Khamakha Movie Review: Manjari Fadnis And Harshvardhan Rane's Khamakha

A sweet and simple film in a Hrishikesh Mukherjee/Basu Chatterjee mode - This is how Aarti Bagdi's short film Khamakha turns out to be. Boasting of a very simple narrative, this 17 minute film not just manages to hold your attention right through, but also makes you asking for more when the end credits start rolling. As a matter of fact you do wonder that if only the director would have packed in a little more in the same timeframe, Khamakha may just have turned out to be an all the more fulfilling experience. Nonetheless, the very fact that she tries to tell a relevant tale and in an entertaining manner is commendable!

The film is about a young man <Harshvardhan Rane> who is rich but finds himself in a rickety bus on a road journey when his SUV breaks down. In this trip, he comes across a lively young woman <Manjari Fadnis> who has her own perspective towards life and how just an exterior outlook and the spoken language can't really be the deciding factor of what lies within an individual.

While this core subject pretty much carries philosophical undertones, it is to the credit of Aarti that she narrates this through a slice-of-life story telling pattern. She brings in everyday situations into play and at no point does she try to paint a sheer black or white picture. Instead, she walks a thin line and brings in different perspectives, hence ensuring that as a viewer you are engaged into the tale of these youngsters.

Hence, while (the Sanam Teri Kasam leading man) Harshvardhan (with a definite John Abraham touch to his look, body language and mannerisms – which is not a bad thing actually) plays the part of a man to whom English comes more naturally, Manjari is shown as someone who has no hang-ups about any language and can communicate with ease across languages, be it English, Hindi or more. They spend a few sweet moments together and soon get into a verbal exchange around how perceptions are framed on the basis of what language does an individual speak.

While the narrative here is fairly entertaining, at places one just wishes that the proceedings speed up a little. On the flipside, the sequence of Harshvardhan and Manjari becoming close to each other seems a rather rushed and one isn't entirely convinced about the two absolute strangers warming up to each other so soon. That said, Khamakha has its own limitation of being told in a short film format and hence such aberrations are allowed to be consumed.

The film has been released by Huamara Movie and is dedicated to Hindi Diwas. In that aspect, the film's online release couldn't have been better timed.