Daag: A Poem of Love

Daag (1973) : Brief Review -

Yash Chopra attempts a complex love story on a weird question: Can a man actually live with two wives? Daag happens to be a poetic complexity featuring a struggling love story that goes through inevitable conflicts but ends up with a little dragged climax. The crappiest scene in the film has to be when Sunil's mother-in-law calls the police; she puts the telephone down, and the very next second we hear a police Jeep siren. Which police officer arrives in one second? How can a writer or director go ahead with such a bullshiit scene? Anyway, Daag goes ahead and grabs you with its narrative instantly, only to lose that grip in the ending. Let's look at the positives first. The film is about Sunil and Sonia, who get married, and while trying to save his wife from molestation, Sunil accidentally kills the culprit. He is sentenced by the court but escapes during an accident. Here, Sonia takes leave of her house because she is pregnant with Sunil's child. Years later, she finds Sunil married to another woman with a new name, Sudhir. Can they get together? This idea is really interesting since all the events look reliable. However, we have a few flaws in the last half an hour. Chandni, who is in love with Sunil/Sudhir, suddenly agrees to live together with Sonia and Sunil. Which woman would do that? The courtroom drama didn't really make much sense to me. If the court can take Chandni's testimony, why didn't they take Sonia's testimony in the first place? I mean, if a woman said that she was being raped and the killing happened in self-defence, do you think any court would ask for anything more? The Mayor of Casterbridge itself has those flaws, so I can't really blame Daag. Rest, it's a gripping drama with some really good scenes, performances, and 3 super hit songs: Ab Chahe Ma Roothe Yaa Baba, Ni Main Yaar Manana Ni, and Mere Dil Mein Aaj Kya Hai.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.