Woh Lamhe ...

What a superbly enacted drama about the entangled relationships between the personalities of the Indian film world, where everyone is out to use each other to climb the proverbial unsteady ladder to success.

This is the first Hindi film I have seen that has honestly and beautifully presented the difficult subject of paranoid schizophrenia in cinematic form. Kanagana Ranaut is outstanding as the female protagonist, Sana Azeem, who plays a top actress who has made a Faustian pact in order to achieve fame and success. Unfortunately for her, it's her Svengali -like manager and partner, played with thorough evil intent by an actor I do not recognise, who has made her the way she is. She is very unhappy and takes to drink with gusto. Every part of her body and mind is dictated by media sponsors, who decide all aspects of her life.

Into this mix appear a struggling director and his partner, who sees their main chance in Sana – a ticket ride to success. Siney Ahuja, who plays Aditya, a pretentious director, is also outstanding. He is a superb foil to Sana, where the former starts out as disreputable, but charming character, but then slowly falls in love with the beautiful Sana when he sees her vulnerability.

Sana's frequent bouts of hallucinatory attacks – where she sees a female alter ego, an absolutely evil bitch, who pursues her relentlessly – strains her relationship with all the men in her life. We see the back story of how she became what is today, where her condition is diagnosed as schizophrenia. No one but Aditya understands her predicament. As a boy he witnessed his own father, afflicted with mental illness, being subjected to electric shocks to cure his condition.

When Sana herself was sent to a psychiatric ward to be given electric shocks, Aditya kidnaps her and takes to a safe refuge in the countryside, where he helps her to recuperate. It is not easy as her condition goes through a see-saw of emotions – one day, she's well, then the next day she's has recurring attacks of the imaginary female tormentor.

The scenes where Sana enacts her schizoid episodes are superbly handled and absolutely terrifying. Having a member of my own family afflicted with schizophrenia, I know how realistic the scenes are. I am not surprised that Kangana found it difficult to portray, but portray she does. She veers from normality to madness with such consummate ease that it was difficult to tell where the borderline between sanity and madness began or ended. Her scenes were spooky and intense, and so was the imaginary character in her mind, played by unknown actress whose terrifying visage will remain in viewer's mind long after he/she has left the cinema theatre.

Shiny's transformation from sleazy director to sensitive lover was remarkable and natural. He is an actor worth watching out for.

I would recommend this movie to all who are interested in excellent performances, direction, and soundtrack. An outstanding and sensitive screenplay from Mahesh Bhatt – clearly he has delved deeply into his own life to write this tale. A film that is, in turns, entertaining, disturbing, moving and sensitively portrayed. A must-see for aficionados of cinema.

This film deftly covers the subject of how one deals with personal ambitions and portrays a harrowing look into the condition of paranoid schizophrenia.

In both, it succeeds and is very watch-able. The script is wonderfully implemented though later on it slows unnecessarily at times. But it never deviates from the central characters. Kangana Ranaut's character has to deal with what her life is becoming, while Shiny Ahuja's character has tough choices to make about what he wants from his.

Ranaut gives a powerful performance, filling out every nuance and facet of her character. Shiny Ahuja brilliantly plays his character, emoting the choices he goes through. The supporting cast aren't memorable but do a good job.

The ending is a little heavy handed, but doesn't detract from the rich experience the story offers.

The film is said to be based on Parveen Babi's life but I don't believe it does full justice to the late actress. I would prefer to look at this as a work of fiction, which I think it majorly is. The screenplay is pretty fast-paced but the story feels contrived. The music integrates well with the plot. The songs echo nostalgic melodies of the 90s and I particularly liked 'Sau Jawoon Mein'. Some scenes were a overdone and extremely manipulative. One such scene is where at a film ceremony, Kangana throws her undy at Shiny or the rape scene (which looked quite fake and forced). Performances are quite efficient. Kangana Ranaut does alright in acting but she's miscast. A more mature actress would have been better suited. Shiny Ahuja too is okay overall but his performance is inconsistent. In some scenes he's excellent but in others he does go overboard. Purab Kohli has screen presence and Masumeh Makhija is excellent. She owns all her scenes and is very effective. To sum it up, Woh Lamhe is a good enough one-time watch. But I would have liked to see a movie about the real Parveen Babi, her life, her career, her struggle and her survival.

Just as the title offers, "Woh Lamhe" has many exciting moments to offer. I wouldn't say it's a great film but it should provide a very decent watch to its viewers. Supposedly based on Mahesh Bhatt's relationship with popular actress Parveen Babi, the film shows Babi in a rather negative light through Kangana Ranaut's schizophrenic young actress Sana Azim, and follows her relationship with a young filmmaker named Aditya who she falls in love with (that's supposed to be Mahesh Bhatt). A relationship starting off with a collaboration on a film is followed by a live-in relationship, where the young filmmaker is exposed to Sana's insanity. She is haunted by a woman who warns her that everyone wants to kill her. Quite expectedly, Aditya is presented as a kind-hearted and supportive man.

I don't know if this portrayal of Parveen Babi's life is correct, but it is certainly unpleasant for those who have known and liked Babi throughout the years. It is not the first time Bhatt wrote a film with a character based on Parveen. His 1982 masterwork "Arth" had a similar character named Kavita played by Smita Patil. While Patel's Kavita was a half-backed role in the film, here we get to see this character as the film's protagonist. But unlike Arth, this film was made a year after Babi's death, so one can never know if the characterisation and the story are completely correct, though we all know that it's just based on this relationship and is not a lifelike depiction of it. Whatever there, the film is very alluring and visually pleasing, although it gets to be a bit disturbing at some points.

The film belongs to Kangana Ranaut, who is astonishing as Sana. This is another role showcasing her talent in playing emotionally disturbed characters, and despite her very young age, she handles the rather complex character with great ease and looks beautiful and mature. Shiny Ahuja provides good support but at some scenes annoyingly overacts. The direction is quite good, and the film is enjoyable, interesting and has some fantastic tracks composed by Pritam. Every song has something nostalgically melancholic about it, which makes it memorable and ear-pleasing. Woh Lamhe is definitely worth watching, and not only once.

first of all i was not interested in watching the movie .i thought what is going to be special it is going to be just another love story but later when i saw the movie i thought this is one of the best movies .thank god i did not miss such a wonderful movie.the story is a real life story about an actress and a director."kangana" plays the actress and "shiney" the director the love for each other and the affection they share will be amazing.their on screen chemistry was very good the way it is picturised is outstanding."kangana" and "shiney" who played the lead were mind blowing.there are no words to describe their acting skills.the music of the film was too good the songs were very pleasant.they were apt for the situations.overall the film is wonderful