Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

How does a director mature? How does a filmmaker attempt to get serious? How does Karan Johar try to shift gears from teenage mush to adult post-marital blues? Well by merely talking about it, because for all the interviews and buzz about Bollywood's Peter Pan growing up, he has virtually nothing to show for it in 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'.

Okay, kudos to Karan for telling it like it is. One CAN fall in love after marriage. One HAS every right to explore a relationship honestly post marriage. DOWN with being moralistic about extra-marital sex if you indeed are in a relationship. And yes, by all means do go ahead and TIE that knot a second time. But unfortunately films aren't made ONLY to showcase a filmmaker's outlook.

Portraying extra-marital relationships and its fallouts isn't exactly child's play. And after films like 'Arth', 'Masoom' and 'Silsila' which have handled the subject somewhat deftly, Karan Johar's multi-crore attempted tear jerker remains a one-dimensional showpiece. The film for me failed to go beyond being a visual catalogue of Manish Malhotra's designer wear and Sharmishta Roy's art work. Directorially Johar continues to play with his doll house. His Archie, Betty and Veronica have only passed Riverdale High to walk down the aisle.

Shah Rukh as a cynical limping football junkie, Preity as a career woman playing the 'man' of the house, a confused much-married Rani still looking for Mr Right and Bachchan Jr. as the patient hubby sound great on paper and remain just that. Johar couldn't give the characters a new life on screen. Can we see Shah Rukh a little more on the field? Can we see a football freak WEAR his passion? Can we see him have a real relationship with his son? Can we see Rani a little beyond the New York Station? Can people loosen up and sit down in their homes and talk instead of acting like props at the local interiors shop? Can we see Shah Rukh Khan fall in love with Rani at some point of time and vice-versa? Can they LOOK like they are in love? Can they act like passionate adults in an unconventional relationship instead of looking like two kids out to play whilst their parents are away? Can we feel the tension in the air when they are out together romancing behind their partner's back? Can we NOT see Rani cleaning the floor in black designer cocktail party wear? Can Karan Johar really grow up and think up of something more soulful than a silly Black Beast caper to make SRK and Rani meet? Can Karan Johar really grow up?

The film has its moments. Like when after an early morning jog a limping SRK tells Preity 'lets walk home together' and she has already sprinted ahead, like the scene where Preity and Rani walk towards SRK on a busy Manhattan street unknown of each other's presence or the dinner table scene where Amitabh Bachchan gives SRK a million-dollar look. But for a 200 minute long movie they are too few and far in between.

Frankly I loved 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' for it's freshness and enjoyed 'Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham' for all it's grandeur. But 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' is a disappointment. If this is really any sign of Karan Johar growing up, I wish he wouldn't.

 

[gaurav200x]

It's all about leaving your family



Review: Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Warning: Plot details and spoilers follow

At one point in KANK, the ever-stubbled Abhishek Bachchan stumbles upon his father making out with one of the many white women that flit in and out of the movie. Amitabh starts telling his son about why he does what he does while a "Se-xyy Samm" riff takes off. But in just 30 seconds, the older AB harks back to his dead wife, and the "Sexyy Samm" gives way to a sad Indian violin. It's a scene that typified Karan Johar for me - all gung-ho contemporary NRI drama, with a heart that beats for "Indian tradition".

And yet KANK isn't all genre. But more of that later.

So we have the two couples - Riya (Preity Zinta whose famed bubbliness is forever straining at the leash) and Dev (a deliciously bitter SRK), whose marriage is filled with constant sniping at each other. Dev is a soccer player whose presumably brilliant career was nipped by a passing car, and Riya is 21st Century Woman, translated in Joharese as a fashion magazine editor whose work is more important than watching her son play bad football. The nerve of her.

Maya (Rani Mukerji, strangely colourless) and Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan, who's made an art out of playing great Supporting Roles), on the other hand, seem to have a much more happening marriage. Except that Maya doesn't want to sleep with Rishi. Whether this has to do with her being unable to bear him a child or him wearing Bluffmaster hand-me-downs no one really knows. But at least in my theatre, the majority of the female population made it quite clear they were willing to help Bachchan Jr out.
Even before her marriage, however, Maya has already met Dev and settled happily into the I-walk-you-palat-you-walk-I-palat routine. When they meet again in New York, they mope for a bit (actually, a really long bit) about how bad their marriages are, and then decide they like each other's whineyness more than their partners' maturity. Much angsting follows, during which Sexyy Samm finally gets the heart attack that's been awaiting him impatiently since the beginning of the movie and John Abraham shows why he's second to none in inane cameos. Maya and Dev leave home, but their grating self-righteousness doesn't allow them to get together until much later (and we're not just talking movie-time here). By the time they do, you're almost glad Rishi and Riya got away.

But that's where Johar scores. In giving us a lead pair more flawed than the people they're married to, Johar lets go of the far-too-common blacks and whites of character that would've made it easier for us to digest the break-up. We're forced, instead to confront a situation which just can't have a happy end for all concerned. Whether you agree with Dev's and Maya's reasons ceases to matter, because they are, ultimately, not your average infallible hero and heroine.

Where Johar slips up is in his perverse fascination for deciding what scenes are going to make up his DVD trailers, and then proceeding to wring the emotion dry from them. KANK has its nifty touches - Dev, for instance, would rather have his Harry-Potterish son play football than the violin, something you realize later fits in totally with his inability to stomach Riya earning more than him. And yet for a man who can write in such nuance, Johar shows a grim resolve to dramatise The Big Scenes to within an inch of their lives. So the background score soars, the camera swirls around, the wind gently pulls at SRK's hair, the actors' voices echo (Maya Maya Maya...)

But KANK, for all its cinematographic cliché, is still a rare film. Sure, there've been other movies dealing with love outside marriage, but every one of them in recent times has chickened out at the end. Johar shows pluck and some degree of belief in his audience's intelligence in taking things through to their logical ends. If only to see the evolution of a director who not too long back thought Karwa Chauth was a mandatory movie element, KANK is worth a watch.

 

[milind20]

KANK is worth a watch.

It sure is !!!!!!

With such a huge strarcast, and the so called 'Badshah of Bollywood' SRK delivering an outstanding performance, It had to be WORTH !!!!