The Seventh Horse of the Sun (1992)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I was strolling through amazon prime archives for movies in Hindi language. After crap load of 8 page search, i came across an oddly titled movie i had never heard of. It immediately kept my attention as i excitingly saw the director, Shaam Benegal. I had heard of middle cinema but had never witnessed one. And for the next 2 hr and some 20 minutes, movie had my utmost attention. It was gem of a find and it kept me engrossed with its masterful direction, crafty storytelling and surrealistic layers of symbolism scattered all throughout.Movie is about 3 different stories entangled together at later stage. It amazingly captures same sequences through eyes of different subjects thus peeling of perspectives for same situation and scenes. It dwells into characters and suddenly comments through larger societal lens. And keeps on doing that for much of first half. For sure you would not have seen brutal realism of love stories as portrayed here. Narrative has no particular end, no moments of realization or take away but it flows on like life in general. Story itself is captivating enough. Our main protagonist is connected deeply with stories much later when we further learn how dicey human morals are, how we are mere product of our environment and act to maximize social gains from that environment. There is above all a surrealistic undertone, a detachment of sorts through out the movie. Characters are closely intertwined yet largely detached. And our protagonist is at forefront of this. Until of course the climax of movie hits us hard. And it tells us well that when the music is over, turn off the lights.

Suraj Ka Saatvaan Ghoda was directed by Shyam Benegal and it's based on the novel of same name written by Dharmveer Bharati. Main roles have been played by Rajit Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Neena Gupta, and Raghuveer Yadav. This is a unique story. If a great story becomes a foundation for a great movie, this is a most significant example of the same. This movie has many outlier features as an Indian movie. Before Memento (2001) I had not seen technique of showing a single scene from many perspectives, but this movie had many such scenes as early as in 1992 when it was made. The narration is multi-layered. The raconteur and prime-protagonist of movie is played by Rajit Kapoor and he has done this with a great degree of refinement. You cannot overlook the fact that theater experience of most of the actors of this movie made it possible to create such fine performances. Shyam Benegal's cast is perfect and I did not find any weaklings in the movie. The usage of regional-dialects in speech along with standard Hindi makes pinch of humor perfectly set in otherwise tragic socio-romantic melodrama. As said earlier, there are many layers to this drama. When one of the characters visits an art gallery, he recalls ( because of one of the paintings in the gallery…) the pastime discussions he used to have along with his other friends, in company of Manik Mulla; where Mulla used to tell them many stories and since Mulla was a literati, his views were considered eminent. In one such discussion, Mulla narrates a few most moving stories which are based primarily on his own romantic affairs and these stories are so interconnected and interwoven that he has to continue telling these until the second day. Inside his stories there are other narrations, making this story a multi-layered complex-threaded story. Mulla tells his listeners many stories which seem different but are interconnected because the same set of characters are present in each of the stories and apart from the social conditions affecting the characters of these stories there are love affairs which permeate from one story to other in an endless-shocking-melodramatic fashion. Mulla is not only the raconteur but also the hero of all of the stories and the witness perspective of all of the stories. There is at least one scene in each of the stories which connects to another scene in the previous story and in the last story the dark side of Mulla is revealed. In the end of the movie Mulla has to cope with what he had done. In spite of characterization of the father of the lover boy in first story as a womanizer, it's Mulla himself who is the most flirtatious character of all. In every story he is playing an escapist coward who flirts until in trouble.This movie is a masterpiece by Shyam Benegal because of his sensible direction and unique style of storytelling. The movie underscores the importance of great literature. The original story written by Dharmveer Bharati was a meta-fiction experiment in 1952.The movie is about Indian social structure and love-affairs getting affected because of lovers like Devdas (You cannot fail to observe mention of Devdas in more than one stories). It was an audacious story by the standards of Indian society of the decade in which it was created. I feel that nobody could have done justice with the role of Mulla more than Rajit Kapur and I think this movie is one of the greatest movies ever made in Indian cinema despite not being one of the most popular.

Manik Mulla (played by Rajit Kapoor) mesmerizes his listeners with his thoughts about love being disciplined on economic restrictions. The direction is mind blowing . The way the stories are connected is just superb, every story portrays manik mulla as central character , how his life takes shapes as he comes across three girls at different stages of his life... In the end there are definite conclusions (with little socialist angle ) The language in the movie is so pure and serene , it inspires to learn Hindi vocab. I have seen this movie several times .. there is a nice song in it too..A must see if you like art movie , I bet you will fall in love with the characters as you see them.

I was 16-17 when i watched it. It's a great one by Mr. Shyam Benegal. actually it was a first movie i saw directed by him. the direction is flawless and you can connect yourself with the characters in the flick. If you want a baseless entertainment then its not for you. The role played by Mr. Rajit Kapoor is far different than a common Hindi film hero it is not a very brave or larger than life kind of char. but it attracts why? because it close to reality. *********** spoiler alert*************The story starts with raghuvir yadav in a modern art exhibition. He comes across this picture which reminds him of his mohalla (neighborhood) and his college days. He starts narrating about his days and starts talking about Manik mullah (Ranjit kapur) a railway employee who was a great story teller and how he and his friends would go there when ever they get free time and how manik would tell them stories.The movie now shifts to a flashback where young raghuvir yadav and his friends discuss about the current literatures and romance. They ask manik to tell them a romantic story in his own style.Manik starts the first story "Being true to one's salt".Manik who is sitting in the window looks down at the next house and sees a cow tied to the shed and a girl walking towards the cow.He starts the story that when he was young they used to have a cow and the next door neighbour girl used to frequent to there house.