Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Of boredom and a khoya khoya chand..

A lazy afternoon in one of the oldest halls in India..
Lots of empty seats, and lots of desperate & not so desperate couples..
Movie starts rolling and you are glued to the screen like you are sleeping with your eyes wide open..
As the movie progresses, hush hush about how boring the flick is becomes as prominent as the dialogues..
Finally people around you start to get up and leave the hall in between..
Sonia gives a chuckle in between her yawns and waves her hand in front of my yet wide open eyes suspecting I went into a trance..
"So, how did you find the movie?", she asks grinning..
"Ummm... It depends, you know it's like.."
"why don't you straightaway say it was boring?", said a friend back home.

There could be many reasons behind someone liking a movie not everybody likes.. For one, it could be because you are a weird person with weird tastes.. or maybe cause the plot interests you no matter how poorly it's presented.. or like in my case.. you are more in awe of the emotions behind and in the film than the film itself.. More than being engrossed you are just fascinated..

Coming back to "Khoya khoya Chand", it's a good portrayal of vintage cinema, if not one of the best.
I'm not much into learning about the muck in film industry, the casting couch, the exquisite dresses, the liquor, pseudo intellectualism and its display in filmy parties..
But the tale of hope and broken promises, struggle to keep your pride and seeing it bite dust in front of your eyes, lies, deception, the two faces, love, hate, success, downfall, frustration, the giving up, the coming back.. isn't it what makes the plot of picture of every profession, heightened probably in the Page 3 world?

When you see the nubile Nikhat(Soha) looking sheepishly behind the curtains at the shooting of a song, you see dreams..
When you see the superstar Prem Kumar(Rajat Kapoor) displaying his genius off the camera, you see power..
When you see the fearless Zafar(shiney Ahuja) blatantly mocking the stereotypes, you see fire..
When you see the omnipresent Sharmal(Vinay Pathak) standing up for Zafar, you see friendship..

The story revolves around these four characters.. and in the second half you see how they go about losing everything they achieved.. changing circumstances.. changing people..

When you see tears rolling down the eyes of Zafar making a film of his dreams on his life, you see passion..
And when you see the smile on his face when this film bombs at the box office, on people asking him how hew felt on seeing his film being turned down by everyone, you see pain..
When you see him asking his girlfriend to aid him in getting producers and lashing at her on her refusal, you see weakness..
And when you see him crying in front of his woman, saying he can't take it anymore, you see what failure does to people.. and how difficult it is to hold on..

When you see Nikhat becoming a puppet to everyone she cared for, you see the price of success.. and of love..
When you see her succumbing to drinking and finally see her downfall, you see that nothing is forever..
And When you see the look in her eyes when she surrenders herself to the man she loved, you see hope.. you see redemption..

And when you are able to see that in a flick that seems to be lasting forever.. that means two things.. One, the act put up by the actors was too good.. two, you are thinking too much lately.

I slept while watching "Hazaro khwahishein aisi..", maybe because I was too tired.. or bored.. don't know. :D So can't really comment on Sudhir Mishra. Though I feel bad about it now. For a fraction of second when Om shanti Om flashes through your mind.. you see the clear difference.. of portrayal..
But then there were some things.. like it being too long..(or it just seemed to be.. don't remember) lousy last half an hour.. and a script going haywire.. which spoiled the essence of the film. Sets are beautiful.. one of the most impressive works in cinematography that I've seen in recent times. A good sketch of the cinema in 60s. Not magnanimous but yet appealing. Lovely songs and nicely placed.

Surprise package of the film is Soha.. looking gorgeous.. looking graceful.. vulnerable and her diction.. It's funny, how these stars can't speak a line of hindi without an accent off the camera and how flawless they are in front of it. I guess, that's what acting is all about..

Oh, how was the movie..?
You see, it depends..
on what you see in it..

