Gratuitous screencaps: Khamosh (1985)

Time for some more gratuitous screencaps, this time from Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Khamosh. I was just thinking about this film, which is one my most cherished favorites of Shabana ji's films, when I realized that I had somehow left it out of part 2 of the Geek's Guide to Shabana Azmi (Cog in a brilliant machine), where it so deservedly belongs. I've fixed that now, but to rectify the grave injustice, I'll highlight Shabana ji's role in the film here. You can also read about it on Filmi Geek.

Shabana ji's character in Khamosh was a stretch for her, one that tested her range as it had never been tested before: she played a National Award-winning film actor named Shabana Azmi.



She's on a movie set at a mountain resort with co-stars Amol Palekar and Soni Razdan (also playing themselves) when people start dying - it's a rather Agatha Christie-esque story, a small group of people confined to a remote location, criss-crossed with passions and rivalries, and someone among them is a murderer. But who? We won't get to find out until Shabana ji faces him herself:



Despite its gruesome premise, there is a great deal of humor in the film. Khamosh's version of Shabana Azmi sleepwalks,



reads gossip magazine articles about herself,



and makes improbable declarations like this one:



Shabana ji also discovers all the bodies in the film. Here she is discovering the third:



And about to discover the second.



She helps Naseeruddin Shah (not playing himself) investigate the crimes,



And she examines weaponry with a glint in her eye.



All that, and it's an excellent film, too.