Sparsh

Sparsh refers to the sensation and feeling of touch upon which blind people rely in the absence of sight. Sparsh is partially a love story depicting the blindness in the society with psychological analysis of characters:The sweetness of movie covers its minor flaws and make it enjoyable for viewers.

It is a sensitive movie, with intense performance by Naseeruddin Shah in the role of a self-respecting visually-impaired principal of a blind school, who hates and become enraged on the society for pitying handicapped people. He works towards making his students self-reliant and full with honour. Shabana Azmi plays a social worker who has a troubled personal life supporting him as a volunteer. The movie depicts the relationship between the two. The pride of the man and the sympathies of the woman are the cause of turbulence in their relationship.

Kavita (Shabana Azmi) is a depressed widow living alone. When she accidentally meets Anirudh (Naseeruddin Shah), a rough but charismatic a visually impaired man who runs a nearby school for blind children.He works towards making his students self-reliant and hates the society for pitying people like him. He offers her to teach in his school, also her close friend Manju (Sudha Chopra) urges her to re-join society . Reluctant at first, Kavita eventually joins the school and begins reading to the boys. Kavita is enjoying the company of the blind children and begins to welcome warmth and happiness back into her life.

As Kavita spends more time at the school, she begins forming a friendship with Anirudh. A affectionate relation flourishes between them with time and they get engaged; But their personalities and feelings are different. Anirudh is of strong character: he firmly believes that the blind need help not charity.
Kavita, recently sorrowful, looks to the school (and Anirudh) as an ideal way of sacrificial service and hospitality. However, after some time the romance sours when Anirudh gets hint of this, and assumes Kavita is simply seeking to fill the void in her life with this form of assistance. Due to some incidents, Anirudh begins to fear that Kavita accepted the proposal not out of love, but for care of a hapless handicapped man. Now Anirudh starts having doubts whether this marriage is going to succeed. He feels he is being humiliated by the aid of Kavita, and hence breaks their engagement. He even tells Kavita not to come to school anymore. Will Anirudh realize her passion and take her for what she is or left her alone sidelined from his life? A well-wisher has to step in ultimately to bridge the gap.

The Touch is representation of feeling of blind people in the world.They learn the surroundings and persons mainly by touch.The movie focuses on characters as individuals rather than representative of blind and sighted. Two main characters are handicapped with blindness and heartbreak. This disability first help them in coming together ,then bonding them and then tears them apart. They are hard in their characters but fragile also. Anirudh is proud, and that pride makes it hard for him to let Kavita care for him. Kavita, for her part, is eager for a way out of her loneliness but not quite ready to move beyond her husband's death. They are fortunate in discovering each other, both are devastated by society and need a lot of time & work to overcome. They are both navigating strong emotions, but they are also both uncertain in their thoughts to other. The reserve nature of both characters makes it difficult for them to mingle with each other. It makes the characters warm, sympathetic, likable to us.

Anirudh forms a life-affirming relationship with Kavita, left a lasting impression. They yield a very muted tone love, with few outbursts of emotion. There are some engaging scenes between characters and also with the kids. The sequence where Anirudh describes his sensitivity of Kavita's beauty in her fragrance, the sound of her voice, the softness of her touch. This scene deserves special laurel for its poetic situation.

Sai Paranjape's films always deal with situations and characters, which one can easily identify with and unify with it. Sai Paranjape made a sincere attempt to tell both sides of the story with a rare unsentimental equilibrium. Story line deals with the complexes and rigid thoughts rooted in the minds of both the characters. The psychological view of two protagonist with help of blind children makes it a beautiful movie.

The film upholds an important principle that the disabled want to live independently, to be accorded the dignity and respect other sectors of society are granted. They don't want sympathy; rather they want and need normal behaviour towards them.

Both Naseer and Shabana excel in their performance and a must watch film. This film is better and gives mature treatment to subject like blindness than a drama like "Black".