19 comments:

Unknown said...

i must say yaar....
ur writing style is superb and too simple....
simplicity is wt dat makes ur blog different....[;)]
nw coming to ur post...tune mujhe ye muvie dekhne se bchane ki bhot koshish ki bt fir bhi main dekhungi...chal download pe lga...[:)]
hehe

Anonymous said...

Khalid Mohamed in the making...

Neetish said...

Pointless to talk abt the writing style , its evident ..............but uve done what the promos cudnt .
Now i actually want to see this movie :D

DreAmgiRL said...

I just wish sunila, tum yaha pe hoti :D
to apan sath me friday friday PVR jate :D

I haven't seen khoya khoya chand as yet.. kyuki koi company nahi mili :X
but after reading ur review, i m all set to go and watch it alone if need be! :)

Winnie the poohi said...

got to agree wid nitish.. u make us want to watch the movie :)

Loved the way you have reviewed it.. may b u shud consider being a critic as an alternate profession :)

Ananta said...

koi news paper waale tujhe commission de rahe hain kya movie per comment karne ki:sneaky:..
contact kar ache paise milenege;):p

fatlantis said...

--that means two things.. One, the act put up by the actors was too good.. two, you are thinking too much lately--

i safely assume its the second ;-)

umangexuberance said...

great review..u have me intrigued

i especially loved the part from When you see the nubile Nikhat(Soha)....you see redemption..

"AjAy" said...

They left nuthing for me to comment..

Anonymous said...

ye read karke jitne log ye movie dekhne jaenge..sabb aake tujhe maarenge ;) :D

Anonymous said...

Good post, liked the way you wrote about the various things/emotions that can be shown on the celluloid and which can also resemble life itself...

But then *certain things* do or rather can last forever ;) Depends how you see it ;) :D

Btw, havnt seen the movie, I dont watch more than 5 flicks a year anyway :| And no, I aint acting out here :D

Keep writing! :)

My Foot? said...

you know... u almost made me watch the movie without watching it at all (ofcourse, I will make it a point to catch it since I guess its still in cinemas)
the article was just beautiful.. looking forward to you watching more movies, and ofcourse.. to your next article!

HR said...

:D

Anonymous said...

hey, even i liked the movie.. err i mean i didnt dislike the movie.
as u said, the portrayal of the web of human emotions is realistic and thats wat is likable abt it.
BTW, get into full time flick-review job and treat all ur blog-visitors! lol :D

kyamaloom said...

I am a BIG fan of "hazaron khwahishein aisi" and was expecting the same from Khoya Khoya Chand too.. It has all the elements, but still fails somewhere in between being a perfect and Average movie. :)

Though the entire portrayal and presentation of 50's era is brilliant. :)

Ravi D said...

Yeah! A lot depends on what's going on in your mind and how you clear it up before movie starts. Also not everyone is bound to other persons choice, they got to make their own choice, be it 'good' or 'bad'.
Happens to me a lot. Not many like the film but then I go on appreciating the story-line, direction, acting etc. about some film, but later realize I am not suppose to make those fools understand who deny the pleasure of the same themselves :|
But yeah! Film is a portrayal of life, life which writer sees around him/her, producer puts his faith and trust into, director's hard-work and spends sleepless night to make dream come true and actor's devotion and artistic skill which he evolve at every step in the process.

WOW! Good to see a movie lover's blog.. and the way you put your thoughts into words was beautiful.

Never thought such a non-sense, stupid and a girl run from asylum can write :P

Liked it!

sourav said...

i saw khoya khoya chnad with my friend...i was boread as the story was not so interesting .we were making fun of this movie..but i must say soha ali khan as u mentioned was flowless and i really liked the songs and the get up of all the people in the movie but compared to sudhir's other movies like chameli its nothing..

and yr blog is awesome thts why i commented on it.keep it up!

Vinod Ramamoorthy said...

Nice review that . Did nt get to watch the movie .. Did not like sudhir mishra's hazaron khwahishen ...so did nt bother to go ! May consider dvd watching now :)

Craftsman of light said...

Love your poems, pebbles and seashore.
Hope you have a wonderful and a very creative new year.