'Kyun Ki...' is remake of Asit Sen's 'Khamoshi'

Mumbai, Oct 29 (IANS) As we brace ourselves for a double bonanza from Priyadarshan this Diwali, it becomes increasingly apparent that the prolific and constantly meritorious filmmaker isn't in a specially original mood this festive season.

Priyan's first Diwali release "Garam Masala" reprises his 1985 Malayalam comedy "Boeing Boeing". Even as he remakes yet another Malayalam film with Shahid and Kareena in Chennai (about a man who's washed ashore in a fishing village and is nursed back to health by a deaf-and-mute girl), Priyan has a surprise for fans of that underrated celluloid maestro, Asit Sen.

Contrary to hype, the much-publicised Salman-Kareena starrer "Kyun Ki..." has scant bearing to Milos Foreman's "One Flew over The Cuckoo's Nest".

The film is actually a remake of Sen's sensitive and stirring 1969 psychological drama "Khamoshi", in which the traumatised patient Rajesh Khanna is healed by nurse Waheeda Rehman, who falls sick with love in the process.

Interestingly, Asit Sen had remade this highly acclaimed Hindi film from his own 1959 Bengali classic "Deep Jweley Jai" with Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

Even more interestingly, Priyadarshan has already made this Bengali-Hindi film into Malayalam in 1986. The film in question was "Thalavattam". It featured Mohanlal and Karthika as the patient and doctor. It remains to be seen how effectively Salman has portrayed the psychologically challenged man.

Strangely, Priyan denies any knowledge of "Khamoshi". "I've heard there're uncanny similarities between "Kyun Ki..." and "Khamoshi". I haven't seen that film. But I'm trying my best to get a copy so I can see how two filmmakers from two different regions belonging two different time zones think similarly."

A Brief On Asit Sen:

A disciple of Bimal Roy, he made some of the most memorable and emulated films:

"Mamta" (1966) -- which was remade as Pravin Bhatt's "Bhavna" and Ambrish Sangal's "Dard"

"Anokhi Raat" (1967) -- where all the action unfolded within a night; its one-night-stand on the narrative issue was echoed in numerous films thereafter.

"Khamoshi" (1969) -- psycho-drama had echoes in Shakti Samanta's "Pagla Kahin Ka". The title of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Khamoshi: The Musical" was a tribute to Sen's film.

"Safar" (1970) -- Rajesh Khanna-Sharmila Tagore love triangle about medical ethics, remarkable for its uncompromising tragic finale where both the heroes die.

"Sharafat" (1970) -- Underrated drama about the rehabilitation of a prostitute with a brilliant performance by Dharmendra as a professor who brings a 'tawaif', Hema Malini, home.

"Annadata" (1972) -- Exceptional humanistic drama about a disillusioned millionaire Om Prakash who leaves home in search of peace and truth.

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Kyon Ki