The film is a pathetic attempt to remake Ingmar Bergman's "Autumn Sonata"(1978) starring Ingrid Bergman,Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson.It did not take me more than 5 minutes to figure that out.It is time Film journalists like Khalid Mohammad took out time to do some creative thinking. It makes me sad when potentially good film-makers waste their talents by making substandard remakes of Hollywood and European films.You've got to give the film-maker something though. The film he picked for copying is one of Bergman's classics, and easily one of the finest instances of the portrayal of a strained human relationship in European cinema.

I'm highly surprised with the high voting average (7.4/10 when I last checked) that Tehzeeb received. I mean, yes, the film is very intelligent, with very strong actors playing their parts beautifully - Urmila Matondkar as the simple, happy daughter but with a resentment towards her star-singer mother, Shabana Azmi as the star-singer mother who is very charming and gushy but is thought by Urmmila to have murdered her husband and ruined her children's lives, Dia Mirza as the mentally retarded daughter - um. how can you be retarded and still put on makeup and curl your hair on your birthday and other days, I wonder? I guess her mom and sister did that for her. - who is, in my opinion, a spoiled brat, because ordinary two-or-four-year-olds are not pampered so much, and Arjun Rampal as the cute, innocent, loving (and lovable?) husband of the daughter; but what was Diana what's-her-name and Namrata doing there? What were all those crappy, unnecessary songs doing there? They completely stopped the story and made us all eager to change the channel to hum dil de chuke sanam, which was playing and which had much better songs. Sure, some of the atmospheres in Tehzeeb were quite dark and suspenseful, but why ruin the effect with sudden lighthearted moments when we want to get on with the true serious story? I can only think that the director got scared with some of the effects or something. However, the fact that the retarded girl did not recover from her attempt to shoot herself with her brain fully repaired, and the mother dying when her daughter went to her to ask for her pardon, were very nice touches that set it apart from most bollywood happy-ending flicks. But then again the movie got ruined by the clips at the end. This movie is supposed to be serious, not funny!Still, all in all a nice almost-art movie. 6/10.

For the first half of the movie, there is absolutely no story. It gets really annoying as nothing happens. However, the film's pace suddenly accelerates during a power-packed confrontation scene between Urmila and Shabana Azmi. The characters have been developed excellently. Songs are lovely. The picturization of "Meherbaan" and especially "I want to be free" are terrific. What I find the best about this movie is the well-portrayed relationship between Urmila and Shabana. Looking from Urmila's point of view, it seems that her indifference towards her mother is right, while Shabana is selfish. However, from Shabana's point of view, her actions seem totally justified, while her daughter's attitude is very hurtful. What makes this film unique is that the audience can sympathize with and understand both contradicting points of view. The ending is very poetic and (the following might be a spoiler) brings out the pain of Shabana's life and how, unfortunately, Urmila lived her entire life based on misunderstandings.

Tehzeeb, starring Urmila Matondkar, Arjun Rampal, Diya Mirza, Shabhana Azmi and Rishi Kapoor, is a well acted and produced film. The strongest charcters in the film were definitley Urmila and Shabhana Azmi, who play mother and daughter in the film. The story revolves around Tehzeeb (Urmila) and her struggle to overcome her troubled past and to look after her husband and mentally disabled sister. Her mother is her serious grudge which is what the film is based on. The conflicts they have are the best part of the film. It is a good film and worth watching. 7/10