Khamoshi: The Musical

Just a amazing movie great work vision by Sanjay Leela bansali great performance by nana Manisha salman.

Khamoshi: The Musical (1996) : Movie Review -

Silences more than half of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's filmography. SLB's career will always be divided into two categories: content-driven cinema and larger-than-life spectacles. The content category will have Khamoshi, Black, and Guzaarish, while the likes of HDDCS, Devdas, Bajirao Mastani, and Padmaavat will lie in the second category. Khamoshi has to be his most close-to-tragedy conflict coming from a human angle because I feel that situations like Black, and Guzaarish are quite rare to find (that's what makes them better, actually). The metaphor in Khamoshi is pretty clear to everyone who's watching it, but SLB didn't present it verbally. "Beyond Silence" too suffered from the same problem, I guess. Having a normal child is the happiest thing for deaf and mute parents, but that can be the saddest thing too, because it separates her/him from their problematic world. So, sometimes it is better to have a disabled child because he/she can at least be with you forever, and they can carry on with life with the same problems. Khamoshi uses music and love/marriage to highlight the same issue, just like Beyond Silence; otherwise, it's a totally different and much more diverse movie than the OG German film. Indian films should always be superior because the use of songs gives them an edge. For instance, Hollywood and Bollywood can both make visual grandeurs. Let's say Hollywood has Ben-Hur (1959) and we have "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960). Both are huge, but MEA has evergreen music and video songs that Ben-Hur didn't have. That's one thing where we are ahead. With the right use of it, we can overtake any original film with a remake. Beyond Silence could use nudity, and Khamoshi couldn't. That's not my issue, anyway. The problem is that a film like Khamoshi, a story, which is set in a small village/beach/house, shouldn't go big with its scale. Now, that vision of SLB spoils the generalism and reliability of Khamoshi. The best scenes in the film don't have any big scales or sets. The musical touch boosts the metaphor further because it's a very sensitive human conflict perfectly matched with parental issues. The daughter wants to make a career in music because she is normal, but sadly, her parents can never hear her music. The idea of romance is quite different in Khamoshi than what we saw in Beyond Silence. This one's pure and slightly misjudged romance, and that too because we have such dramatic situations. Whatever flaws it has are covered by the emotional segments in the film-there are four major emotionally engaging scenes in this film, and that Nana's speech in the church in the climax surpasses them all. It's a genius idea to have the speech verbally delivered by another man. It can never create the same emotional impact when the character himself narrates it. What's overdone is the pregnancy routine of the girl, which has been too dated for Hindi movies. "Mujhse galti ho gayi.. Bachcha gira do." I mean, that stuff has been pushed even before Bhansali was born. Nana Patekar gives another striking performance. Nothing much challenging was left for him after the kind of films and roles he had done before Khamoshi, but still, he discovered a new soft side of him as an actor. Koirala is superb in those emotionally challenging scenes, while Seema Biswas did make me believe that she was deaf and mute. Salman looked young and handsome in a typical chocolate boy role, but somehow he got that one of the most important emotional scenes at the end of the film. SLB should work with talents like Nana, Seema, and Raghubir again instead of working with today's mediocre bunch of supporting actors, and he should also go back into that content-cinema zone again, even though his last three such films didn't do well at the box office. That's sheer bad luck, man. Let him earn money with big-scale movies with mediocre content so that he can save money to spend them on such high quality projects. I am always there, silently waiting for him to come back.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

One of the best drama movies of bollywood. Outstanding performances from salman , manisha , nana. Heart warming story. One of the finest art of bollywood.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali, previously associate director to the talented Vinod Chopra, makes his directorial debut with a sensationaly complex piece of work. The film faired moderately at the box office and one wonders why?? This is undoubtedly one of the finest examples of commercial entertainment merging with what is referred to in India as "Art Cinema." Yes, the film is an out and out musical, but never do the songs hamper the narrative even once. Bhansali's ability to weave the songs in order to progress the narrative was also wonderfully displayed in his film "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam."

One would wonder how it is possible to leave two characters who are both deaf and unable to speak, to develop themselves on their own. But Nana Patekar and Seema Biswas (Bandit Queen) have given their most impressive and sincere performances yet. Manisha as the girl stuck between her love for music and her love for her parents portrays the multiple complexities of the character very effectively. Salman Khan does his usual satisfactory job as the lover boy. However, the real winner of the film is the script also written by Bhansali himself.

The story is simply wonderful, and as is characteristic of Bhansali, instead of making the story complex, he makes his characters complex. To watch Patekar and Biswas play their roles is simply a lesson in acting. The cinematography by Anil Mehta is simply brilliant, effectively creating the carnival like atmosphere of GOA along with a noir-ish feel that compliments the dark complexity of the characters.

And alas - the music. Jatin and Lalit who have tended to focus on very Indian sounds in their previous works have somehow managed to fuse in the feel of Portuguese folk sounds into their very Indian tunes - characteristic of the entire feel of Goa. The lyrics are well thought out and simple to progress the narrative. Bhansali's grip over his subject is impeccable and he displays his mastery in the art of mainstream Indian filmmaking to the fullest. This is a man to watch out for in the future.

Overall, this movie is simply not to be missed. Sure, it has its minor flaws here and there but when one looks at the wonderful feel it creates for the viewer, all flaws can be overlooked. What sets this film apart from the usual churns is that the film actually has a STORY. It actually has CHARACTERS rather than just STARS and celebrities in it. It packs in a lot of meat. This is how entertainment and art should be blended. It is good to see yet another filmmaker joining the band of contemporary directors like Mani Ratnam, Shekar Kapur, Ramgopal Varma and Mahesh Bhatt who have succeeded in their quest to erase that line separating commerical and "Art" cinema.

In this award-winning drama, Annie (Manisha Koirala) is the hearing daughter of a deaf couple, and finds herself divided between two worlds. When Raj (Salman Khan) arrives bringing romance and music, her life takes a new direction, and she is torn between her new love for Raj and her duty towards her parents.

This is poignant and heartwarming film, with a strong message of faith and family. Some of the songs are particularly lovely. While both Koirala and Khan were good in their roles, the supporting cast of Helen, Nana Patekar, and Seema Biswas were fantastic. I highly recommend this lovely movie