Khamoshi-another review

[Meenakshi Abbi]

Hi all here is another review for
Khamoshi which I found on Indolink

Enjoy!!!

Meenakshi Abbi

Khamoshi

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
*ing : Manisha Koirala (Anne Braganza), Nana Patekar (Joseph Braganza),
Seema Biswas (Favvy), Salman Khan
(Raj), Helen (Miriam), and Priya Parulekar (Anne Jr.)
Music : Jatin-Lalit

Reviewed by: Sunil Malapati
sun...@nwu.edu

Rating : ***1/2 (out of ****)

"When music breaks the barriers of silence"

Any movie whose publicity blurb claims the above better have some good
music. Yet, 10 minutes into the movie, I was
wishing that 'music' would stop breaking those barriers. I would be glad
to have some silence. Happily, the movie improved
from then on.

The movie starts with Joseph and Favvy waiting for their daughter Anne
and her husband Raj. They are both deaf and dumb
and the way they respond to music created by their child and her husband
(I will not describe the scene- go see it!) is a real
treat to behold. The song however is pure cacaphony and my goodwill
towards the movie started to slip. The car carrying
Raj, Anne and their son crashes and Anne is in coma (though she looked
pretty good to me). Joseph and Favvy with the
local antique shop owner (Raghubir Yadav in a lovely supporting role)
come to the hospital and sit beside Anne. The entire
story is told in flashback.

The actual story starts with the birth of Anne and the parents are
initially afraid that their daughter is like them (the scene is
reminiscent of the one in Gulzar's 'Khamoshi', but is played differently
and manages to impress). Joseph's mother Miriam
assures them that their daughter is quite all right. They later have a
son. Because of Joseph's condition, he takes Anne along
with him for selling soap door to door. From an early age, Anne is
forced to grow up and be the caretaker of her parents.
Her grandmother Miriam inculcates in her a keen music sense
(Jatin-Lalit's music started to improve from here on).

Due to their poverty, the family is forced to sell the piano to the
antique dealer and Miriam, lost without it passes away.
Joseph and Favvy's son dies in an accident. Anne becomes their entire
focus. Joseph, meanwhile joins a glass blowing factory
and their financial situation improves. Anne grows into a beautiful
young lady who is ardently wooed and finally won over by
a musician named Raj. The rest of the movie is concerned with the
friction arising out of Anne's love and her commitment to
her parents.

The movie's main concern however is the dream of Anne to make her
parents feel the music which she with her ears is able to
enjoy. When she sings, she wants them to appreciate her singing even if
they are unable to hear it. How she manages to do it
forms one of the greatest uplifting moments I have ever seen in Indian
cinema.

Before I proceed to bestow some richly deserved praise I must mention
two substantial letdowns which prevent this movie
from achieving classic status. The first is the script. The idea for the
movie is really good, but the script tries to pack in too
much. It would have been much better if the entire framework for the
flashback was dropped. The climax is utterly ridiculous
and almost made me consider a *** review. The movie could also have done
with some severe pruning. A lot of scenes only
seem to exist so that the cast can show us how good it is at
histrionics. The writer does not seem to understand the value of
restraint.

The second let down as mentioned in the beginning is the music. Though
Jatin-Lalit come up with two very good tunes, the
rest are strictly pedestrian. And whatever happened to good old Majrooh?
With lines like 'Tell me o khuda', he manages to
embarass himself.

Those two negatives aside, this movie is a gem. 'Khamoshi' contains some
of the best ensemble acting I have ever seen in a
Hindi movie. Not only are the individual actors brilliant, they mesh
together like parts in a Swiss watch. Each actor while
producing his or her best never try to dominate the others lending to
some brilliant teamwork. When has anyone seen Nana
Patekar not dominate? In this movie, he allows even Salman Khan to steal
scenes from him! Seeing Nana, Seema and
Manisha together, I could actually believe that they were father, mother
and child. The way they react to each other, even in
such minor things as eating; the ways in which their eyes seek out each
other - together they build a potrait so strong that you
identify with the family completely.

While you sort of expect great performances from Nana and Seema Biswas,
Manisha is a revelation. Earlier I thought she
could never surpass 'Bombay'. She goes ten steps ahead of 'Bombay' in
'Khamoshi'. She is present in almost every frame
(she provides the narration in the childhood segment) and gives one of
the very best performances I have ever seen from
anyone. She has grown into a complete actress who uses every part of her
body (notice how she constantly uses her hands,
especially when she explains her music to her parents) and also exhibits
a keen understanding of the surroundings (notice how
she uses the pillar as a coactor in the monologue directed against her
father). And she has something no current actress has -
perfect voice modulation. Not one single wrong note in her performance
here.

There are other notable performances. Helen, back after a long absence
(though she did a cameo in the eminently forgettable
'Akayla') is very welcome. Her little jig brought tears of nostalgia and
she gives a very spirited performance here. Salman
Khan as the bashful lover is the one the audience will closely identify
with. His self-depreciating demeanor and the easy way
he handles his role suggest an actor who is not afraid to play the fool.
He falters only in the ridiculous climax. The find of the
movie is certainly Priya Parulekar who plays Anne Jr. She gives a rare
performance which rivals those in 'Masoom'.
Surrounded by the giants of acting, she more than holds her own. If
Bollywood had any sense, they would write movies
around her.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali, apparently a debutant director manages to impose
strict control over the somewhat rambling script he
himself wrote. The direction is certainly first rate. He manages to make
his movie look original even when his inspirations
range from the aforementioned 'Khamoshi' to the TV serial 'Tamas'. He
even manages a little surrealism (Miriam's death
scene). Even the romance seems fresh. Great direction. A pity his
writing skills are not upto the mark.

The camerawork is quiet and unobtrusive and is very clean. There are no
wasted movements and the frame always manages
to seem perfect. The movie was totally shot in a single place and this
gives the movie a coherence that seems to be lacking in
today's movies. No dream songs to go to Mauritius! The editing is also
clean, though not as sharp as it could have been.

This movie reaches for the sky and if it does not quite achieve what it
aimed for, it still remains one fine effort. Certainly the
best movie I have seen in a long long time.

[cjam...@dayton.net]

In article <3240C0...@uclink4.berkeley.edu>, Meenakshi says...

>Any movie whose publicity blurb claims the above better have some good
>music. Yet, 10 minutes into the movie, I was
>wishing that 'music' would stop breaking those barriers. I would be glad
>to have some silence.

Often in this 'musical', I felt that the songs were breaking the
narration of the movie and were intrusive and jarring. This is not to
say that the music was bad, but the 'sound' and the picturization of
many of the songs did not fit with the rest of the narration.

I also thought that one of the central ideas of the story (that
Annie had to sacrifice her childhood, and the rest of her life, for her
parents' sake) was not something that was readily decipherable. In fact,
until she talks about it during her ranting (brilliantly acted by Manisha),
it didn't even occur to me that the writer/director intended us to be
impressed with this sacrifice made by the heroine. Until that point, the
parents seemed like strong people who could take care of themselves without
much aid from their daughter.

The heroine's pregnancy and her coma seemed to be more like tired
cinematic script tricks and reduced the emotional impact of the story.

The film, despite some great scenes and great acting performances
(particularly by Seema Biswas), left me unsatisfied. It seemed like the
final product could have been a lot better than it was.

Regards. ----- V. Chowdary Jampala