Khamoshiyan Review

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Gurmeet Choudhary, Sapna Pubbi, Ali Fazal

Director: Karan Darra

What’s Good: A good suspense build-up in the first half which is gripping enough with its spooky elements. Overall Khamoshiyan maintains a decent pace and the songs don’t come as overkill. Conceptually too, there is something new which is rare in Bollywood horror. In spite of having a amateur cast, all the three leads deliver a decent performance.

What’s Bad: After building an engaging tale, the climax seems to hurried and while the director keeps it short with just 2 hours, he misses the second half grip. It seems like an incomplete story line and as if he wanted to make sure there is a happy ending, he wraps it up too quick. I was expecting many more thrills in the second-half but unfortunately they were not enough to keep me hooked to the film.

Loo break: Yeah! You could use one!

Watch or Not?: Khamoshiyan is not an out and out horror film, in fact it is a decent mixture of horror and romance This is a typical Bhatt film with its horrex elements. If you wish to get scared, then this film is not that top notch but just as a breather from all the regular Bollywood dramas, this could make up for a decent watch. The sets look good with their creepy interiors and eerie silences work good for this film. Not a must-watch material but passable for regular cine-goers.

User Rating: 

Kabir (Ali Fazal) is a one book wonder who has high commitment issues right from relationships to writing. Fed up with the uncertainty in his life, Kabir sets out on a journey to find his next story. What better than finding inspiration in the icy valleys of Kashmir and this where Kabir meets Meera (Sapna Pabbi) who owns a guest house.

Well, Meera is a sexy las who claims to be staying with her bed-ridden husband who is the owner of the guest house. While her strange behavior attracts Kabir, he not only falls in love with her, but also decides to solve the mystery that holds her back from him. As Kabir starts experiencing strange things in the house which make it certain that there is a supernatural power residing in the house.

As Kabir unearths Meera’s past, what is he about to find out?

Khamoshiyan Review: Script Analysis

Horror movies give me the creeps but still they are highly enjoyable to watch. While Khamoshiyan started off well with a wooden house with creaking doors, a sensuous guest house owner who talks seductive to her customers (well, in this case only one!) and a writer who is in search of himself and a story. That’s it, Karan Darra has it all to make a hit, spicy horror erotica but then haste is what spoils this broth completely.

When I sat through the first half making up stories of what could be that suspense element that the writers were holding till the interval, I found out all possible solutions and even Vampire stories struck my brains but what turned out to be the mystery was quite disappointing. At one point when Meera speaks in a man’s voice and the constant portrayal of her husband being locked in a room, gave me the feeling that she was going to be a female Norman Bates but unfortunately, the film’s story did not come even a little close to that.

There were quite a lot of loopholes in the story which suddnenly came to the fore in the second half, resulting in a bad climax. Even though the script is good enough with dialogues that keep leaving hints of the hidden story, it does not quite wow you or compel you to watch every scene.

Khamoshiyan Review: Star Performances

Ali Fazal as Kabir does a decent job at playing a writer who has lost his way and his desperate search for a new story. The actor seems to be becoming better with each film as compared to his last ride with Vidya Balan in Bobby Jasoos, this one is certainly a notch higher. The actor has a good diction and amongst the three lead characters in the film, Ali definitely stands out.

Sapna Pabbi debuts with this film and her seductively sexy avatar is surely going to win her praises. She definitely needs a little helping hand with her acting skills as she does not come of as a polished actress, nonetheless she has outdone herself from her TV series 24. Sapna surely has a long way to go ahead and it won’t be long before she becomes the face of the Bhatt camp films.

TV star Gurmeet Chaudhary too makes his Bollywood debut with this film but other than having a tinier role, the actor has less time to show his skills. He looks smoking hot and the director does not miss the opportunity of having him flaunt his hot bod bare shirt. Gurmeet has potential and needs a more meatier role to prove his mettle on the silver screen.

Khamoshiyan Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay

Karan Darra debuts with this film and as his first stint, the director gives us a decent film except the fact that it reeks of the Bhatt film touch. All the horror erotica films that have come from the Bhatt banner have a typical feel to them and so does Khamoshiyan. With the film’s special effects too, Darra does not present something novel. He just relies on his story and background score to spook you enough. I had a major problem with the hurry Karan seemed to be in to wrap up this film as the climax was too quick. Other than losing his main plot in the second-half, Khamoshiyan becomes too jumbled and confusing in the second half. Also sadly, I found both the love stories too weak to impress us but of course Karan will have to be given credits for making the intimate scenes look sensuous and not bordering on the line of vulgar.

Khamoshiyan Review: The Last Word

Khamoshiyan has nothing extraordinary to it. It is a horror erotica and if you are a fan of this genre, I am sure this is one of the better films amongst those that have hit the screens recently.  Suspense, mystery and also the haunting experience being average, I am going with a 2/5 for this film.

Khamoshiyan Trailer

Khamoshiyan releases on 30th January, 2015.

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