K. Balachander's Ek Nai Paheli is a beautiful film, both visually and story-wise. As you would expect from a Balachander film, it is visually a great picture to look at - the cinematography, the sets, the costume design, all demonstrate the high production values employed in the making of this film. The script, however, and the later development of the story, are not fully realised. The film narrates the love story of a young man with a woman who is a decade or two his senior, and sadly, the story is never really brave enough to dig into the complexity of this relationship, and everything stays quite on the surface. There is some nice dialogue and there's depth as well in the portrayal of the human relationship, but never to the extent of daring to be less polished and a little more real and matter-of-fact.
Hema Malini is beautiful, very retrained and impressively so, and Kamaal Hasaan is competent as an idealistic and stubborn young man, though at times over-expressive. The two seem to have a good working chemistry, but something is missing there as there is very little intimacy between the two; it's like a very good friendship which lacks, and perhaps is even mistaken as, real romance. Good support is provided by Raaj Kumar and the stunning Padmini Kolhapure. Ek Nai Paheli is a beautiful film in many ways, it is reminiscent of the old classics in its general feel and energy, in its music and culturally rich, elegant setting, but it could have been better if more effort had been made to depict the love story itself. An aesthetic delight, indeed, and well directed by K. Balachander, who could and should have pushed the envelope a little more.
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