Sadma

Sadma
	Poster
Directed by	Balu Mahendra
Produced by	Raj N. Sippy; Romu N. Sippy
Written by	Balu Mahendra (screenplay); Gulzar (lyrics)
Story by	Balu Mahendra
Starring	Sridevi; Kamal Haasan; Gulshan Grover; Silk Smitha
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	Balu Mahendra
Edited by	D. Vasu
Release date	8 July 1983; ; ; ; ;
Running time	141 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Sadma (Hindi: ?????; English: Trauma) is a 1983 Indian romantic drama film, written, directed and filmed by Balu Mahendra. It stars Sridevi and Kamal Hassan in the lead roles along with a music composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The film tells the story of Nehalata Malhotra (Sridevi), a young woman who regresses to childhood as result of retrograde amnesia after suffering a head injury in a car crash. Lost, she ends up trapped in a brothel before being rescued by Somu (Haasan), a lonely school teacher who falls in love with her.

The film was a remake of Mahendra's own 1982 Tamil film Moondram Pirai, which also starred Sridevi and Hassan. Sadma was widely acclaimed by critics for its direction, screenplay, music and performances. Sridevi's performance as an amnesiac woman was widely praised and is considered as one of the finest performances in Indian film history. Although a commercial failure upon release, Sadma over the years has gained a cultural following and cult status and is considered to be one of the finest Indian movies to be ever made.

At the 31st Filmfare Awards, Sadma received three nominations : Best Actress (Sridevi), Best Actor (Hassan) and Best Story.

Plot

Nehalata (Sridevi) is a young, modern girl who is unfortunately involved in an accident after which she loses part of her memory.

The doctor diagnoses her with retrograde amnesia that leaves her with the memory and intelligence of a six or seven-year-old.

One day, some crooks find out that she has retrograde amnesia, and hence abduct her from her parents and sell her to a brothel far away in order to make money out of her.

Luckily, inside the brothel she meets Somu (Kamal Haasan)-a school teacher who realizes that she has been tricked into the trade and rescues her. He takes her to his home in Ooty where he lives with his grandmother and begins to take care of her.

He addresses Nehalata as Reshmi, which was the pseudonym given to her at the brothel.

Reshmi reciprocates Somu's care as they spend several months together sharing an amazing and innocent relationship that treads the tender line between affection and love.

The sub-plot of the film follows the wife of Somu's boss who is attracted to Somu, though Somu never ever reciprocates her feelings. It depicts how the outside world succumbs to carnal desires which have no place in Somu and Reshmi's relationship.

After a few months, with the advice from neighbours, Somu finally takes Reshmi to the village's medical practitioner who cures her and brings her back to her original sanity as she regains her memory up to the point of her accident. The neighbours and medical practitioner call her parents to come and see her alive and well now.

The parents arrive and are overjoyed, they all embrace and give thanks to the medical practioner of the village who in turn tells them to be grateful to a man called "Somu" who had brought her to him for treatment. Anyway, the parents can not stay longer here so they say "thank you", prayers and leave some gifts for Somu and the GP, and then depart with their daughter after tea. The re-united family boards a train that day to return to Home sweet Home..

When Somu comes to meet Reshmi later that day, he finds out from the villagers and the GP that Reshmi and her parents have left long ago and he was late. He follows the train to the destination.

He meets Reshmi there but unfortunately despite all his efforts, she is indifferent to him .Thus, she is seen abandoning a heart broken Somu who was so attached to his "reshmi" and the unique relationship that they had once briefly shared.

Cast

Sridevi as Nehalata Malhotra "Reshmi"
Kamal Haasan as Somprakash "Somu"
Gulshan Grover as Balua
Silk Smitha as Soni
Paintal as Paintal
Arvind Deshpande as J. K. Malhotra
Viju Khote as Police Inspector David
Birbal as Shamu
Leela Mishra as Somu's Neighbor "Nani"
Ashalata Wabgaonkar as Rajeshwari Malhotra
Shreeram Lagoo as Dr. Khandeparkar
Padma Chauhan as Madam

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, and the lyrics were penned by noted lyricist Gulzar.

Sadma (1983) Original Soundtrack
Sr.	Song	Singer/s	Duration
1.	Aye Zindagi Gale Lagaa Le	Suresh Wadkar	05:30
2.	O Babuaa Yeh Mahua	Asha Bhosle	04:22
3.	Surmayee Ankhiyon Mein	K. J. Yesudas	04:36
4.	Ek Dafa Ek Jungle Tha	Kamal Haasan, Sridevi	07:09
5.	Yeh Hawa Yey Fiza	Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar	06:03
6.	Surmayee Ankhiyon Mein (Sad)	K. J. Yesudas	01:18

Trivia

'Sadma' marked Ilaiyaraaja's debut in Bollywood.
The song 'Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza' was sampled by GonjaSufi in his album 'Sheep'
Music director A. R. Rahman worked as an assistant to Ilaiyaraaja for this film.
Ilaiyaraaja retained two of his compositions from the original Tamil version.
The song "Vaanengum Thanga Vinmeengal" was tuned differently for the Hindi version as "Yeh Hawa Yeh Fiza".
The song "Narikkathai" was replaced with the song "Ek Dafa Ek Jungle Tha" in the Hindi version.
The cult song "Poongatru Puthithanathu" was replaced with slightly different "Aye Zindagi Gale Laga Le" which itself went on to become a cult song in Hindi.

Critical reception

Sadma received widespread critical acclaim with major appreciation drawn towards Sridevi's performance. On IMDb, the film has a high score of 8.5/10. It is included in iDiva's list of '10 Must Watch Movies That Weren't Blockbusters'. Sridevi's performance as a child-woman suffering from amnesia was called by Indian Express "a milestone in her illustrious career". Sridevi also featured in the Mid Day list of 'Challenging Roles played by Bollywood Actors' describing her act in the film as "her best performance ever".^[6] In 2012, Adil Hussain, Sridevi's co-star in English Vinglish revealed that he became a fan of the actress after watching her in Sadma.^[7] The Sridevi-Kamal Hasan pair also appeared on the CNN-IBN list of 'Greatest Romantic Couples on Celluloid'.^[8] The climax of Sadma is included in the CNN-IBN list of 'Bollywood's 50 Most Memorable Scenes of All Time'.^[9]