Kathmandu :

Woh Lamhe (Drama)

Cast: Shiny Ahuja, Kangana Ranaut and Shaad Randhwa

Direction: Mohit Suri

Showing at Jai Nepal

You really wouldn’t care if the flick was based on the true story of Mahesh Bhatt and (the late) Parveen Babi. For Woh Lamhe stands in a league of its own, and stays away from the mediocre mush abounding most masala movies. But it’s not only the storyline that absolutely scintillates, but also the stupefying suspense that holds your breath. And of course, a stellar performance of the cast that shines throughout the flick. Not only does Mohit Suri score with the movie, but this also might rapidly ricochet the Gangster girl into the pantheon of stars who’ve already made it big in Bollywood.

At first look, it might even sound quite similar to the feat that proved to be a failure in Gangster. But the pair leaves no room for hamming, which made a complete hash of their attempts in earlier enterprises. And even the screenplay, though seedy at times, finally makes up with the swerves that comes swiftly as the story progresses.

Sana Azim (Kangana Ranaut) is a famous artiste but is enamoured by the impudence of Aditya Garewal (Shiny Ahuja) who doesn’t falter as he calls a spade a spade. But as Sana is slowly smitten by the aspirant director Aditya, she also accepts the role of an actress that shoots the director to stardom.

However, during the moments the director calls the shots, they both fall in love, only to discover that Sana suffers from an acute case of schizophrenia. Though Aditya makes all attempts to rescue Sana from the clutches of her money-minded mother and her nerve-wracking neurosis, the actress disappears only to appear three years later in a hospital fighting between life and death.

In between, the story has moments of real epiphany as love flourishes between Adiya and Sana and how everything shatters. The story however suffers from one slight glitch — there’s no explanation for where Sana disappears for the three sequestered years.

Other than a few hiccups, the movie undeniably establishes Suri’s prowess as a director. And apart from her pin-up pulchritude, there’s indeed more to Kangana, which shows up as her rivetting act as a schizophrenic patient. And considering the complex character for an actor who’s just made his foray into filmdom, even Shiney has had a fighting chance to better in his future endeavours.

And the number Kya mujhe pyar hai is sure to remain on the top of the charts for weeks to come.