Armaan - 2003

Story

Dr. Siddharth Sinha (Amitabh Bacchan in a silvery wig) owns a hospital and always dreams of polishing it to a state-of-art one. His son Akash (Anil Kapoor) is an equally dedicated doctor, who eventually falls in love with Dr. Neha (Gracy), after the initial hiccups in their relationship. Enter Soniya (Preity) a pampered, spoilt and arrogant daughter of world's tenth richest businessman. Soniya is attracted towards Akash and the businessman agrees to finance the hospital if Akash marries Soniya. To fulfill his father's dream the son obliges, choosing duty over love. Post marriage, the suspecting and over-possessive wife disrupts life of all.

For couch potatoes the story-line may feebly remind of Star Plus medical soap Sanjeevni (my mom says so). As a writer, Honey Irani has nothing new to offer with the oft-repeated sacrifice story, love triangle and the most contrived climax - an accident. But as a director, her treatment of the screenplay is quite natural, devoid of mushy romance or melodramatic sentiments. Of course the sequences of the father's spirit guiding his son in the second half do tend to add a bit of drama (but that's not as exaggerated as the Mohabbatien spirit). The pace is slow and the lighting effect seems dull at times.

Thankfully, the medical ambience is perfectly developed. Javed Akhtar's lucid dialogues do make good sense and the music score is soothing. The jovial exchanges between the trio, when the father finds the son's love interest for his colleague (Gracy) are very well handled.

Anil puts in a sincere act and Gracy is truly graceful. Preity spews venom in her role of a jealous and obsessive wife. You love her performance as much as you hate her character. Needless to say, Bacchan is outstanding.

Just for it's sober presentation and brilliant performances, Armaan is worth a watch.