Talking to fellow IMDber OldAle1 whilst taking part in an ICM Musical Challenge,I asked if there were any Musicals from Iran. Joining in on an ICM poll for the best movies of 1968,I was surprised to hear from fellow IMDber RogerTheMovieManiac88 that he had found an Iran Musical from 1968! Preparing to watch a print with no-Subtitles,Ale got me to change direction,by revealing that he had tracked the movie down online with English Subtitles,which led to me getting set to watch/write the first IMDb review for the film.
The plot:
Deeply in love with each other,Saeid and Setareh find their love to be torn by their families,each of whom want them to get married to someone more fitting to their social class. Told by his family that Setareh has died,Saeid expresses his grief by becoming a singer. Thrown out into the wilderness by her family,the heavily pregnant Setareh makes ends meets by taking jobs in manual work. After giving birth to daughter Khorshid (Sun),Setareh suffers an accident which causes her to go blind. Whilst Sethareh is still able to see the love she had for Saeid for years in darkness,Khorshid meets a singer who has just finished a concert nearby.
View on the film:
Taking inspiration from Bollywood, the screenplay (whose writer(s) is not credited,and now appears to be lost in time) covers a 10-15 year period with a striking Musical Melodrama,where the rich Melodrama romance between Saeid and Setareh is weaved with mountains of tragedy and fitting moments of light. Sung before the Iranian revolution, the screenplay features extremely risqué elements,such as Setareh being pregnant out of wedlock and the torn cover of a Quran.
Turning the volume up on Saeid's voice as Setareh sinks deeper into depression, the screenplay gives the relationship between Setareh and Khorshid an incredibly earthy atmosphere,via Setareh's blindness giving greater responsibility of care to Khorsid,and tightening the mother/daughter bond. Opening with startling dissolves over Setareh's face, director Mohammad Ali Fardin (who also appears) overcomes some sudden jumps suggesting this 2 hour 8 minute print is not the full movie, with a masterful elegance of songs going from the loved-up high emotions of the opening, to the emotive final murmur.
Separating the couple for at least a decade,Fardin makes the passage of time weigh heavy on Setareh and Khorsid in coiled wide-shots dipping into their blind pain.Known as the Sultan of Pop,Aref Arefkia gives a rousing performance as Saeid,thanks to Arefkia being able to hold the Pop with a haunted shade of something unresolved. Joining Arefkia from the world of Pop, Ahdieh Badiee gives a magnificent performance as Setareh,whose love for Saeid and Khorshid Badiee keeps at the heart,even as Melodrama surrounds it. Catching an earful of Saeid's tunes, Lelia Forouhar gives an incredible performance wise beyond her years as Khorshid,whose care for her mum is expressed with a gradual maturity, as the king of hearts plays.
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