Director Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chand takes you into that era of Hindi cinema, where cacophony wasn’t the hallmark of music, but melody was; where progression of thought wasn’t a mere departure of the heroine’s clothes from her body and where film making wasn’t only about grandeur and opulence. Before one begins to dissect his labour of love, one must applaud him and his team for the kind of effort that they have put into the filming of the era gone by.
After a first viewing in the theatre when I watched this saga of emotions on my notebook, I realized how anachronistic the subject, the treatment and the period of the film are in today’s times. For a film which takes you back into the annals of history, KKC does do justice to its own self on the level of being a film, but somewhere falls short in doing justice to the golden era of Indian cinema. There isn’t really a problem with the film in that sense, though the issue is that there are too many issues which the film tackles, not only in terms of situations, but also in terms of characters and people. There is an angry writer in the film, whose internal violence is modeled on Guru Dutt’s character in the legendary Pyaasa, while the leading lady is modeled on several legends from that era, as her character journeys through being Waheeda Rehman, Madhubala, Nargis, Nadira; to finally ending up like Meena Kumari.
Come to think about it, KKC has a lot of meat in terms of the story. But the irony remains that the promotion of the film didn’t cater to the audiences who could have enjoyed the flavours of sensationalism in the film, while the gossip mongers of today’s cinema, would either not know about the realities in these reel characters, or simply couldn’t care less about the same. Also, though the actors Shiney and Soha, along with the rest do a good job with the film, they aren’t crowd pullers, which again becomes a problem for a film like this, which has fairly elaborate production values.
Speaking about the plusses, everybody in the technical department has contributed their bit to capture the authenticities of the era; then be it the hairdos, the costumes, the music or the sets, even the camera angles for that matter. Even the most uninterested viewer can perhaps not miss the classic recreation of a frame from Pyaasa when Shiney walks out of Soha’s film set. To be honest, everybody from the acting crew has also done a competent job, then be it the two lead players (Shiney steals the show completely in my opinion), or the rest with Vinay Pathak, Rajit Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla or in an extremely brief role Sushmita Mukherjee. Music director Shantanu Moitra and lyricist Swanand Kirkire have done a fab job with the songs, and one would associate this one more with their maiden Parineeta, rather than the extremely forgettable Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. And with every passing song, my adulation for both Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal is on the rise.
On the flipside lies the pace of the film. Also, the story becomes too dark at several places, and for a viewer who doesn’t have any background of the film world of the 50s, it becomes a bit taxing. Though I have myself liked the film, I think these viewers can be granted their ennui, as the film does unfold on its own terms, without understanding the tolerance levels of the modern day audiences. That’s where it becomes anachronistic.
What fascinated me the most about the film; are the gender dynamics of the lead couple. While it had shades of Guru Dutt - Waheeda Rehman, and even Raj Kapoor – Nargis; the struggle to achieve individual and collective professional goals, while nurturing a love for each other on the personal level reminded me Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan, though the drama here never scales those heights. But in a time zone where perhaps a Salaam Namaste was one of the good examples of such gender dynamics, as the highly anticipated Fanaa proved to be a mere marketing miracle, while in most others the fairer sex is still relegated only to glamour, KKC has a certain freshness to itself, which is interesting.
Though the graph of the two characters, individually and together swings away form normality, the director has kept a close control on them. There are several moments in the film, where one realizes the power of the story teller. Some of the noteworthy scenes would be the one where the two break the window panes, which becomes metaphoric of the ice-breaking between the two, while in another she catches him in bed with another woman, and finally in the scene where the helpless lover in Soha, just can’t get over her lover, as her desperation takes her right into his bed, and then the reality brings her out of it. These are some of the scenes which have been worked on very well by every member of the crew.
On the whole, KKC does on one level pay tribute to the legacy of Hindi cinema, and on another it builds a story, which is interesting. While the purists would certainly have their issues with the narrative, for me the writer has done a fairly good job in constructing a fairly coherent character of the leading lady, out of several legends, while the hero is largely modeled on Guru Dutt, both on screen and off screen.
After a first viewing in the theatre when I watched this saga of emotions on my notebook, I realized how anachronistic the subject, the treatment and the period of the film are in today’s times. For a film which takes you back into the annals of history, KKC does do justice to its own self on the level of being a film, but somewhere falls short in doing justice to the golden era of Indian cinema. There isn’t really a problem with the film in that sense, though the issue is that there are too many issues which the film tackles, not only in terms of situations, but also in terms of characters and people. There is an angry writer in the film, whose internal violence is modeled on Guru Dutt’s character in the legendary Pyaasa, while the leading lady is modeled on several legends from that era, as her character journeys through being Waheeda Rehman, Madhubala, Nargis, Nadira; to finally ending up like Meena Kumari.
Come to think about it, KKC has a lot of meat in terms of the story. But the irony remains that the promotion of the film didn’t cater to the audiences who could have enjoyed the flavours of sensationalism in the film, while the gossip mongers of today’s cinema, would either not know about the realities in these reel characters, or simply couldn’t care less about the same. Also, though the actors Shiney and Soha, along with the rest do a good job with the film, they aren’t crowd pullers, which again becomes a problem for a film like this, which has fairly elaborate production values.
Speaking about the plusses, everybody in the technical department has contributed their bit to capture the authenticities of the era; then be it the hairdos, the costumes, the music or the sets, even the camera angles for that matter. Even the most uninterested viewer can perhaps not miss the classic recreation of a frame from Pyaasa when Shiney walks out of Soha’s film set. To be honest, everybody from the acting crew has also done a competent job, then be it the two lead players (Shiney steals the show completely in my opinion), or the rest with Vinay Pathak, Rajit Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla or in an extremely brief role Sushmita Mukherjee. Music director Shantanu Moitra and lyricist Swanand Kirkire have done a fab job with the songs, and one would associate this one more with their maiden Parineeta, rather than the extremely forgettable Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. And with every passing song, my adulation for both Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal is on the rise.
On the flipside lies the pace of the film. Also, the story becomes too dark at several places, and for a viewer who doesn’t have any background of the film world of the 50s, it becomes a bit taxing. Though I have myself liked the film, I think these viewers can be granted their ennui, as the film does unfold on its own terms, without understanding the tolerance levels of the modern day audiences. That’s where it becomes anachronistic.
What fascinated me the most about the film; are the gender dynamics of the lead couple. While it had shades of Guru Dutt - Waheeda Rehman, and even Raj Kapoor – Nargis; the struggle to achieve individual and collective professional goals, while nurturing a love for each other on the personal level reminded me Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan, though the drama here never scales those heights. But in a time zone where perhaps a Salaam Namaste was one of the good examples of such gender dynamics, as the highly anticipated Fanaa proved to be a mere marketing miracle, while in most others the fairer sex is still relegated only to glamour, KKC has a certain freshness to itself, which is interesting.
Though the graph of the two characters, individually and together swings away form normality, the director has kept a close control on them. There are several moments in the film, where one realizes the power of the story teller. Some of the noteworthy scenes would be the one where the two break the window panes, which becomes metaphoric of the ice-breaking between the two, while in another she catches him in bed with another woman, and finally in the scene where the helpless lover in Soha, just can’t get over her lover, as her desperation takes her right into his bed, and then the reality brings her out of it. These are some of the scenes which have been worked on very well by every member of the crew.
On the whole, KKC does on one level pay tribute to the legacy of Hindi cinema, and on another it builds a story, which is interesting. While the purists would certainly have their issues with the narrative, for me the writer has done a fairly good job in constructing a fairly coherent character of the leading lady, out of several legends, while the hero is largely modeled on Guru Dutt, both on screen and off screen.
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