Masoom-1983 flim

Masoom is a 1983 Indian film and Shekhar Kapur's first directorial venture. The critically acclaimed film starred Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Supriya Pathak and Saeed Jaffrey, as well as child actors Jugal Hansraj and Urmila Matondkar. The screenplay and dialogues were written by Gulzar and the music was contributed by R.D. Burman. The plot was broadly based on Man, Woman and Child written by Erich Segal. Shekhar Kapoor the director of the movie went on to make several other internationally acclaimed movies in the future like, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth.

Through the medium of the film, the director makes a strong statement that eventually it is the unwanted child who is the real victim of an extra-marital affair. Hence the title of the film, for Masoom means the innocent one.

This Hindi social drama stars Naseerudin Shah as a family man whose everyday domestic life is turned upside down when he discovers that he has an illegitimate child (Jugal Hansraj) from an affair with a past mistress. When the boy's mother dies, he is sent to live with his father. The child's father attempts to hide the truth from his own daughters, but the past eventually catches up with him.

The director opens the film with a brief backgrounder of the boy Rahul whose mother has died and an old headmaster is the only one who this boy can call his own. After the credits have rolled, the second shot is actually the stealer where the family portrait of Naseer’s family is lying on a table and a stray puppy comes and breaks it. This shot establishes the premise of the film. One outsider can disturb the harmony of the this family.

Naseeruddin Shah is a brilliant actor. Shabana’s act of a Punjabi south Delhi housewife Indu Malhotra is par excellence. Many would know by now, the children played by Aradhana (Mini), Urmila Matondkar (Pinky) and Jugal Hansraj (Rahul) completely thaw your heart. These are children, people our age can relate to.