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For all those who have watched and admired Dharavi, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, or the more recent Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi…, Sudhir Mishra’s Khoya Khoya Chaand is bound to be a keenly awaited film. This is also his best-budgeted movie, and better-promoted than his earlier films.

Khoya Khoya Chaand is set in the Indian film-making world of the 1950s and 1960s. Nikhat (Soha Ali Khan) starts out as a junior artist and a dancer, and wants to be an actress. Prem Kumar (Rajat Kapoor), a top artiste of the time, notices her and gets her the lead role in one of his films, in exchange for a certain proximity. Nikhat is reconciled to her situation when she meets an Urdu writer Zafar (Shiney Ahuja) who is also trying to find a foothold in the industry, again under the patronage of Prem Kumar. Disillusioned with the exploitative relationship with Prem Kumar, Nikhat gets closer to Zafar only to be sucked back in the mire that surrounds her. Unsuccessful in his relationship with Nikhat, Zafar also fails in his debut film as the director. Frustrated by his failures, Zafar goes away abroad and Nikhat tries to lose herself in self-destructive alcoholism. A few years on, Zafar comes back and cracks a film deal with the same set of people he was involved with earlier. The film is biographical where Nikhat, who is dying of a heart condition, plays herself.

With a film-maker’s knowledge, Sudhir Mishra has successfully created characters and situations that are at once typical of their age and also universal. He deftly creates a world where fourteen year old girls have to sleep with producers to get roles; where the producer bullies the director but sometimes only for effect; where the shrewd actress latches on to a superstar for roles but also lends a hand to a sensitive director and his vision; where a coterie of powerful people dictate terms but a charming old director makes his kind of film nevertheless; where a mother lives off on her actress daughter’s hard earned money but another woman mothers the actress without any obvious rewards (these are also some of the best executed scenes in the film). These characters and scenes look authentic and gives a glimpse of Bollywood’s past, and do so without turning the film into a retro fashion parade. Sudhir Mishra makes them all seem credible and earns brownie points. But while Mishra, the director does well Mishra, the writer fails. And on several counts.

Khoya Khoya Chaand seems undecided about its central characters and sequence of events – is it the story of Nikhat or, is it the story of Nikhat and Zafar (as a ‘stray’ voiceover suggests)? What is the importance of the background stories on Bollywood period characters, practices and ethics? Are they central or incidental to the unfolding human drama of Nikhat and Zafar? Strange at this may sound, a clear decision on these points would have solved most of the problems that the script has. As it is, the film cannot hold itself as the story of Nikhat, for Nikhat is as one dimensional as they come. She seems to be happy as a linnet being a junior artist and just equally happy when spotted by the star Prem Kumar. When it becomes obvious what he wants in return she doesn’t seem to complain too much. She cries when Kumar’s marriage is announced, but it’s not clear why, for she is not in love with him. Her relationship with her family remains unexplored and so her refusal to get married so she can earn for them is baffling. She refuses to go away with Zafar despite her love for him, because, as she puts it, she wants to think only about herself. Then she actually destroys her career by excessive drinking and B-grade films. The most intriguing aspect of her character is that one never discovers her passion (or a lack of it) for acting. Nikhat’s character is so flat one only wishes she was all that Zafar accuses her of being. She would have been a wonderful and attractive character if she was shown exploitative, if she got involved with this out of work writer just to taunt Prem Kumar, if she refused to marry Zafar because she did not want to put an early end to her career, if she had refused to go with him as a revenge for his not casting her, or, indeed, if her drinking had led to better performances! (But I say this in retrospect, and this solution, at best, is a speculative one.) Zafar’s character, on the other hand, with his jealous frustrations and moral ambiguities, is better defined, if somewhat unlikeable (he often comes out as an attention seeking and a wronged writer assured of his genius). Zafar’s background story is needlessly long and detailed, and there seems an unnecessary emphasis on his regret for not making peace with his father, so much so that this factor becomes and remains the central axis of his creative universe.

The screenplay lacks a clear narrative purpose and combined with a somewhat muddled editing, many (often, eminent) themes and scenes jostle with each other without finding specific and meaningful place in the film. There are way too many sequences establishing the ways of the film industry and yet Khoya Khoya Chaand carries an apologetic character. It never dives into the heart of the darkness of how Bollywood operates. The sadist power structure, difficult crass producers, opportunist collaborators and exploitative families are only referred to and talked about (not showing them is risking a plain assemblage of the hackneyed and cliché). The film suggests the rampant sexual exploitation but strictly avoids showing it (Mishra’s obvious discomfiture with filming love-scenes doesn’t help the matter either).

Khoya Khoya Chand affords Soha Ali Khan her meatiest role till date and she has worked hard to do justice to Nikhat. She looks good and delivers a performance that is strong; what she to some extent lacks though are the nuances. Shiney Ahuja holds himself well as the disgruntled writer but slips in the more emotive scenes. Rajat Kapoor gives a controlled performance but one misses the menace or meanness of Monsoon Wedding. The supporting cast of Vinay Pathak and Saurabh Shukla are noteworthy. Sonya Jehan performs with an effortless ease and a steely smile that seems also to be dancing in her head.

The Cinematography is admirable and produces a mixed palette using a wide variety of lighting and compositions. However, unfortunately, it has not aided in distinguishing the core story of the film and that of the films-within-the-film which was sorely needed. Music does well in holding the mood of the film without crying out loud to be noticed.

Sudhir Mishra has no doubt made a sincere effort in making this period piece on the workings of the Indian film industry, or, to put it the way he would like it, he has tried his best not to bullshit. But it has been my long-held view that a director who goes out with a weak screenplay is guilty of the sins committed. More so, if he has written the script himself.

- Padmaja Thakore

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