By Sameer Wadekar, Bollywood Trade News Network

Ravi Chopra’s BAGHBAN conveyed the plight of the parents who are desolate and humiliated by their children. His new film BAABUL talks about widow remarriage. It’s a good effort by the eminent director but only if the script was a little stronger and compound, the movie would have made a bigger impact.

In BAABUL, the script is dashed up with nothing but contrived situations and spongy dialogues. The writer Dr. Achala Nagar does nothing special to keep the viewers riveted. But in patches it does work. Some scenes, like Amitabh Bachchan star gazing and talking to himself, a few comic situations, have been well-written.

The film’s story goes something like this. Balraj Kapoor (Amitabh Bachhan) and Shobhna Kapoor (Hema Malini) is a middle-aged couple, both rich and happy. Avinash (Salman Khan) is their only kid and very much a ‘laadla’. The father-son duo keep calling each other ‘buddy’ all the time, stating that they are more of friends. Avinash falls in love with Mili (Rani Mukherjee) and they get married. This hurts Mili’s best friend Rajat (John Abraham), a singer, who has feelings for her.

In the mean time Avi and Mili have a son, Ansh. All is going well until one fateful day when Avinash meets with an accident and dies off. Mili is devastated. Now Balraj is not able to bear Mili’s sufferings. So he decides to get her remarried and for that he thinks of Rajat who has been Mili’s childhood friend. So he goes to look for Rajat who is now settled in Europe and sings Hindi songs over there, with lots of girls swooning around him (didn’t know Hindi songs are that popular in Europe).

Balraj is opposed against getting Mili remarried by his elder brother Balwant (Om Puri) and also mildly by Shobhna. But Balraj doesn’t budge and in the end Mili and Rajat are married off.

Amitabh Bachchan delivers an upright performance. Rani Mukherjee and Hema Malini also impress in their respective roles. This is a walk in the park role for Salman Khan. He fits the bill perfectly. John Abraham also puts a neat show. Om Puri, Smita Jaykar and the rest provide able support.

But Aadesh Srivastava has disappointed with his music. The music is an average fare. The title song sounds good on ears but that’s been composed and sung by Amitabh Bachchan! On the technical front, the photography by Barun Mukerjee looks good.

The movie could go well with the single screen audience and smaller centers. Family sagas have always been loved and cherished by the audiences. As far as the multiplexes are concerned, it’s a little uncertain. But a decent attempt by director Ravi Chopra who has brought in a complete package for the family audiences.