Movie Review: Khoya Khoya Chand

I watched Khoya Khoya Chand on Friday. Its a different matter that I am writing the review now.

 To me, its a brilliant movie that would fail to make its mark. Reasons – to be honest, I dont want to dissect the this and that of the movie and kill a dream in the process. I see KKC as Sudhir Mishra’s tribute to his time in the Hindi Film Industry (pardon me for not referring to it as Bollywood yet). And I can tell you what I liked about the movie. Its brilliant in its canvas, cinematography, characterization. The music is quite awesome.the thought behind the movie is quite profound. The imagination vivid. The use of cinema within cinema is a novel way of showing the reality that cinema is supposed to present. And for that, I would like to give full marks to Mishra.

The place where the movie fails is its editing. Its too slow and too disjoint at times. Everything makes sense, everything fits, and yet, you are fidgety in your seat at times. At times you wonder, for how long has this thing being going on? And then, the twist happens. The twist in the personality, emotions bring you back to whats happening on the screen. Its a wait and bait game that the movie plays with you. If you fish for fun, waiting can be too boring. If its your bread and butter, you know that for a bigger catch, you may have to wait longer. The movie will not appeal to people who prefer spending 150 bucks on an Om Shanti Om, where every minute of the movie is supposed to be explicit, entertaining, and exciting. The movie will appeal to theatre enthusiasts who like the use of sets, dialogues, imagery, limited words, multiple interpretations, the play between characters, the way the story buildds for 10 minutes to give you an ephemeral kick. None of the characters is a “hero”. None of them is a villain either. They are all playing their part in the gray zone. The shot where Zafar (Shiney) is mad at Nikhat (Soha) for not having tried her best in getting his way with a producer is an exquisite display of the real side of people. We all lose it at times, say things that we dont mean in general, but we do mean them in the spur of the moment. The shot where Prem Kumar (Rajat Kapoor) asks Zafar and Shyamul (Vinay Pathak) “sirf main hi itna haraamzaada hoon? ya sab aise hote hain?” is again a reality check. In another shot, zafar asks Nikhat – “hum to yahin hain. aap kahan hain? aap kahan they?’  and in another zafar tells shyamul – ise chod ke jeena bhi to mumkin nahi hai! The movie is a gem. Its a gem that some people will appreaciate on DVDs. But its bound to bomb at the box office. It may get an award somewhere, but most likely, it wont get any financial rewards. I live with a hope to be proven wrong on this.

Shiney, Soha, Rajat, Sonya,  Vinay, et al shine. And you can see the effort. At times, shiney does go slightly overboard, but only slightly. Soha is a find. There are shots where she looks exquisitely beautiful, and there are shots where she looks like an ordinary girl. Isnt that what cinema is? A make believe world.

And thats why you should see it. Its abotu all the things that make Cinema what it is. Glamorous, yet painful! Inviting, yet indifferent!!