Mandi (1983) - Possibly one of the largest talent assemble for a Hindi movie other than Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (which incidentally has more or less the same cast). It's like a who's who of 70s-80s talented lot of actors and actresses. Naseer, Shabana, Smita, Om Puri, Neena Gupta, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Soni Razdan, Anu Kapoor, Saeed Jaffery, Amrish Puri, Anita Kanwar, Pankaj Kapoor, Ratna Pathak.. hooff.. and a few more. Though many of them are wasted, some shine all the way. And Naseer and Shabana excel. I expected a meatier role for Smita, but she was a miscast and even her performance was not upto her standards. The film, based on a short story called 'Anandi', intends to be a comedy, with some awkward reality as the base, making it a strange mix. Still throughout, the movie keeps the lighter spirit flowing, mainly through Shabana's character. Shyam Benegal shows his flair for humor. Pt. Satyadev Dube provides some very good lines and Vanraj Bhatia makes the music score as closer sounding to the environment as only he could. A good watch.

DVD. 7/10. E3.Q4.R1