Godmother straddles two genres of cinema, the art and the commercial. But the distinction is so sharp that the interval seems to divide the film into two. The first hour makes you feel you are watching an experimental art film of the early 1970s, where nothing really gripped your attention. And the second half is a sureshot Hindi potboiler, markedly more interesting. It helps if a director makes up his mind before making a movie.

Shabana Azmi plays a Phoolan Devi kind of character who takes up the gun and enters caste politics after her husband is murdered. Here, you strain your sense of belief to accept Milind Gunaji in the role, so obvious is the age difference between the two. Anyway, thegodmother's raj sees her overcome all sorts of internecine rivalries and maternal compulsions, making her quite a woman of the millennium. This penchant film-makers have for giving social delinquents a heart of gold snatches much of the credibility of their works. So, the rate at which Milind and Shabana admit their guilt and mend their ways makes their murder seem like the assassination of a world leader.

About the performers: Govind Namdeo as the scheming castelord, and Nirmal Pandey in the role of Shabana's lackey, are good actors when given suitable roles. But it is godfather Milind Gunaji who lives his part, and does a brilliant job in the death scene. Two reasonably important actresses, Seema Bhargava and Luvleen Mishra (Badki and Chhutki of the television serial, Hum Log, appear only in one scene, creating the impression that their roles were hacked.Javed Akhtar may have been awarded for the lyrics, but Godmother's music can be blamed on Vishal. It is time composers recognised that allvoices have a shelf life, irrespective of the face they are attached to. And his background score is effortless-all he has done is repeat the Maachis track. Vinay Shukla, the director of the film, flashes a disclaimer in the very beginning to say it is not the life story of a woman living in Gujarat or anywhere else. In that case, it could have got more imaginative.