Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi

Known as Guru Dutt's final offering as a producer, Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi is generally a nice and enjoyable picture. The story, taking place in the editorial department of a leading newspaper, starts well but loses its freshness and becomes a bit typical towards the end, and maybe it just seems dated today. Mala Sinha plays Amita, the managing director of her late father's company who wishes to entail his legacy of printing a reliable paper based on truth and fairness. The entire concept involving the daily life of people at the offices of the newspaper press, and the values people work with is actually very well presented. It is the triangular love story that follows which is a bit tiresome and kind of uninspiring to me, and sadly at some point it takes over the far more interesting proceedings involving the newspaper, which are more socially relevant. In this regard, a great start which provides a wonderful commentary succumbs to commercial constraints.

In its favour it can be said that the film benefits from an almost uniformly well-written script and fantastic dialogue. The songs are very good but they are not very suitable and some of them come in overly close proximities in the movie, dragging the narrative. The acting is very good. Mala Sinha, of the most skilled actresses of those times, successfully creates a tough screen persona of a strong and decisive woman with a soft inside. Dharmendra plays the young, idealistic and stubborn young man yet again, and he does it well. Tanuja is bubbly and effective in a role that I think the film would have been better without. Towards the end the film grows increasingly intense and melodramatic and I did not like the tragic ending. But the bottom line is that Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi is a highly watchable movie from Hindi cinema's golden era and it's a worthy effort, particularly for those who enjoy watching Guru Dutt's cinema.