I have lost count of the number of years that I must have waited to watch this movie. That sounds strange in this era of sharing and downloading of movies, isn't it? But I am not much for watching anything beyond small videos on mobile. So I waited and waited but none of the major channels ever telecast this movie. I did chance upon it a couple of times on B&W channel but usually at a pretty late point in the storyline.
Last Friday was, however, different. Frustrated at lack of anything remotely watchable on any of the channels, and not wanting to watch the usual culinary shows, I tuned into B&W. Rajesh Khanna was talking to some lady, and from all accounts she seemed to be breaking up with him. Wait a minute, isn't this the one who sings 'Hamne Dekhi Hai Un Ankho ki'. I sat up straight and almost held my breath till the ticker rolled at the bottom of the screen - You are watching Khamoshi. Whoa! What luck :-)
Okay, for the starters, I had been amply forewarned by my mom that this one is a tragedy. Usually I steer clear of the genre but this movie is different. It has a fasinating plot. Radha (Wahida Rehman) is a nurse in a mental hospital. She has recently had an outstanding success in curing Dev (Dharmendra), a young man who had lost his mental balance after a failed love affair. The treatment essentially consists of first winning the confidence of the patient (who has started mistrusting women), then pretend to fall in love with him and thus to gradually cure him of his mental illness. Unfortunately for Radha, she really falls in love with him. But the day she decides to tell him this, Dev's mom informs him that his fiance is back and their marriage plans are being finalized. Radha is heartbroken but decides to soldier on. However, she never tells about this to anyone. Not even to her boss when he tells her to take up the case of Arun Chaowdhary (Rajesh Khanna) who is suffering from similar malady.
Not wanting to go through the same emotional pain, Radha initially refuses to treat Arun. But the other nurse assigned to him is unable to match her performance. On top of it, Radha's boss is clearly displeased with her for refusing to accept the assignment. Resigned to her fate, Radha decides to look after Arun. She employs the same methods but in a bizarre twist of fate it is Arun who falls in love with her this time. Radha starts to go downhill mentally as Arun begins to recover. And finally, when he is fully cured, the strain takes its final toll on her and she herself becomes a mental patient.
Wahida Rehman is superb throughout - right from the bubbly happy Radha going to Dev with a copy of Kalidasa's Meghdoot, all eager to confess her love for him to the nurse who decides to take up Arun's case just for the sake of her professional duties to the broken woman who is unable to stand the grief of a broken heart. Rajesh Khanna looks deliciously cute and vulnerable. I couldn't understand how Radha failed to fall for him :-) Curiously enough, we never get to see Dharmendra's face in the whole movie (of course I must have missed a good 15 minutes of the beginning). He is shown with his back to the camera in the song 'Tum Pukar Lo' and we hear his voice in the letter sent to Radha. Lalita Pawar is simply wasted in bit-sized role. Deven Verma and Anwar Husain do a good job of bringing some light moments. The eternal Police Inspector of Hindi Film Industry, Ifteqar, is seen as a doctor for a change. I loved the scene in which he thinks that Anwar Husain is another patient.
The character I hated most was that of Radha's boss. In my opinion, the usually subdued Nazir Hussain has gone a bit over the top. Throughout the movie, he comes across as someone who is merely concerned about his fame, should Arun be cured as the second case of their technique. He tells Radha that he is forcing her to work on Arun because Arun deserves a second chance but somehow I wasn't convinced. He either doesn't see or turns a blind eye towards Radha's worsening condition. Speaking of which, her ragged appearance seems a bit sudden and not gradual as the case should be. Maybe the director wanted to shock the audience.
The songs are melodious - Tum Pukar Lo, Hamne Dekhi Hai and Woh Sham Kuchh Ajib Thi - and all are my favorites :-)
Must say that I didn't find the movie to be a tear-jerker. But I didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for Radha. That's because I have none for the disciples of Devdas. :-( Besides, I believe that she should have been upfront about her reasons for not wanting to treat Arun right from the beginning. I also didn't understand whether she falls in love with Arun or not because in the end she tells her boss that she never acted because she simply cannot act. If that's the case, I fail to understand her breakdown because Arun is in love with her. But if she had been acting with Arun, there was no reason for that outburst with her boss and no reason to lose her head in the end.
So I watched the whole movie with bone-dry eyes right till the end. But my eyes hopelessly welled up when a distraught Arun showed up outside her room's closed doors refusing to believe that what he had thought of as her love was simply part of the treatment and kept yelling that he will wait for her no matter how long it took.
