Producer: Prakash Jha
Director: Sudhir Mishra
Cast: Shiny Ahuja, Soha Ali Khan, Soniya Jehan, Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Sushmita Mukherjee, Dipannita Sharma, Yusuf Hussain, Pradeep Kharab, Hyder Ali, Saurabh Shukla, Alka Pradhan, Ashish Ghosh,
Music: Shantanu Moitra

Many films endeavor to capture the essence of the bygone era but few ultimately succeed to do it, as it can really be a trying task to resurrect an era unfailingly onscreen. Nevertheless, Sudhir Mishra’s classic tale of love ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ succeeds to frame the glory and grandeur unerringly on the big screen much to the film’s credit.

Even though the maker of the film unfailingly maintains that the film doesn’t draw any parallels on real life personalities or events, the resemblances are necessarily obvious. Impacted with its own shortcomings, this is a film which will be long spoken about not due to its artistic excellence or brilliant technicalities, but its recall value, thanks to its brilliantly erected scenes that hardly fails to remind us of bygone events.

And to add to its shortcomings is its tiring pace and elongated length. The film’s length should have been deducted to heighten its interest. Beside poor execution of the story further murders its appeal.

To cut the long story short, ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ is a film that doesn’t hold any interest for mainstream audience and carries its interest for few niche audiences barely. This is a kind of film best suited for film festivals and not mainstream business.

‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ is the chaotic love account of an actress Nikhat (Soha Ali Khan), and a writer- director, Zafar (Shiney Ahuja) grounded in the magical era of the fifties. This film more or less is homage to that Golden era. Nikhat an aspiring wannabe goes ahead to climb the ladders of stardom with the aide of superstar Prem Kumar (Rajat Kapoor) in return of favors. However, it is Zafar who helps her get free from the clutches of Prem Kumar. But alas, their love liaison too is momentary.

The flair and flamboyance with which Sudhir Mishra frames the dealings of the industry of that era is noteworthy. Also commendable is his execution of certain scenes. However, the film lacks enough verve to keep you glued to the screen incessantly. The interest weighs down during the initial hours, which continues to fluctuate in the later half as well. Beside the climax of the film is too abruptly done.

Coming down to the music of the film, full marks to Shantanu Moitra for coming up with tracks generously complimenting the era. Cinematography by Sachin Krishn is also praiseworthy. Also deserving praise is the high-rate production design by Gautam Sen and costumes by Ashima Belapurkar and Niharika Khan.

Now shifting attention to the performances, Shiney Ahuja, Soha Ali Khan and Rajat Kapoor are extremely impressive in their takes. Soha as Sudhir Mishra claimed earlier is a real surprise. Her skills have been tapped to the optimum in the film. Rajat Kapoor is mind-blowing as ever. Sonya Jehan is striking. Saurabh Shukla and Vinay Pathak are delightful while Dipannita Sharma could have been better. The same holds true for Sushmita Mukherjee as well.

To be honest, ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ does have his moments of success, but overall the film hardly pleases. Its tiring length as well as slow pace taxes on our serenity. To sum up, this is a film that will find little buyers!