Expectations:
The horror genre was mostly dominated by the Ramsay brothers and Mohan Bhakhri in the 80’s, until the arrival of Ram Gopal Varma’s’Raat’ and Mahesh Bhatt’s’Junnon’.
These movies were technically much better than the usual craps made in those times. The Bhatt’s enhanced the face of Indian horror films with Bipasha Basu starrer film
’Raaz’, by combining horror, romance, music and drama with relatively know actors. After the super success of’Raaz’, the Bhatt’s kept venturing into few more genres
and eventually kept churning out a horror film at frequent intervals. Their latest offering is’Khamoshiyan’ is another musical erotica with a supernatural element
attached to it. The promos are interesting and have the much needed curiosity factor required to watch a film. Thus, let’s find out whether’Khamoshiyan’ will add as a
another feather in the Bhatt’s cap or might be another weak attempt with forced erotica added only to titillate its targeted audience.
Story:
’Khamoshiyan’ is a story of a writer Kabir(Ali Fazal) who is in search of a story for his new book. He lands up in an isolated place which is managed single-handedly
by Meera(Sapna Pabbi). Kabir starts bonding with Meera and falls in love with her. Little does he know that Meera has a dark secret related to her husband Jaidev
(Gurmeet Choudhary). What’s the secret and how does that affect Kabir and Meera is what the entire film is all about.
Screenplay & Technicalities:
The story is simple and has the stamp of Bhatt’s style attached to it. The first half is totally gripping and does full justice to the theme of the film. It has
curiosity, mystery, supernatural, sensuous romance, and melodious music perfectly blended. The problem starts with the second half of the film and that too with the
Gurmeet’s chapter, followed by the whole supernatural element, which is confusing and taken for granted. The writers fail to add the needed detailing to the
supernatural chapters right from the Gurmeet’s obsession for a butterfly, the cremation guy’s track, Sapna’s past which is easily forgotten in the last shot of the
film and a few more questions related to Gurmeet and the supernatural element. The second half is a total contrast to its first half, and keeps going down and down
with every next scene leading to a disappointing climax. The camera work is good and works in the favour of the film. The special effects could have been better.
Music & Direction:
Music in Bhatt’s film has been a strong selling point and even in Khamoshiyan there are few very good songs.’Khamoshiyan’, ’Baatein Ye Kabhi Na’, ’Kya Khoya’ and’Tu
Har Lamha’ are melodious and soothing.’Bheeg Loon’ is bit misfit. Director Karan Darra does full justice film to the mysterious promos of the film in the first half.
He keeps you glued to the silver screen with his engrossing style of direction, but is let down by the writers in the second half where the movie goes for the toss.
The supernatural element was over the top and weakly explained. There were many unwanted scenes in the second half, which were just added to increase the screen length
and fails to work in the favour of the film.
Final Verdict
Dum? There is a good amount of dum in the first half of the film with a proper engaging screenplay, melodious music and mild erotica, but as the movie progresses it
starts to slide down and ends up being a half baked product. The movie had potential to be another’Raaz’ style of slow supernatural film. Till the time the secrets were not revealed in the film, the movie was perfect, but once revealed less said the better.