I failed to see the the words 'The End'. :-(
Last Friday was, however, different. Frustrated at lack of anything remotely watchable on any of the channels, and not wanting to watch the usual culinary shows, I tuned into B&W. Rajesh Khanna was talking to some lady, and from all accounts she seemed to be breaking up with him. Wait a minute, isn't this the one who sings 'Hamne Dekhi Hai Un Ankho ki'. I sat up straight and almost held my breath till the ticker rolled at the bottom of the screen - You are watching Khamoshi. Whoa! What luck :-)
Okay, for the starters, I had been amply forewarned by my mom that this one is a tragedy. Usually I steer clear of the genre but this movie is different. It has a fasinating plot. Radha (Wahida Rehman) is a nurse in a mental hospital. She has recently had an outstanding success in curing Dev (Dharmendra), a young man who had lost his mental balance after a failed love affair. The treatment essentially consists of first winning the confidence of the patient (who has started mistrusting women), then pretend to fall in love with him and thus to gradually cure him of his mental illness. Unfortunately for Radha, she really falls in love with him. But the day she decides to tell him this, Dev's mom informs him that his fiance is back and their marriage plans are being finalized. Radha is heartbroken but decides to soldier on. However, she never tells about this to anyone. Not even to her boss when he tells her to take up the case of Arun Chaowdhary (Rajesh Khanna) who is suffering from similar malady.
Not wanting to go through the same emotional pain, Radha initially refuses to treat Arun. But the other nurse assigned to him is unable to match her performance. On top of it, Radha's boss is clearly displeased with her for refusing to accept the assignment. Resigned to her fate, Radha decides to look after Arun. She employs the same methods but in a bizarre twist of fate it is Arun who falls in love with her this time. Radha starts to go downhill mentally as Arun begins to recover. And finally, when he is fully cured, the strain takes its final toll on her and she herself becomes a mental patient.
Wahida Rehman is superb throughout - right from the bubbly happy Radha going to Dev with a copy of Kalidasa's Meghdoot, all eager to confess her love for him to the nurse who decides to take up Arun's case just for the sake of her professional duties to the broken woman who is unable to stand the grief of a broken heart. Rajesh Khanna looks deliciously cute and vulnerable. I couldn't understand how Radha failed to fall for him :-) Curiously enough, we never get to see Dharmendra's face in the whole movie (of course I must have missed a good 15 minutes of the beginning). He is shown with his back to the camera in the song 'Tum Pukar Lo' and we hear his voice in the letter sent to Radha. Lalita Pawar is simply wasted in bit-sized role. Deven Verma and Anwar Husain do a good job of bringing some light moments. The eternal Police Inspector of Hindi Film Industry, Ifteqar, is seen as a doctor for a change. I loved the scene in which he thinks that Anwar Husain is another patient.
The character I hated most was that of Radha's boss. In my opinion, the usually subdued Nazir Hussain has gone a bit over the top. Throughout the movie, he comes across as someone who is merely concerned about his fame, should Arun be cured as the second case of their technique. He tells Radha that he is forcing her to work on Arun because Arun deserves a second chance but somehow I wasn't convinced. He either doesn't see or turns a blind eye towards Radha's worsening condition. Speaking of which, her ragged appearance seems a bit sudden and not gradual as the case should be. Maybe the director wanted to shock the audience.
The songs are melodious - Tum Pukar Lo, Hamne Dekhi Hai and Woh Sham Kuchh Ajib Thi - and all are my favorites :-)
Must say that I didn't find the movie to be a tear-jerker. But I didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for Radha. That's because I have none for the disciples of Devdas. :-( Besides, I believe that she should have been upfront about her reasons for not wanting to treat Arun right from the beginning. I also didn't understand whether she falls in love with Arun or not because in the end she tells her boss that she never acted because she simply cannot act. If that's the case, I fail to understand her breakdown because Arun is in love with her. But if she had been acting with Arun, there was no reason for that outburst with her boss and no reason to lose her head in the end.
So I watched the whole movie with bone-dry eyes right till the end. But my eyes hopelessly welled up when a distraught Arun showed up outside her room's closed doors refusing to believe that what he had thought of as her love was simply part of the treatment and kept yelling that he will wait for her no matter how long it took.
I failed to see the the words 'The End'. :-(
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