{mosimage}Khamosh (1985) - the movie that kept intriguing me for a long time ever since I learnt that it was Vidhu Vinod Chopra's debut movie. After seeing the movie, you can understand why Vidhu Vinod Chopra is one of the most reverred & hated film maker in Bollywood. I always loved his passion towards the good cinema, eccentricity that sometimes snubbs film folks and a dare to break steroetypes. "Khamosh" is an edge of the seat thriller, straight from Aghata Christie type of novels, with no commercial distractions or thrusted item numbers even though the movie offers plenty of scope for such elements. The not so great technical finesse gives the film a raw texture that enhances the stark performances of all talented powerhouses - Naseeruddin Shah, Amol Palelkar, Shabana Azmi, Pankaj Kapoor, Ajit Vachcani and others. I could suggest that "Khamosh" is a must watch if you are a stickler for quality thriller. What keeps "Khamosh" ahead of other murder mysteries?
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A film unit lands in the Phalagam (Jammu & Kashmir) for a film shoot along with the lead players Amol Palelkar, Shabana Azmi, Soni Razdan and director Sadhashiv Amrapurkar. The second lead of the film Soni Razdan mysteriously found dead hanging in a tree, was passed off as a suicide and cremated in a hurried manner. However her brother Naseeruddin Shah, a CID Inspector is all set to put the murderer on a trial. But some more unit members are being murdered, leading to a gripping climax.
My friend & kid brother Vaidhees who was watching the movie along me shortlisted two suspects and to much of my surprise, he was right. He explained that the story telling is a direct tribute to Aghata Christie's style of story telling. But Vidhu Vinod Chopra pays his homage to Alfred Hitchcok as well as "The Godfather" in some scenes.
{mosimage}The success of the movie lies in setting the right mood or tone of the movie. Minimal dialogues, extra length shots, darkness inflict a sense of eerieness and uneasiness in the audience. Throwing stone from a glass house needs some heavy duty courage and VVC has balls of steel to bring the casting couch on screen without any pretense. He also brings the "creative" compromises that involve improvising the story on location. Moreover he makes a fun of himself through the character of director who keeps making tall claims about the movie. The exploitation of young girls to become leading ladies through the rape scene filming is so stark and brutal.
All the leading players playing themselves on screen lends a sort of credibility to the movie. Shabana is Shabana, Amol Palelkar is Amol Palelkar and Soni Razdan is Soni. However it is the boys' show with Naseeruddin who plays the role of CID and Amol Palelkar outshining everybody with a powerpacked performance. All the supporting cast succeeds in creating that mysterious ambience to the story. Unfortunately I can't write more about the movie as I may give away the culprit.
The screenplay is bit flawed especially towards revealing the identity of the murderer, but I sat for the movie without any expectations or even the knowledge of a storyline. VVC succeeds in not making you analyse the flaws while watching the movie. Also the fast paced crisp screenplay (the movie has a running time of just 100 minutes) remains honest to the basic plot.
Khamosh is mint fresh and engaging in many ways even after two decades of its release. I can suggest the movie for everybody who is in love with the good cinema, not in the pretext of entertainment.
{oshits} viewers have read this article and might like to give this movie a watch
Khamosh is available in Eros DVD for Rs. 99/- and in T-Series Home DVD for Rs. 165/-
My friend & kid brother Vaidhees who was watching the movie along me shortlisted two suspects and to much of my surprise, he was right. He explained that the story telling is a direct tribute to Aghata Christie's style of story telling. But Vidhu Vinod Chopra pays his homage to Alfred Hitchcok as well as "The Godfather" in some scenes.
{mosimage}The success of the movie lies in setting the right mood or tone of the movie. Minimal dialogues, extra length shots, darkness inflict a sense of eerieness and uneasiness in the audience. Throwing stone from a glass house needs some heavy duty courage and VVC has balls of steel to bring the casting couch on screen without any pretense. He also brings the "creative" compromises that involve improvising the story on location. Moreover he makes a fun of himself through the character of director who keeps making tall claims about the movie. The exploitation of young girls to become leading ladies through the rape scene filming is so stark and brutal.
All the leading players playing themselves on screen lends a sort of credibility to the movie. Shabana is Shabana, Amol Palelkar is Amol Palelkar and Soni Razdan is Soni. However it is the boys' show with Naseeruddin who plays the role of CID and Amol Palelkar outshining everybody with a powerpacked performance. All the supporting cast succeeds in creating that mysterious ambience to the story. Unfortunately I can't write more about the movie as I may give away the culprit.
The screenplay is bit flawed especially towards revealing the identity of the murderer, but I sat for the movie without any expectations or even the knowledge of a storyline. VVC succeeds in not making you analyse the flaws while watching the movie. Also the fast paced crisp screenplay (the movie has a running time of just 100 minutes) remains honest to the basic plot.
Khamosh is mint fresh and engaging in many ways even after two decades of its release. I can suggest the movie for everybody who is in love with the good cinema, not in the pretext of entertainment.
{oshits} viewers have read this article and might like to give this movie a watch
Khamosh is available in Eros DVD for Rs. 99/- and in T-Series Home DVD for Rs. 165/-
