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| Worth a few Lamhe! | | Film Review | |
FILM : WOH LAMHE
DIRECTOR: Mohit Suri
ACTORS: Shiney Ahuja, Kangana Ranaut
MIRROR RATING : * * *
For all that's public knowledge about the young Junagadh-born actress, who pretty much sizzled the screen in the shadow of her contemporary Zeenat Aman in the '70s, Woh Lamhe does not seem entirely the story of late Parveen Babi.
Neither as a chronological episode does it appear a true-to-life, faithful account of her affair with Mahesh Bhatt, her one-time boyfriend, writer and producer of this film, who has also directed two movies in the past (Arth, 1982; Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi, 1993), purportedly fleshing out the same experience from his life.
Part-fact (however minute that part may be to suit a two-character drama); part-fiction (belaboured at several moments); and for most parts a figment of a fertile fantasy, it helps for the film however that we're given a reference point of a known figure from the movie industry, who suffered a trauma during her lifetime, relatively similar to the protagonist in this picture.
The pre-knowledge, though not exclusively accurate, at least assists us in relating to the lead character, which the screenplay per se may not be equipped to elicit.
Kangana's Sana, a top heroine from Bombay films, is seen here as much under the clutches of her restrictive public life, as those who stand to selfishly benefit from it (a loutish boyfriend, an insensitive mother, blood-thirsty producers). She eventually falls for a young, go-getter wannabe filmmaker Aditya (Ahuja), whose interest in her initially is also wholly self-centred: he wants to cast her in his first film, an art-house enterprise that nobody would touch were it not for a leading name.
The film is pretty much from the perspective of the aspiring director who ultimately falls in love with the actress, and stands by her, all alone, through her bouts of extreme hallucinations and paranoia, given that she suffers from an acute case of schizophrenia.
It may be difficult to tell if Ahuja's role is as well-defined as he portrays it. But there's no missing the rare, raw force, power, strength and passion he lends to a character that helps his girlfriend convalesce, while the odds are against, both the relationship, and the girl's mental condition.
Certainly the premise itself allows for a unique peek into the perennially schizophrenic existences of larger-than-life movie-stars, always under the arc lights, dealing with a temporary, unnatural world that constantly surrounds them. The picture does as less justice to the premise as to the reclusive, real-life protagonist; both could be fruitful subjects for yet another, more in-depth effort. As for this one, it mostly suffices on account of its oft-naked intensity. From the same franchise, earlier this year, Anurag Bose's Gangster was a better-shot film; Suri's Woh Lamhe is clearly a better-made film.
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