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Silsila, which went on to become an adult look at extramarital affairs, may have suffered due to the director's penchant for gloss. For Chopra's two-pronged virtuosity spilled over from his two-dimensional thematic concerns. If films like Deewar and Trishul carried the smell of the sweat of the lower middle class in the first few reels, then Kabhie-Kabhie, Silsila, Chandni, Lamhe and those that came later revelled in a purely upper middle class ambience. One which was extremely ornate, scenic and luxuriant, in terms of set, background, the sartorial sense of the protagonists, their accessories and their life-styles. If an entire song sequence which hinged around the word 'flower' could be shot against the tulip fields of Holland, then Lamhe could have the protagonists flying from a haveli (mansion) in Rajasthan to a chalet in England. All within a single sweep that steers across the world of the bold and the the beautiful, the rich and the famous. So much so that sometimes the emphasis on form diverts the attention from content and leaves the drama with a hollow ring.
In Silsila, it is this accent on beauty - beautiful characters, beautiful homes, beautiful dresses, beautiful nature - that robs the beauty and completeness of the primordial emotion. Bachchan woos Rekha by moonlight, but the moon is extremely cold, the roses are a shade too red, the characters do not have a single crease on their dress, not a single hair out of place and the joys, sorrows, heartbreak and passion of love are reduced to a plastic state. Synthetic and quite soulless, unlike real life where the world of emotions is relatively less ordered, controlled, firmly modulated and quite, quite untidy. In Silsila, apart from a few encounters, there is little of the tumult of unfulfilled desire, the pain of being cheated or even the tightening bind of tradition.
Tradition. A very important word in the lexicon of Chopra's oeuvre. The film-maker's battle is not so much between good and evil, black and white. No, here there are no conventional heroes and villains. Only convention itself.
The curbs on individual happiness come from societal curbs rather than the misdoings of unsavoury characters. Social mores, traditional familial hierarchies, accepted patterns of right and wrong are the inviolable determinants to human behaviour which must be assiduously followed by the lead characters. Any transgressions are always held suspect and form the pivot around which the drama revolves. Any resolution of the conflict always entails a return to order, a reiteration of status quo.
Both in Kabhie-Kabhie and Silsila, the tension in the plot ensues till this phenomenon of coming-back-to-the-fold is established on the part of the protagonist. Pre-marital love might have been beautiful for both the couples, Raakhee and Amitabh in Kabhie-Kabhie and Rekha and Amitabh in Silsila. Nevertheless, once they have decided to separate and marry someone else, there can be no come-backs for the former lovers. The sanctity of the marriage and traditional family unit must be preserved at all costs. In such a scenario, extra-marital affairs are obviously taboo and unswerving fidelity is almost sacrosanct. Thus, all questions of reunion and rebuilding on an old relationship are strongly vetoed. Raakhee and Bachchan must never express their love after they have been married to Shashi Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman respectively in Kabhie-Kabhie. Just as Amitabh and Rekha cannot hope to walk out on a marriage of convenience and settle for love in Silsila. In fact, when they try to do so and give in to their natural desires, they are held suspect by their friends and family. In a moving confrontation between the wife, Jaya Bhaduri and former beloved, Rekha in Silsila, the conflict is presented as a tussle between the rights of a wife and the love of a woman. Jaya urges Rekha to leave Amitabh since he is her husband. Rekha confesses she is helpless since he is her lover. Eventually, Jaya declares that she shall win this war between the rights of a woman as a wife and the claims of a woman as a lover. Of course, she wins, for any astute film-maker would not like to play around with tradition, specially in a traditional society that believes and stands by the contention that marriages are made in heaven. Any contravention of the old bond would be a transgression of the divine will itself.
Chopra, of course, is an astute director who, like the cuckolded husband (Sanjeev Kumar) in Silsila believs that on him lie all kinds of responsibilities - of dharma and parampara (tradition). Describing himself as the king who must take care of the well-being of the entire kingdom, Kumar asserts that he must wait and watch and preserve the established order at all costs. Indubitably, an alter ego for the director who uses cinema for this explicit purpose.
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