At the time of watching this, I wasn't bothering with many films at all. The reason being, it seemed most films were dramatic for the sake of drama, and in the process, they sacrifice the purity of the message. That didn't happen here. The film has a subheading of 'A Mystical Love Story'.. And thats exactly what you get. When I weigh everything up, other comments posted here, my own experience, then I come to this conclusion: I'd say This film achieves what it set out to achieve & The story doesn't falter in its culmination. I felt quite satisfied at the end, and not just tantalized by some over-dramatic cheap thrill with no lasting message.

Has all ingredients of an all-time great movie! Powerful storyline - Love, Romance, status & clash of social values, joy/sorrow, desire/surrender, success/failure,covetousness, suspense of the who-dun- it, control interference and the fight for freedom, purity/sin, justice retribution/understanding, the dilemma of science (physics) vs metaphysics(spiritual/religious thought), the deep hunger/urge in man for meaning & Verities/"Truth" and ideas of Eternal/Ephemeral existence - in short a cameo of LIFE itself."Banaras" even has "action", murder/violence/death which is idiomatically alluded to for each viewer to visualize - or is simply depicted with quiet finality - as in life! I cannot say when I last enjoyed such a totally absorbing masterpiece. I has always wondered if someone would attempt to make a movie that would address all these issues in 2/3 hours. I finally found one that fits the bill! The portrayal of culture, locale is excellent and authentic. The superb music and lyrics - which run completely true to storyline - mood and message as well as events - both timely and timeless. Banaras presents even very deep "fantastic" spiritual concepts: such as 1. the expansion/mergence of the human consciousness with super/cosmic consciousness and 2. Love as the bedrock of all existence 3. The guru-disciple relationship which fords life, death and Infinity seamlessly 4. Principles of spiritual crisis and healing 5. The karma - the cause and effect principle (where we sows the result if our actions - and create/destroy our joy/life by our actions), 6. Forgiveness - cessation of "blame" by absolute love/understanding/surrender (despite awareness of the "sinful" actions) 7. Intuitive transmission/reception of thought/ideas in an excellent manner - with seemingly effortless natural ease - which is again as it should be because "Truth is simple". I saw this once and then had to go back to see it again - because I felt I needed to be a true critic more balanced in my opinion and so must find fault if there is some. I could not fault even the cinematography. The perception of the untouchable - was expressed through the sweeping, the rising of the dust, and the dropping of the broom, all too effectively - the effect was almost viscerally tangible!The authenticity of portrayal of "supernatural" events with real spiritual experience is also astounding!A big thank you to the team! Kudos to each performer - for perfect portrayal of each role and to Pankaj and the editors for a very slick presentation. If Oscars were mine to give - Banaras would surely have had them! May it be the first of many more in its genre - to come from my beloved India!

Excellent movie. Immensely thought provoking and "hat ke type" story. Music, direction and photography are superb and acting of lead star cast is stunning. Specially Urmila did wonderful job, she got the suitable role and did it well. Ashmit impressed me. Dimple, Raj Babbar and Nasseruddin had done hundreds of such role so played their part with ease and positive impact. Super natural subject line is always hard to present but direction and script really are praise worthy. Music is very touchy and blended nicely with scenes and situations. Movie is very lucid, though slow, unlike todays funky movies. Story is gripping and dialogues related to spirituality are admirable.

I had preservations about the movie.i had read opinions of critics about the movies before seeing it and they were not very encouraging.so i started watching the movie with a cynical attitude and maintained it till the first 10 minutes.but then!!!!!!whew!!!!i was overwhelmed.the dialogs-the acting-the direction everything was superb.of course the dialogs were a little difficult for masses,but then good films are never meant for masses.the acting were tremendous.neither ashmith nor urmila are bad in acting.ashmith is very impressive concerning his experience.urmila acts a little bit typically in the traditional love scenes and dance situations,but she acted so superbly in the other more complicated scenes,that she must be forgiven for the trifle.really,according to me urmila has great potentiality and should be given chance to use and develop it in more art films.naseeruddin shah,in a very mystic role,remained as zestful and as fresh as ever,dimple who got very few chances to show her talent,showed it with a vengeance in one or two scenes,and made her appearance special.raj babbar's acting was astonishing.from a loving father to a dying hopeless man,he portrayed the sheds of his character very beautifully.i will be really upset,if he don't get at least a nomination for his stupendous acting. same may be said to the underrated charismatic Ms Matondkar.honestly,the script was faulty at times,but then everything can not be perfect,except rare cases.the music was classy,so was the direction.lastly,my verdict of the film is,though not a masterpiece,it is surely an excellent film with a fresh concept and dedicated efforts and has encouraged the so called different flow of bollywood,with a very rare clean treat.its a must for people who like to explore life,and are not too cynical.some things may seem overrated,like baba's story,but overall it will be worth watching for those,my guarantee!!!