WEIRD Lamhe. Review on Woh Lamhe

I know in saying this a majority of the MS community might go against me, but I have to as always express my honest views. WOH LAMHE, the Bhatt camp's latest offering, can be best described as a strange film that only registers in parts. So does that mean on the whole it is worthy of a recommendation?

Frankly, the answer is NO. I am surprised to find out that this movie got a 93% recommendation before my review. WHY is the question I ask everyone? I mean given it is a movie with some heavy emotional content, but don't you all feel that the Bhatts attempted to give the audiences emotional pain by narrating what is claimed to be a true story. Honestly, sometimes a true story is not something one would want to present on the silver screen. And WOH LAMHE is such a case due to its heavy, sometimes hard-to-digest emotional doses.

WOH LAMHE is based on the love story of a struggling director Aditya (Shiny Ahuja) who urges a top actress Sana (Kangna) to discover her true simple self. Despite Aditya's rudeness in providing Sana with this suggestion, she eventually begs to work with him as she realizes that Aditya was right about the fake world of fame and glory she used to live in. It is during this time that Aditya and Sana come close and spend the most memorable moments of their lives together. However, Aditya soon discovers that Sana has mental problems and eventually, runs away with her to help her avoid shock treatment. Little does he know that Sana would end up leaving him in the future and he would be left all alone, for good!

I am not the type of reviewer who would provide spoilers for a movie. What you find in this review is self-explanatory from the promos: this is a highly tragic movie based on Parveen Babi's career and personal life. But as I said before, an overwhelming amount of tragedy can get indigestible. GANGSTER had its share of painful moments too, but it was a hard-hitting movie with a purpose to highlight the troubles of falling in love when one is a gangster. WOH LAMHE too claims a purpose, which is obviously to show the complications in a director-actress relationship.

But one has to admit that at the end of the day the Bhatt camp just can't continue making tragic films with the same lead pair. And this time, I am sure regardless of whether or not people liked this movie, they would agree that WOH LAMHE went a step further in being a needlessly tragic work at the end of the day. The stressed-out viewer wants entertainment, not further stress. Yes, there is always the argument that serious cinema has its purpose, but as I said this purpose is more or less something that can't make people feel anything but more emotionally disturbed.

Now for the technicalities. And yes, let me tell you very honestly again, WOH LAMHE fails in many areas here too. Why is Shiny's character shown to be that of an emotionless guy midway through the movie? Given that in the beginning his frustration as a failing director was justified. But why after giving a hit movie does he still sound extremely indifferent pre-interval when the love affair between him and Sana starts? Surprising, but true. One has to account for these minor errors because they do hinder the screenplay quite a lot, especially considering that Shiny went the opposite extreme and became a selflessly emotional guy in the later part of the movie. Almost Unbelievable but true again. One has to criticize the Bhatts because a lot of Bhatt's writing seems to get lost in translation with a rather inexperienced director (Mohit Suri). Can't say it would have been a better or a more reasonable product, but the execution certainly could've been more effective if Bhatt had decided to direct himself too since the movie was so close to him.

Except for the flawed screenplay, the rest is taken care of. The music is superb yet again, especially the KK track "Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai". The tragic numbers too add to the effect in the background though I repeat myself that these painful emotional moments were fairly unnecessary for an entertainment-seeking audience. Cinematography and camerawork gel well with the theme of the movie. Dialogues are good in the later part of the movie but are rather ordinary in the initial reels.

Performance-wise, WOH LAMHE belongs to Shiny Ahuja. The talented actor once again steals the show though one has to say that he is not in complete form. Shiny clearly struggles in the initial reels and that can be attributed to a poor characterization and a complicated theme. But gradually the actor manages to get the grasp of his character and comes up with a tremendous performance in the second half. His delivery of the lines when he claims Kangna's mother is her child's own rapist shows that the actor is full of potential. I must add though that Shiny should avoid being typecast in serious roles and try his hand at other genres too.

Kangna is confident yet again after GANGSTER, but I have to add that she needs to work on her dialogue delivery. It sounds as if she is high all the time, and though I acknowledge she has always had the drunken type characters, her voice doesn't change when she's sober too. So basically she has to work on this area but besides she is doing fine so far. The supporting cast all does a fair job though this crazy girl (Masumi) chasing Sana has a rather unnecessary character and thus gives a suffering performance while going completely over the top. In fact I must add that her character makes the movie get a horror feel.

Overall, WOH LAMHE is not a good movie at all. I give it two stars because it is somewhat of a serious effort on the part of the makers. But trust me, as an audience, the movie provides nothing but moments of emotional pain and suffering. Thumbs down!