Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s debut Khamoshi: The Musical sank without a trace, changed him as a filmmaker: ‘I vowed to get audience’s approval’

Starring Manisha Koirala, Salman Khan, Nana Patekar and Seema Biswas, Khamoshi is a coming-of-age tale, following a talented small-town girl, Annie (Koirala), torn between her dream of becoming a singer and taking care of her deaf and mute parents, Joseph and Flavy. There’s a handsome music aficionado, Raj (Salman), who wishes to help the bella realise her dreams but her family stays reluctant to send her out into the world, which they believe wouldn’t accept them.

At first glance, Khamoshi looks quite similar to Sian Heder’s CODA, which won the prestigious Best Picture prize at the 2022 Academy Awards. The film also narrates the story of the daughter being the only hearing child to deaf parents. But, I would avoid comparisons, given the times in which both films were made. Khamoshi was released in 1996, and CODA released twenty-five years later in 2021. Even Bhansali dismissed the possibility of CODA being inspired by his film as he said in one of his interviews with Subhash K Jha, “A good story can be interpreted in many ways. CODA is a different film from mine.”

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Manisha Koirala at the premiere of their film Khamoshi: The Musical. (Photo: Express Archive)

Set in Goa, a city bustling with noise of tourists and waves hitting the shores, Bhansali takes us through the beauty of silence and the power of dreams, no matter how impossible they seem. The protagonist, Annie, begins on a poignant note as she asks, “But what is life without an impossible dream?” Bhansali is quick to give us a realistic taste of Annie’s routine. She starts her day by being the voice of her father as he goes door-to-door selling soaps. She takes music lessons from grandmother Maria (beautifully essayed by Helen) and often becomes the interpreter to her parents. She has an overwhelming schedule, which includes the fight to keep a brave and unaffected face as the world belittles her parents.

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However, the beauty of Khamoshi lies in its music. As Annie and we, the viewers, start to get immersed in her life, burdened by the responsibility of being a nurturer to her parents, Bhansali strategically places a song and jazzes up the situation. The moment when Annie sings “Yeh Dil Sun Raha Hai” in front of her deaf parents, and recreates it in sign language, speaks volumes about the boundless love that’s there in the family. The melodious “Baahon Ke Darmiyan” mirrors the burgeoning young romance between Annie and Raj.

From watching his later films (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Ral Leela, Bajirao Mastani), I knew that Bhansali never inserts music for the sake of it, but interweaves it thematically to derive deeper meaning. But after listening to the soundtrack of Khamoshi, the filmmaker’s passion for music makes more sense. He gave a simple brief to the music directors of the film, Jatin-Lalit, “Give me something different. Something that you think other directors and producers will not take and accept.” And, out came the compositions which the music directors later admitted, they “never did again!” Credit for the unforgettable music of the films also goes to lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, who added soul to the tunes with his words.

However, the film gets a little too formulaic at times, a tad too comfortable sticking to the conventional ways of making the protagonist a crowd-pleaser and giving her story a happy ending, though against Bhansali’s original script. But the filmmaker makes up for it through Nana Patekar’s Joseph, who expresses the joys and anxieties of a family, which tries hard to make ends meet, without ever making their disability a butt of joke, which still remains a rarity in the Hindi cinema. He makes us see a real family with real chemistry, which disagrees and fights, yet cannot live without each other, an emotion universal to most families.

Seema Biswas and Nana Patekar in Khamoshi: The Musical. (Express archive photo)

Bhansali said about Khamoshi during one of his interviews, “I made the film that I wanted to without caring about the consequences. Khamoshi is still something I’m proud of.” (Of course, he did what he wanted to in the film, else who would have the courage to realise his love for chandeliers even in the ruins of Goa and hang a massive chandelier in the middle of nowhere!)

Nonetheless, Khamoshi became a cinematic masterpiece not because of Bhansali, but because of its cast, especially Nana Patekar and Manisha Koirala. Patekar, popular for his histrionics and dialogue delivery, proved to himself and many others, that he can express without words. His outburst, first at the death of his son Sam, and later, on seeing his daughter Annie battling for life, are absolute tear-jerkers. It is quite surprising that he won no award for the film. Koirala also gives a contained performance. She is demure, shy, and sweet, while also being courageous and vulnerable. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics) and Star Screen Award for Best Actress.

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However, upon its release in 1996, the film was declared a flop or, as the producer of Khamoshi put it over a call with Bhansali on the day of its release, “Picture baith gayee hai.” Since Bhansali didn’t know what the producer meant, he went to Liberty Cinema, along with his editor-sister Bela Sehgal and cinematographer Anil Mehta, to see what was happening.

Salman Khan with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and assistant director Shabnam on the set of Khamoshi. (Express archive photo)

“The scattered meagre audiences at Liberty were restless. Some were even breaking their seats in frustration. My dream had turned into a nightmare. The film was a box office disaster. I was shattered. I thought my journey as a filmmaker had ended even before it began,” Bhansali told Subhash K Jha. He also remembered in another interview, with Forbes, that the film was called the ‘Razia Sultan of the Decade’ by trade magazines.

And, this failure made the filmmaker “cautious” about success: “I decided I will ensure the audiences’ approval in my future films.” This hunger for approval made the filmmaker turn to extravagant cinema and now he mostly presents cine lovers with exotic and larger-than-life films. But just to tell you Mr Bhansali, for this writer, Khamoshi will remain your finest work, to date.