DVD Review: Khoya Khoya Chand 
By Joginder Tuteja, January 25, 2008 - 18:04 IST
THE FILM
Was it poor market placement that resulted in the downfall of Khoya Khoya Chand at the theaters when released in December last year? That seems to be pretty much the cause of the downfall of this Sudhir Mishra film because after viewing it on DVD, it comes across as an engaging tale, which has been hitherto untold in Bollywood cinema.
Once Khoya Khoya Chand begins, you get into a different world altogether. A world, which is not artificial or fake with on-your-face effort being visible in forcing you to believe that 'hey, this is how the 50's looked'. Instead, things are much more subtle and 'obvious' with a viewer taking not more than 10 minutes to truly find himself, adjusting to the 50's setting. Whether it is the production equipments on the sets or the house where the protagonists stay, the vintage cars, or the single screen film premieres of black & white movies - everything just works perfectly fine to help the film establish its genre.
Performances in Khoya Khoya Chand are top notch with everyone from Shiney Ahuja and Soha Ali Khan to Rajat Kapoor and Vinay Pathak deserving full marks for their efforts. Though Soha is the lead protagonist of the film and Rajat Kapoor dominates the first half of the film, Shiney shines in majority of his scenes. He may have been all awkward in Bhool Bhulaiyaa but somehow seems to be in his comfort zone in Sudhir Mishra brand of cinema. Meanwhile, Vinay Pathak stays on the peripherals but makes one look forward to every scene where he appears.
Shantanu Moitra's music is an asset and elevates the film whenever a song appears in the background. Title song takes the cake though and helps in carrying the story forward.
As one is through watching Khoya Khoya Chand, it mandates a viewer to go for a repeat viewing. Reason being that in spite of being set half a century back, it comes across as timeless as the functioning of the industry and the characters involved seem so real, identifiable, and belonging to 'today'. A veteran actor (Rajat Kapoor) who wants to continue his stardom and understand the functioning of the market and the audience, a tantrum queen with suicidal tendencies (Soniya Jehan), an extra turned supporting actress turned star (Soha Ali Khan), a writer turned director (Shiney Ahuja), a Punjabi film producer (Saurabh Shukla), an assistant director turned producer (Vinay Pathak), a Godmother (Sushmita Mukherjee), a star wife (Dipannita Sharma) - stories around each of them aren't just belonging to the era gone by; they are also the kinds which make headlines in tabloids and news channels hungry for scoop-a-day!
PACKAGING
Khoya Khoya Chand comes in a basic plastic case with a paper cover where Madhur Bhandarkar's comment - "Visually stunning, takes you back to the 50's... Mesmerizing" - looms large. Inlay card of the DVD reflects some glowing reviews that the film got from print as well as web media.
DURATION
The film comes in a single DVD with the film's duration being 130 minutes and approximate 20 minutes of added features.
MOVIE DETAILS
Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Soha Ali Khan, Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Soniya Jehan, Sushmita Mukherjee and Dipannita Sharma
Director: Sudhir Mishra
Producer: Prakash Jha
Music: Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics: Swanand Kirkire
SPECIAL FEATURES
Khoya Khoya Chand DVD has approximately 20 minutes of additional features which are mainly centered on the 'making' of the film. However, except for the basic interviews of the cast and crew, there isn't much, which is actually told about the real making of the film. For a period film like this, one expected a far more detailed description of the kind of challenges that would have gone into the making the film but comments in this regard are far and few.
Since Khoya Khoya Chand is set in the 50's and the 60's, the production team would have certainly worked hard on getting the right ambience, costumes, look, sets and the sound in place. Surprisingly, there is hardly any mention around this in the DVD. If included, it would have made for an interesting viewing to see how nostalgia was revisited while filming Khoya Khoya Chand.
Everyone from Sudhir Mishra, Soha Ali Khan and Shiney Ahuja to Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Shantanu Moitra and Swanand Kirkire talk about the film but all of that comes across as bare minimum role description. There aren't any interesting anecdotes shared that would have made the story around the making of the film any better than the kind one sees on satellite channels once a film is ready for the release.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen format
- Subtitles in English
- 5.1 Dolby Digital & Stereo
CONCLUSION
A movie about Hindi cinema when it didn't use to be Bollywood, Khoya Khoya Chand was an interesting concept, but it was always meant for a niche audience. After watching the film, one looks back at the poor box office performance of Khoya Khoya Chand as being plain unfortunate as it deserved a far better fate. Just like Sudhir Mishra's Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi, even Khoya Khoya Chand is guaranteed to find a DVD audience after suffering from a bad box office response due to sheer poor promotional strategy, market placement, and lack of thought in identifying the target audience.
Rating: ***1/2
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