part of the world.
naidu88669 I have never commented on a movie before, but I would really like to state how much I enjoyed the film "Parineeta". I am from the India diaspora (third generation) and though I don't speak any Indian languages, I enjoy watching Hindi films.This is the first time I am seeing Saif Ali Khan in such a mature role which is very becoming of his character. His acting was superb. He could even act as The Great Gatsby, rendering a very romantic and longing portrayal of a fragile love circumstance. His attire and demeanor, expressions were very appealing. Hats off to the direction of this wonderful story of an earlier time.Vidya is also extremely beautiful. Her acting was fantastic for a newcomer. She has that rare beauty that is not often seen in the film actresses these days. Please bring her in more films, especially these types of dramatic roles. I would love to see these two in another film.I have seen the film twice.The music was very endearing, romantic and very suitable for this film.Wonderful movie.