Khoya khoya Chand movie rating and review

Khoya khoya Chand (2007) Movie Rating and Review :

Lost in the moonlight

Khoya Khoya Chand is like a Kaagaz ke phool. Not the film by Guru Dutt, a director whose shadow looms large over the Sudhir Mishra film. But literally, like a flower that looks pretty from a distance but turns out to be paper when you take a whiff.

The problem with this wonderfully mounted period piece is that the backdrop keeps coming to the fore. Mishra’s no-holds-barred tribute to Bollywood of the 1950s and 60s invests so much in creating the perfect mise-en-scene of the era gone by that the main story becomes a by-product. The times rather than the character or the events call the shots and just like the Happy New Year song in the film you keep meandering from one page of the calendar to another.

Add ot that how Mishra’s characters, too, remain rooted in their past. Take the telling title song. Even as Nikhat Bano (Soha), a fledgling actress climbing the newfound stairs of stardom, and Zafar (Shiney), a Urdu writer trying to get a foothold in the film industry, through caution to the wind for the first time, Nikhat keeps hallucinating about her father. At other times it is Zafar who keeps seeing his dying father reaching out to him.

Mishra make wrong casting decisions. Parhapes Khoya Khoya Chand’s biggest problem is Soha Ali Khan. Yes, she looks stunning throughout the film but she is not Nikhat Bano. As the young 14-year-old who is thrown into the cesspoll of the film industry where offers are made every night from plum movie roles, who goes on to choose career over personal life, and then gives it all up for the sake of happiness, Soha is just not up to it.

It is left to Shiney to work in tandem with his Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi mentor to come up with a delicately balanced performance. Yes, he is still unwatchable when he howls, but for the rest of it, he is excellent. So are Sonay Jehan and Rajat kapoor as the superstar of the era and each member of the ensemble cast – Vinay Pathak, Saurabh Shukla, Sushmita Mukherjee.

It’s just that Sudhir Mishra Raished our armaan so much with his earlier work that Khoya Khoya Chand gets lost in the moonlight. Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle…

P.S:. Mishra leaves a lovely teaser of his forthcoming film, though, on why Devdas was Devdas. Enough to give birth to a thousand more desires.

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