Film
Ijaazat
Ijaazat is a tender, intelligent meditation on love and letting go. An estranged couple's chance encounter at a railway station unspools their history—passion, compromise, the small betrayals that accumulate. Naseeruddin Shah and Rekha anchor a film that moves between bittersweet memory and present-day reckoning, asking whether some loves were meant to last or meant to teach us how to live.
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Dil Se..1998
A restless man pursues a mysterious woman across India in Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta's luminous romance. Like Ijaazat, it braids memory with longing, and asks hard questions about whether love can survive when two people want fundamentally different things.
But Deliberately paced and melancholic for a '90s Bollywood film. The ending arrives at a place some find devastating rather than cathartic.
Rang De Basanti2006
Aamir Khan leads a ensemble of idealistic youngsters through friendship, love, and the moment they're forced to stop being bystanders. It shares Ijaazat's gift for making intimate human stakes feel as important as grand causes.
But Three and forty minutes long, and it juggles a lot of plot. The tonal shifts between comedy and tragedy won't work for everyone.
Chandni Bar2001
Tabu's fearless performance anchors a story about a dancer navigating desire, survival, and a love that corrodes her. Like Ijaazat, it refuses to sentimentalize; it simply watches what happens when two people need incompatible things.
But Explicit in ways that can feel gratuitous. The film's darkness offers no comfort, which is partly the point—and partly exhausting.
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Grave of the Fireflies1988
Both films center a woman and man caught between fidelity and longing, using a single concentrated setting or encounter to excavate a relationship's fault lines. Both refuse judgment; both simply show what happens when two people want different things from the same love.
Deepti Naval and Rajit Kapoor play a married woman and her childhood sweetheart who reignite their forbidden passion. Shot in intimate close-ups, it moves at Ijaazat's meditative pace but trades the railway station for a domestic powder keg—the real explosion happens internally.
But Sexually explicit and unsparing about desire as transgression and selfishness. Made in the mid-90s, it was genuinely shocking, and that directness can still unsettle.
More like this (8)
Arth1982
Shabana Azmi and Raj Kiran's marriage splinters when infidelity surfaces, forcing both to reckon with who they are and who they thought they were. Rohit Shetty directs with surgical precision; the emotional archaeology rivals anything in Ijaazat.
But The gender politics, while progressive for 1982, show their age. Some modern viewers find the framing of the wife's response dated.
Raees2017
Shah Rukh Khan and Mahira Khan kindle a tentative romance amid underworld dealings. It carries Ijaazat's interest in how love bends under pressure—here, the pressure of a man's criminal life and a woman's refusal to accept it.
But Generic crime-thriller plotting can overshadow the quieter character moments. Stretches to two-forty with uneven pacing.
Lamhe1991
Sridevi and Anil Kapoor navigate an obsessive, age-gap romance across continents and decades. Yash Chopra's visual opulence masks a story about whether love can survive when desire becomes fetish rather than partnership.
But Extremely long, visually busy, and narratively slippery. The romance itself is deliberately uncomfortable, which alienates viewers looking for warmth.
Uski Kahani1966
Vidya Balan's pregnant widow hunts her missing husband through Kolkata's crowds. Like Ijaazat, it's fundamentally about seeing—really seeing—the person you thought you knew, and discovering you may have been wrong.
But A thriller, so misdirection is built in. If you guess the twist early, the whole edifice feels thin.
Nautanki Saala!2013
Kunal Roy Kapur and Ayushmann Khurrana play ex-lovers forced to pretend they still are, for a film within the film. It's lighter than Ijaazat but shares its interest in performance versus authenticity, and how hard it is to know the difference.
But The meta-theatrical setup can feel forced. Some jokes don't land, and the tonal whiplash between farce and sincerity feels unearned.
A Prayer for Rain2014
Martin Sheen and Erin Brockovich navigate corporate indifference in this account of the Bhopal disaster's legal aftermath. Like Ijaazat, it's about two people trying to connect across a gulf of differing needs—here, justice versus survival.
But Earnest to the point of flatness, and overly reliant on explaining things rather than showing them. The Bollywood and Hollywood registers don't quite blend.
Stories We Tell2012
Both films trust that watching two people remember and sit with each other is enough. Neither needs melodrama or revelation. Both understand that the smallest exchanges—a glance, a pause, a cigarette lit—can contain an entire relationship's history.
Michael Haneke's camera watches an ordinary couple—an older man and woman—through a long afternoon and evening. No plot, just presence. The quiet attention to how two people occupy space together, and how small gestures carry weight, echoes Ijaazat's emotional truth.
But Ninety-seven minutes of almost nothing happening. If you need incident or dialogue to feel engaged, this will feel like sitting in a waiting room with strangers.
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro1983
Same leading actor doing the opposite register—trading melancholy introspection for physical comedy and urban satire. It's a chance to see how Shah's talent flexes in a completely different key, while understanding what makes his restraint in Ijaazat so powerful.
Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani play two freelance photographers caught in a ridiculous conspiracy. It's a comedy, anarchic and fearless, but Shah's performance—his timing, his wounded dignity, his desperate need to be taken seriously—mirrors the emotional vulnerability he brings to Ijaazat.
But The satire is deliberately shaggy and the plot unravels; it's not interested in making clean sense. Relentless comedy exhausts some viewers.
People
Cast
RekhaSudha
Naseeruddin ShahMahinder- Anuradha PatelMaya
Sulabha DeshpandeParvati
Directing
- Ashfaque AhmedAssistant Director
- Monesh PremAssistant Director
- GulzarDirector
- Kailash AdvaniFirst Assistant Director
Writing
- GulzarDialogue
- GulzarLyricist
- GulzarScreenplay
- Subodh GhoshStory
- Arun KaulWriters' Assistant
Production
- Sweety MehtaCo-Producer
- R.K. GuptaProducer
- Rajindra SinghProduction Assistant