Aulad (1987)

Aulad is a very well scripted film. The film starts as a romantic comedy and later turns into a melodramatic tear-jerker. This is the story of a young couple, Jeetendra and Sridevi. Sridevi just gave birth to a child and tragically disappears during a fatal train accident. Her husband is sure she has died, and when he finds out that a family friend, played by Jaya Prada, has lost her husband and now lost her to-be-born baby, he gives his child to the doctor and asks him to give it to her. Jaya herself does not know this child is not hers. Time goes by and after a few years Sridevi suddenly appears. She had reportedly suffered from amnesia all these years. She is shocked when her husband tells her their baby did not survive the accident. The couple also discover that Sridevi cannot conceive after this very damned accident, and she feels her world is destroyed upon her. Soon she meets Jaya and is charmed by "her" son. After some time she notices that her husband's affection for this boy is too unusual and understands that this is actually her child, which her husband ultimately admits. All the melodrama begins there, including the conflict, the court, the suffering, the tears and the pain.

All the three leading actors do a fine job. Both Sridevi and Jaya Prada excel in their respective parts. Jeetendra is also pretty good. The film's music is decent, the story is interesting and the movie flows quite well. This is a typical film in terms of emotions and it has some overly melodramatic sequences, particularly towards the end, which are insufferable, but it has a different story and it shows the power of a mother's love for her child and vice versa, and above all, the power of humanity. Many of the sequences involving the kid, the court scenes, and the verdict actually really manage to move. The film may attract different moral views from viewers as to who this boy should stay with, his biological mother or the one who brought him up and whom he considers his mother. I myself was torn between the two and couldn't really decide what I would have done had I been the writer. Surprisingly enough, the ending is heart-warming and relieving and shows once again the superb talent of Hindi cinema's family fares, which may be melodramatic, clichéd and overly conflicted, but they still present their original and optimistic ways to iron everything out. Overall, among all the terrible action films of that era, this one is an enjoyable and distinct piece. I recommend.