Khamoshi (1969) is a movie perhaps best known for its beautiful, haunting songs… composed by Hemant Kumar, written by Gulzar. When I watched the movie recently, I realised what a travesty it was to associate the movie only with its music. It is such a beautifully complex, moving film….with one of the most powerful female characters that I’ve ever come across in cinema, right at the centre of it.
DIRECTOR- ASIT SEN (Directed this movie first in Bengali, in 1959).
CAST - Waheeda Rehman, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Nasir Hussain, Ifteqaar, Deven Verma.
PLOT -
Radha (Waheeda Rehman) is a psychiatric nurse who works in the National Institute of Psychoanalysis, headed by a psychiatrist called “Colonel” (???) (actor- Nasir Hussain). The institute treats patients with all kinds of mental illness, with different methods, including experimental ones. With the help of Radha, the Colonel has just successfully treated a patient Dev (Dharmendra), who suffered a breakdown following a failed love affair. The experimental treatment consists of the nurse taking the place of the most important woman in the patient’s life, nurturing him like a mother, being a companion to him like a lover would be- basically helping him re-establish his faith in women, as well as in himself.
To the Colonel, this treatment method involves good “acting” skills from his nurse…so she can enact her role well, help the patient and cure him, and then move on with her professional duties. But is that the way Radha sees it? What if, while nurturing Dev, she actually falls in love with him, what if she is no longer able to maintain the difference between her professional life and her personal feelings, what if Dev gets well and moves on without feeling the same way about her? That is what happens and Radha is devastated. She does not tell anyone about her emotional attachment to Dev and tries to get on with the rest of her duties at the hospital.
However, the Colonel, now overjoyed at the “success” of his experiment, all too eager to get accolades and make a name for himself amongst his peers with his novel method, takes on another patient Arun (Rajesh Khanna), a poet and a writer. Arun, like Dev, is also suffering from a severe psychiatric condition, the after-effects of being rejected by his lover Sulekha. Arun is extremely paranoid about all women, getting physically aggressive and abusive towards them.
Initially, Radha refuses to help the Colonel with the treatment, although she doesn’t tell him why. The nurse used in her place, is not particularly effective, lacking the maturity and the experience. Eventually, Radha does take over the case, her professional ethic winning over her emotions, as well as her fear of history repeating itself. She establishes rapport with Arun, being firm yet affectionate with him, and soon he starts blossoming under her attention.
Does Arun recover completely? Will Radha continue to be haunted by Dev? And most of all, is this method really a “successful” one for all concerned? These are some of the questions you have to watch the movie, and then reflect on your own, to have answered.
MY THOUGHTS-
This movie spoke to me on so many different levels….as a psychologist, as a woman, as a movie and music buff. As a psychologist and a mental health professional, I was astounded at the level of insight and the knowledge the director seemed to have about the milieu of a psychiatric hospital, especially the completely “natural” way the patients and the doctors interacted. In one of the scenes of the movie, a doctor is mistaken by a visitor for a patient, and the visitor is taken for a patient by the doctor. Once they clear their misconceptions, they both laugh and make the observation that there isn’t a whole lot to distinguish so called “normal” people from those who aren’t….so true!
While the terminology and the methods used by the psychiatrist were somewhat questionable (nurses, “acting” with patients to cure them), it is also undeniably true that a large part of therapy and cure lies in the relationship established by the professional with the patient. The better the rapport, the more probable the cure.
What made this movie really stand out in my mind, was the wonderful characterisation of Radha. Women have so often been portrayed so dubiously and uni-dimensionally on screen…as silly young girls, as whining self-sacrificial mothers, as scheming temptresses….very few movies explore the deep, emotional, complex nature of a woman. As a woman, I know it is extremely hard to compartmentalise ones life and wear different faces for the different roles we play. How can a woman ever be completely, “objective” about something? How does one keep emotions at bay and prevent them from ruling ones life? These are some of the tough questions the movie raises.
Waheeda does complete justice to a part that could be tailor-made for her. The character of Radha requires someone with great maturity, depth, dignity, and sensitivity…qualities that spell the great actress’ name. Her interpretation of “Radha” is right up there with her work as “Jaba”, “Shanti”, “Gulabo” (Guru Dutt movies) and of course “Rosie” (Guide).
As a movie buff, there are so many aspects to Asit Sen's direction that I admire…especially the fact that we never get to see the face of “Dev” (Dharmendra) in the movie. Yet he haunts every frame of the movie, just as he haunts the mind of Radha.
As a music buff, ANYBODY who loves music, who loves poetry, will love the music in this film.
“Pyaar koi bol nahin, pyaar awaaz nahin, ek khamoshi hai, sunti hai kaha karti hai….sirf ehsaas hai yeh, rooh se mehsoos karo…pyaar ko pyaar hi, rehne do, koi naam na do”
Sheer magic. Just like this movie is.
