Rahul Desai
Kho Gaye Hum Kahanis the latest entry in a Bollywood genre canon I call ‘banana-bread film-making’. It has a very specific urban-poor aesthetic. The Mumbai we see looks like it’s vaping at an indie music gig in Bandra.
It’s a rare Indian film whose reading of social media goes beyond the mandatory video-goes-viral-nation-falls device. It understands the language of electronic expression.
The fact is that Neil is from a middle-class Catholic family with no connections or generational wealth. His only currency is social currency.
Kho Gaye Hum Kahanis also far from flawless. For all its cool packaging, it stumbles where recent Tiger Baby productions have. There’s a sense of cultural entitlement about the way it offers a clean-cut resolution to every conflict.
While most Hindi films tell the audience what to feel, films like this tell the audience how to think. Presenting Imaad as a stand-up comic who has an opinion on everything is the right way to do it.
Yet with the inevitability of sponsored content. Consequently, you don’t just discuss this film, you amplify its reach. You don’t just like this film – you like, share and subscribe.