Review of Khoya Khoya Chand (2007) by V9Y J — 08 Mar 2008

The director combines the opulent drama of a Bhansali with the brooding symbolism of a Guru Dutt. In other words, it's one of the best use of art design, cinematography and melodrama woven in the fabric of storytelling that I've seen. The characters may not be utterly realistic, but they serve as good stand-ins to reflect the inner politics, casting couches, affairs, break-ups and disappointments of yesteryear's Indian film industry.

The relationship between Zafar and Nikhat was powerfully brought forth on screen, helped mostly by well written characters and scenes (the one where Zafar insults Nikhat in the middle of the road comes to mind) and also partly due to the chemistry between the two actors. The torment and passion of two people came naturally for Shiney and Soha when they were together. I was less impressed by Soha outside of those scenes, especially in the ones where she had to "act".

Among the supporting casts, Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor have little more than caricatures for the most part, but they do get their opportunity to shine (towards the end for Vinay, and the starry arrogance for Rajat). Sonya Jehan looks heavenly, but the motivations or thoughts of her character did not come across well. Sushmita Mukherjee was a good surprise.

The music is excellent and very much suitable keeping the period in mind. It's certainly one of the better movies to come out of Bollywood in the past few years. Two major complaints that I had were, firstly, the abrupt cuts, which were effective for some scenes, but annoying and confusing for others. Secondly, those poorly choreographed love scenes ended up looking more vulgar than necessary.