Sunday, August 13, 2006

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - as I see it!!!

The first thing I did after watching KANK was join the “I hate Karan Johar” community on Orkut. I am really struggling to find a reason that why his movies are such a hit. But, its after all a matter of perspective. When soaps like ‘Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’ can be hit so can karan’s movies.
Coming back to KANK, the storyline was so pathetically predictable that the long 3 and a half hours were a complete waste of time and money. in the first 10 minutes you come to know what is going to happen for the next 22 reels.
Adding to the storyline the acting of the protagonists were the same we have all seen again and again and again over the years. Shahrukh, though playing a different character than an adorable lover boy, has the same set of expressions – already seen a lakh times, winged arms while singing and that pathetic weeping scenes that have become regular now. I am shocked when I hear that “SRK made my actually cry” statement.
Rani and Priety give him company in some of this crying and though Preity is that bubbly extrovert woman (nothing new in that too), but Rani Mukherjee has hardly given a single smile in the whole movie. She has cried, cried and cried more. Abhishek is cool – I really think he should shave at least in scenes where he is getting married. Amitabh, is the only saving grace for the movie as he lents a sense of humour in the usual slow paced and boring movie. I was expecting some support in this regard from the usually humorous Kiron Kher but alas..!!!!!
Coming to the story, it is one which Bachelors like me can hardly relate to. May be that was a reason that I found the movie boring. But I really don’t think that married people in India will also identify much with the movie which is about love happening outside marriage. . The dialogues were superfluous – nothing new to karan’s movies. Many of my friends and I tend to remember dialogues from the movies we see and then test each other with questioning about the movie name. But I don’t recollect movies like Kuch Kuch Hota hai or Kabhi khushi kabhi gam featuring in such quizzes. This is simply because they are so heavy dialogues that it requires special powers to retain them in memory. The same will happen for kANK – I am sure.
Now coming to some positive points – visually the movie is a treat to eyes. The grandeur sets, the beautiful outdoors – all very pleasing to your senses. Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is hummable but not a everlasting - for me it will be off my playlist within a few weeks. Costumes are always high point in Yash Raj and .Dharma Productions. In fact 1 major factor that I go to survive SRK movies is his dressing sense. In KANK, Abhishek has some nice jackets in his kitty. The big buckle belts, it seems are back with both SRK and abhishek adoring it. Big B’s dressing also vary from loud reds to sobre greys. Priety takes a bold and beautiful look.
The overall pace of the movie was slow and the 3.5 hr duration was a back breaker. Some songs were tooo stretched. Some body tell KAran that you don’t need to play the whole song in the movie. Cutting a para here and there doesn’t hurt.
All in all I am not going to watch the movie EVER again. And I would prefer watching RDB 30th time or Border 150th time or Lakshay 100th time any day rather than KANK.

But there were some highlights in the near 4 hours spent at the Theater – they were trailers of Kabul Express and Dhoom2. Kabul Express seems a ‘different’ movie set in Afghansitan and with background of Taliban and Osama and all. D2 on the other hand seems like a rocking movie – from trailers it looked better than Dhoom 1. Really looking forward to both these movies.

1 comment:

SiD said...

You are comparing the non expressive Rani in black with that in KANK...
In Black, she had a tough life and she lived it... ok.. without smiling.
But whenever she smiled, it seemed very real...like the character is
really happy about the moment.. in KANK, ok again she was largely
unhappy due to her life or whatever but she had some moments when the
character should have been really happy - at those moments too there was
an artificiality to her..may be it is because of my perception or may be
it is directed that way.. but I didn't find it convincing..

I have not seen the NDTV show, so cant really comment on that...
But I doubt the relevance of the question raised in context to the
Indian society..
The arranged marriage concept has been long in practice in India(SRK,
preity was a love marriage though)
It has been shown that there is a mimimal attempt by SRK and Rani to
save their marriages. Whereas their partners do try!!!
That clearly isn't easy to digest. Ok. Agreed that u r unhappy, but
atleast there should be a try to resolve isssues - or adjust urself acc
to ur partner.
In case of SRK, priety we can consider ego clash/lack of time devoted
etc but the same doesn't go with the other couple. Just not being spik
and span clean doesn't mean to leave him..
If the love isn't there then an attempt has to be made to cultivate it
if it is a arranged marriage.. Afterall this tradition has been
ingrained in us for long.. and just not being in love before marriage
doesn't mean you wont after also..

U say that plot is not a karan johar one.. how many movies has kJo
made??? 2 as director... so this statement is not correct to be made.
All the 3 movies have diff plots... so I don't think he can be type
casted like that..
Look at the Treatment - that is typical Karan Johar...and yes... if the
treatment would have been diff then we could have said that its diff
than KJo movies.