Khamoshiyan Review

Karan Darra, the latest debut-making director from the Vikram Bhatt-Vishesh films Production line, brings us a supernatural erotic thriller, much on the lines of the team’s earlier efforts. So cheap eroticism, scenes of sexual misdemeanors, eerie thrills are all expected to be par for this course. At least the set-up to it all is... The  film is an erotic love triangle revolving around a writer adrift in the icy slopes of Kashmir where he discovers a woman with a strange, silent past.

Kabir(Ali Fazal) is a one book wonder who has just been jilted in love. So to find inspiration he takes off on a journey that he hopes will help him put pen to paper again. He finds a desolate looking guesthouse that appears appropriate for his endeavor and checks-in.

There he meets the beautiful wife, Meera (Sapna Pabbi) of a once rich paper-mill owner Jaidev (Gurmeet) who disguised himself as a charming man to win her affections, but once done, reverted to a controlling demon that he truly was. Kabir promptly falls in love with the lady and sets into play a series of events that spill out in well-oiled outage.

Jaidev is unwell, bed-ridden and makes Meera do his bidding which involves being diabolic and capturing souls of unsuspecting men. Kabir is curious at first and drawn to her beauty and eventually finds himself doubting his own senility. The standard tricks are employed to create eerie effects and suspicious events.

‘Khamoshiyan’ is production line effects, lissome long legged beauty primping at being terrorized, new wooden actor in parallel lead, a secret that brings on the heebee geebees in the screenplay and plenty of Sufi suffused music to lend you those welcome loo breaks. And yeah, dead bodies show up at opportune moments too.

Karan Darra manages to keep the interest going for the first half but once the narrative enters the supernatural realm there’s just not enough atmosphere or credibility in the goings-on to keep you glued to your seats. A manipulative seductress aiming to capture the soul of men, the story appears to be something that came out of those shabby sex novellas and the treatment is equally ritualistic and voyeuristic.

A concerted advertorial campaign can do little to raise this unexciting attempt to arouse mass carnality- to the level of intellectual satisfaction or worth. The songs are generic and there’s not much of a take-home from the acting other than Ali Fazal’s easygoing and charming screen presence. Not much of a thrill this!