After the death of his elder brother, Amit finds out that his late brother's fiancée, Shobha, is pregnant. Taking pity on the devastated young woman, he decides to marry her, leaving behind the love of his life, Chandni. Chandni later marries a famous doctor. An accident during which Shobha loses her child and is taken care of by Chandni's husband, causes Amit and Chandni to meet again. There begins a new extramarital relationship between the two, through which the story deepens and grows.This is Silsila, Yash Chopra's take on relationships and adultery in a modern 80s India. A romantic drama, it is quiet, serious and focused, and is shot beautifully like every other movie made by Chopra. What I particularly appreciated about this film was the matter-of-factness with which it was made and executed. There was not any overdone melodrama, no unnecessary subplots, and the writing did not go overboard. The story is simple to follow, the script and the characters are very well written, and the film is generally subtly made.Chopra's portrayal of relationships is very well done. The dialogues are excellent. At times some proceedings were difficult to relate to or identify with, but who knows, maybe one should really be in a particular situation to understand its meaning and its effect on people at times of pressure. This is the reason I believed the story. Leaving the seriousness aside, as a film, Silsila is simply entertaining. It flows well, it is interesting, and is aided by several melodious and memorable songs composed by Shiv-Hari.Rumour had it that Silsila was based on the true triangular story of Amitabh-Jaya-Rekha. Jaya Bhaduri is Bachchan's real-life wife and Rekha was rumoured to have been involved with him back then in an extramarital affair. This adds to the film's authenticity, but more than anything, the acting is natural to make it work the way it did. Bachchan is as great as always. Jaya Bhaduri is brilliant as his intelligent, sensible and smart wife Shobha, and displays her character's fear, strength and determination with great depth and conviction and as naturally as ever. Rekha gets less scope, yet she is wonderful in her restrained portrayal of Chandni. She is extremely beautiful and acts with grace.Silsila has some other limited appearances by Shashi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, the former being fine and the latter being exceptional. The main complaint with the film was its ending, but I quite liked it. The viewers must have been torn between two probable versions. The reason behind Amit's decision was a bit unjustifiable, but anyway, this is one of the better and more interesting works of Yash Chopra. It is well written, directed and acted. I recommend.

This movie was just about everything I hoped it would be, except for the stupid tacked-on ending. Rekha and Amitabh are up there with Shah Rukh and Kajol as a great couple of Hindi cinema, and I loved seeing them together. (Jaya...not so much.) I just thought, like many here, that for a movie portraying adultery with such sensitivity and compassion--and adultery with true love on its side--the ending seemed totally contradictory and kind of like a bashful retraction. Even though it wasn't well explained, or at all explained, I at least understand the concept of him returning to his wife out of guilt and a sense of duty (I especially liked the line about him having to stay a god once he's decided to act like one), but the FAITH IS LOVE part at the end really seemed unnecessary. You can't tell me that after all of that, the relationship between Amitabh and Jaya was more lasting than the one between Amitabh and Rekha--not to mention more powerful or more sincere. I mean, seriously.

Good movie BUT i was sadly disappointed by the ending.The beginning starts off with Jaya and Shashi which i have to say they made a nice couple then he dies and all of a sudden Amitabh has to hold responsibility and break it off with Rekha..FOR WHAT! i didn't like Jaya's character she seemed very weak and helpless and not of the women like today. the movie didn't elaborate on why Amitabh went back to Jaya it just didn't make any sense and then love is faith and faith is love ...WHAT? when did we learn that from Amitabh and Jaya's pairing in this movie? if anything i think the story should have ended with Rekha and Amitabh.this movie depicts the real life situation it just didn't make any sense why it ended like that. I bought this move after hearing such great things about it ....but now i'm really disappointed with this film for me i give it a 9/10. I give it a 9/10 because of the ending which didn't tell you much about why they got back together.Faith is love but ........... Jaya Amitabh clearly did not prove that to me in this film . In the end though i feel that Amitbah and Rekha should have gotten together.

The subject of adultery is handled delicately in this movie. The movie has a different style compared to other Hindi movies. The acting by the lead actors looks natural and the movie has some great songs. Two songs in this movie "Neela Asaman" and "Ranga Barase" are sung by Amitabh himself. It is not very convincing why Amitabh and Rekha decide to go back to their respective marriages. The movie should have spent some time explaining that aspect and cut short some of the scenes in the beginning where they show Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh and Jaya together. Overall a very good movie. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to watch something different from the regular Bolywood fare.