Baghban, the gardener watches over his plants grow, hoping that some day he would be able to bask in their shade. Likewise, parents watch over their children grow, hoping that some day they would be able to lean on them for support. Baghban attempts to depict this.

In Baghban, Raj and Pooja Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan & Hema Malini) are happily married for 40 years and are the proud parents of 4 sons (Aman Verma, Sameer Soni, Saahil Chadda and Nasir Khan). Life is almost a dream with Raj juggling between doing his bank job, romancing his much married yet beautiful wife and playing the perfect father to his sons.

All this till retirement happens when Raj decides that he and Pooja would like to stay with any one of their sons. The children are far from thrilled with the prospect and come up with a ploy asking their parents to stay separately with either of them. The Malhotras who are inseparable concede rather reluctantly and while Raj is put up with the second son (Sameer Soni) and wife (Divya Dutta), Pooja goes to stay with the eldest son (Aman Verma) and wife (Suman Ranganathan) for the first six months.

What follows is a tale of parental angst caused by children who don't care for their old parents, treating them like excess baggage. A distraught Raj finds solace in the friendship of a Gujarati couple (Paresh Rawal and Lillette Dubey) who urge him to write about his emotions and experiences. Relief appears in the form of Alok (Salman Khan) whom the Malhotras had adopted as an orphan and raised as their own child.

The foreign return Alok and his wife Arpita (Mahima Chaudhary) ask Raj and Pooja to stay with them but the Malhotras decline. Meanwhile, Raj's book Baghban wins the Booker prize and fetches him good moolah. Word reaches the errant sons and they attend the felicitation function in honour of their father only because he is now rich and famous.

The film ends with a disillusioned father's verbal backlash at his uncaring children. For the awesome Mr Bachchan, his performance is yet another feather in his cap. He is in his element in the film, dancing, romancing, singing (in his own voice) and generally emoting with an intensity that only he can bring to the screen. However he looks a tad uncomfortable in the romantic scenes with Hema Malini.

Hema Malini steals the show from the rest of the female cast with her amazing beauty and charm. Surprisingly, her performance still retains that quintessential quality of yesteryears. Paresh Rawal and Lillette Dubey are paired aptly and portray their roles well.

From the rest of the cast, Aman Verma is bankable as the eldest son while Divya Dutta does a good job as the bad daughter-in-law. Salman Khan gives his brief role the required seriousness and maturity especially towards the end.

The music by Aadesh Shrivastav is catchy with numbers like 'Chali Chali' and 'Meri Makhna'. The choreography by Vaibhavi Merchant is just right and makes for pleasant viewing. Barun Mukherji's cinematography is another highlight of the film.

Baghban is a revamp of the age old theme of children neglecting their parents but the social message it conveys has even more relevance today in an age governed by success and materialism. However the characterisation is sacrificed to keeping with the plot of the film and the characters come across as either squeaky clean or villainously black with no shades of grey in between.

The same could be said for many of the sequences which tend to go overboard just to prove a point. Also it's a trifle hard to accept, atleast in the Indian context, a couple who've been married for 40 years to be romancing each other like newly weds the way it has been portrayed in the earlier part of the film.

All said and done, Baghban is a must-see for the current generation, children and parents alike!

--Madhavi Gokhlay