Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003)

Set in the backdrop of Indian Emergency 1975, the story revolves around 3 friends whose lives changes drastically after the turn of events.

Director:

Sudhir Mishra

Writers:

Sudhir Mishra (original story & screenplay), Shivkumar Subramaniam (original story & screenplay) (as Shiv Subramanyum)

Stars:

Kay Kay Menon, Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangda Singh

2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kay Kay Menon	...	Siddharth Tyabji
Shiney Ahuja	...	Vikram Malhotra
Chitrangda Singh	...	Geeta Rao
Ram Kapoor	...	Arun Mehta
Saurabh Shukla	...	Senior Bihari constable
Yashpal Sharma	...	Randhir Singh
Jasbir Malik	...	Mehmood Tyabji
Sohrab Ardeshir	...	The maharaja
Aditya Bhattacharya	...	Politician Sadiq
Arif Zakaria	...	Daryll
Anupam Shyam	...	SHO Jhanda Singh
Sandeep Kulkarni	...	Comrade Probir
Akhil Mishra	...	Vikram's father
Yusuf Hussain	...	Senior politician
Manohar Khushlani	...	Hotelier Wadhwani

Storyline

Geeta Rao has two admirers - one is Siddharth Tyabji and the other is Vikram Malhotra circa 1969 West Bengal that is witnessing it's struggle against the ruling Congress party, joining forces with left-wing Marxist and Communist parties. While Siddharth is directly involved in this struggle, Geeta and Vikram are romantically involved. When Vikram does not make any move toward marriage, despite of being introduced to Geeta's Madras-based family, she decides to give up on him, and he starts his romance with another young woman. While students continue to voice their disapproval of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Allahabad High Court gives a judgment indicting her for several offenses under the Representation of People Act. Mrs. Gandhi then uses her powers to clamp Emergency, taking away all powers of the judiciary, giving police virtually unlimited powers to the Police to detain anyone under the National Security Act, imprisoning leaders of all political parties, empowering her son, ...

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Taglines:

A clash between idealism and realism

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

India France

Language:

Hindi Punjabi English

Release Date:

15 April 2005 (India)

Also Known As:

A Thousand Desires Like These

Filming Locations:

India

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

INR 1,988,000 (India), 22 April 2005

Company Credits

Production Co:

Artcam International, Foundation Montecinema Verità, National Center of Cinematography Fonds Sud

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was originally titled " Twist With Destiny".

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Connections

References Georgy Girl (1966)

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Soundtracks

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Written by Mirza Ghalib
Composed by Shantanu Moitra
Performed by Shubha Mudgal
Courtesy of Virgin Records India

User Reviews

A treat of a film

A real breath of fresh air in Indian cinema, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is a very real, earnest, crackling-with-life portrayal of what it (apparently) was like to be a college student in Delhi in the late 60s and 70s with the opposing currents of Marxism and (indira) Gandhian totalitarianism. Intertwined with the ideology and the politics is a love story of three people, who start off with different ideas and whose ideas criss-cross in the course of the film. Superb direction, vibrant cinematography, slick editing, lovely music and superlative performances from all three protagonists make for a thoroughly satisfying cinematic experience. The surprise package is Shiny Ahuja, whose model-boy looks belie a prodigious acting talent. Both Kay Kay Menon and Chitrangda Singh deliver superb performances with Chitrangda looking stunning throughout. People say she looks like Smita Patil, I wouldn't know. While the film is not without its faults, including the occasional stilted dialogues and imprecision in the narrative, the overall effect is good enough to make you forget these. Watch this and get high!!

PS. I also have a quibble with the way 5.1 sound was used quite ineffectively when it could have been much better employed in many scenes. But it's churlish to complain about such things in a treat of a movie!!