Amol Palekar starrer Khamosh – A meta-cinematic approach with a script woven in a parallel world

Isn’t it interesting, film actors play themselves onscreen with some fictional story? We have seen brief roles in scenes or songs in movies like Choti Si Baat, Golmaal etc, interestingly Amol Palekar films, and also Dharmendra in a full-fledged role alongside a bunch of actors in Guddi. They were all portraying themselves. But this article is about an interesting thriller film, Khamosh released in 1985 produced and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The movie starred immensely talented actors like Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah.

What’s it special in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Khamosh?

Its unique plot hooked me when I watched it a few years ago, something never happened in Hindi cinema before. In my opinion, this film can be tagged as the father of movies belonging to this genre. Is it an alternative history or something existing in a parallel world of real persons, but fully fictionized? More or less, this movie can be classified under meta-cinematic approach, where the movie is self-aware and acknowledges itself as a work of fiction. This storytelling technique blurs the line between reality and fiction, making the audience conscious of the filmmaking process or the nature of cinema itself.

Two days back, a thriller released in Malayalam titled, Rekha Chithram, which not only represents the present, but also revisits the making of the 1985 Mammootty starrer Kathodu Kathoram. The story of the movie is carefully woven around the making of Kathodu Kathoram, and one of the junior artists who appears in the popular ‘Devadoothar Paadi’ song, which is fully fictionized but looks so real. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Khamosh is something similar to it, though not exactly. Chopra who was the co-script writer of the film weaves a fictional story with some Bollywood actors giving their real names and interestingly, those characters were played by real actors themselves.

What’s the film plot?

All actors of the movie Khamosh including Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah portrays a fictionalized version of themselves. The suspense thriller was set against the backdrop of a film shoot in Kashmir where the heroine Soni Razdan (played by Soni herself) is murdered. Then a chain of murders happens and the story hooks you till the end.

The film is all about solving this murder mystery, and in the climax, actor Amol Palekar who attacks Shabana Azmi, proves to be the mastermind of the crimes. It was so surprising for me to see some actor picturizing himself as a bad guy on screen, that too at times when Indian audience were not ready for accepting grey shades or heroes playing villain roles. Definitely it was a movie way ahead of times. It was a departure from his typical “good guy” roles.

In the film, death of many actors was shown including Amol Palekar, which was a far cry from reality. Isn’t it interesting? The plot was so fresh and starred some of the great actors of the time. Sad part is the producer didn’t get any distributor and one year later, the producer showed one print in a single theatre in Mumbai, and the movie ran for weeks. I feel, if such a movie was made in present times or if someone rework on the film and come up with a strong script, definitely Indian audience would have accepted it.