General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Mausam (मौसम) (1975 film)

Mausam (मौसम, "Season") is a 1975 Hindi-language romantic drama directed by Gulzar, starring Sanjeev Kumar as Dr. Amarnath Gill and Sharmila Tagore in the dual role of Chanda and her daughter Kajli. Loosely inspired by A. J. Cronin's 1961 novel The Judas Tree, the film tells the story of a physician who returns after twenty-five years to the hill town where he once loved and abandoned a young woman, and finds her daughter living in a brothel.¹ The film won the National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film and the Filmfare Awards for Best Film and Best Director, and its Madan Mohan score, with lyrics by Gulzar, remains among the most admired in Hindi cinema.¹

Key fact	Detail
Director / producer	Gulzar; produced by P. Mallikharjuna Rao for Sunandini Pictures¹
Lead cast	Sanjeev Kumar as Dr. Amarnath Gill; Sharmila Tagore as Chanda Thapa and Kajli Thapa²
Release	Censor certificate dated 29 December 1975; U rating; 16 reels, 35 mm³
Runtime	2 hours 36 minutes (156 minutes)²^•⁴
Music	Songs by Madan Mohan, lyrics by Gulzar; background score by Salil Chowdhury¹
National honors	National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film (23rd awards); Sharmila Tagore, Best Actress¹
Filmfare honors	Best Film and Best Director at the 24th Filmfare Awards, from eight nominations¹
Literary source	Loosely inspired by A. J. Cronin's The Judas Tree (1961)¹

Spoilers

Plot

The film opens decades after the events it remembers. Dr. Amarnath Gill, a wealthy and respected physician, arrives in Darjeeling for a vacation and tells his hosts that he was last there twenty-five years earlier as a young medical student.³ In flashback, the student sprains his ankle and is treated by the local vaid (herbal healer) Harihar Thapa (Om Shivpuri), whose daughter Chanda he falls in love with.³^•⁵ Called away to Calcutta for his examinations, he promises to return but does not.²

On his return, Amarnath searches for Chanda and learns what became of her: she was hastily married to an elderly invalid, gave birth to a daughter, and died after losing her mind.⁴ Her daughter Kajli, sent away to study, now works as a prostitute in a brothel.⁴ Amarnath, overwhelmed by guilt, tries to rescue Kajli and take responsibility for what happened to her mother.⁴ When Kajli discovers that he is the man for whom her mother went mad, she turns against him; he tells her that he never married after losing Chanda, and the film ends with him taking Kajli away as his daughter.⁶ The relationship between the two is deliberately ambiguous: he treats her as a surrogate daughter while she wants more from him, a tension critics have compared with Yash Chopra's later Lamhe.⁷

Writing and production

A twin screenplay. Mausam was written simultaneously with Aandhi (1975) by Gulzar, Kamleshwar, and Bhushan Banmali, and both films were shot in roughly the same period with Sanjeev Kumar in mature, age-transcending roles.¹ Aandhi was released first, but political controversy over its perceived resemblance to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi forced reshoots and delayed its circulation; in the interim, Mausam was completed and released.¹ The film's story is credited to Kamleshwar and Bhushan Banmali, with the screenplay by Bhushan Banmali and Gulzar.¹ A Hindi literary study identifies the source as Kamleshwar's novel Aagami Atit, with character names changed for the film.⁸

Casting. According to the Moviebuff database, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri were initially meant to star, but Gulzar changed his mind.⁹ During the filming of the song "Mere Ishq Ke Lakhon Jhatke", the choreographer Saroj Khan, then working at the studio on another project, was reportedly asked by Gulzar to teach a few dance movements to Sharmila Tagore, an early glimpse of Khan's later prominence.¹

The technical crew included cinematographer K. Vaikunth, art director Ajit Banerjee, and editors Waman B. Bhosle and Gurudutt Shirali; shooting took place at Rajkamal Kalamandir, Mehboob Studios, Famous Studios, Rooptara Studios, and Essel Studios.¹^•³

Music

Madan Mohan's final score. The five songs were composed by Madan Mohan with lyrics by Gulzar, and recorded before the composer's death on 14 July 1975 at the age of 51; the film released a few months later and was dedicated to his memory.¹⁰^•¹¹ Only the background score was completed afterward, by Salil Chowdhury.¹⁰ Mausam was the second of only two Gulzar-directed films for which Madan Mohan composed the music, the other being Koshish (1972).¹ The composer's website records that he created five different optional tunes for the happy version of one song and several for the sad version; one unused tune was used thirty years later as the theme song for Veer-Zaara.¹⁰ The site also notes that internet writers sometimes wrongly attribute the songs to R. D. Burman.¹⁰

The most enduring song is Dil Dhoondta Hai, sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Bhupinder Singh, whose opening lines are the matla of a ghazal by Ghalib that Gulzar adopted as a tribute to his favorite poet.¹^•¹² Its verses trace the seasons of love, from winter sun on a courtyard to summer nights spent watching stars from a roof.¹³ The song reached twelfth position on the Binaca Geetmala annual chart for 1976.¹ "Ruke Ruke Se Qadam", rendered by Lata Mangeshkar, draws on Raag Ahiri Todi for its classical depth.¹ Other songs include "Chhadi Re Chhadi" and "Mere Ishq Men Lakhon Latake", sung by Mohammad Rafi, Bhupinder Singh, and Lata Mangeshkar among others.¹⁴^•⁶

Reception and awards

Mausam was a silver jubilee hit, though Madan Mohan did not live to see its success.¹⁰ It achieved modest commercial success in a year dominated by blockbusters, most notably Sholay (1975), and was praised for its sensitive treatment of human relationships and moral ambiguity.¹ At the 23rd National Film Awards it received the National Film Award for Second Best Feature Film, and Sharmila Tagore won the Silver Lotus Award for Best Actress for her dual portrayal of Chanda and Kajli.¹ At the 24th Filmfare Awards the film earned eight nominations and won Best Film and Best Director.¹ Sanjeev Kumar won the Best Actor award at the 1977 Filmfare Awards for his performance in Arjun Pandit, not Mausam.¹¹^•¹⁸ Contemporary opinion was not uniform: an India Today review of April 1976 called both Gulzar and the film "a crashing bore", finding the plot and dialogues banal.¹⁵

Legacy

The film's reputation has grown over time, and it is now regarded as an example of parallel mainstream cinema combining artistic ambition with broad appeal.¹ It was the first Gulzar film to deal directly with the separation and reunion of lovers, a theme he returned to afterward.¹⁶ Its influence crossed languages: a Tamil remake, Vasanthathil Oru Naal, followed in 1982.¹ The film's release date is itself a small bibliographical puzzle: the censor certificate is dated 29 December 1975, while several reference works, including Filmfare and a Hindi literary journal, list the film under 1976.³^•¹¹^•¹⁷

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026