Sunday, August 27, 2006

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

So last week I made a trip to the old-fashioned Regal theatre to see the much criticised movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna or KANK as it is better known.

And here I am reviewing the movie myself, coz it's a college assignment!!

After reading a lot of reviews about the movie, most bitter and few positive, I went in to see the movie expecting the worst. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is quite an ambiguous film for different perspectives.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is a badly made film with a good concept, great acting and exceptional characters. Karan Johar has as usual romanticized what could have been a good film and made it a typical Hindi movie, with a couple of disco numbers thrown in for good measure. Apart from which the music is pleasing, soulful and most of the locales are as usual the hip and urban part of Philadelphia passed of as New York.

The premise of two couple, mismatched, but struggling with their marriage has a lot of potential. In both the couples, one of them is getting nothing out of the marriage while the other is trying his/her best to keep the love alive.

Shah Rukh Khan (Dev Saran) portrays the role of a super successful footballer who has turned bitter after an accident which crippled him. He is exasperated with life, the course it has taken and is thoroughly dissatisfied with his life and removes his frustration on his little son who wants to play the Violin and not football. While his super ambitious career wife, Rhea, keeps paving her way up a fashion magazine, she neglects her family. But the best thing about her character is that she knows this and hates it, but also has no options about it since her husband does not earn enough. She keeps trying to hunt for her old love in the new cynic

Amitabh plays the flamboyant casanova ‘Sexy Sam’, who is very wise actually and seems to have a reason for everything he does. The surprise package in this movie is Kiron Kher in the role of Kamaljeet, Dev Saran’s mother. Kiron Kher’s acting is subtle and full of impact, a lot better than her previous roles.

While Rani’s character Maya has drifted into marriage led by friendship, her husband does love her with his entire being. Her’s is the most well-defined character. Maya has been shown as a very mature woman from the beginning who wants to logically discuss every problem away. She marries her childhood friend who loves her madly believing that either her friendship will be replaced by love or she might find the love she seeks after marriage. She finds it difficult to stay abreast with a child for a husband who thinks that the way to switch off a discussion is to switch on the vacuum cleaner. Her husband Rishi played by Abhishek Bachchan is blindly in love with his wife, but in a very teenager-ish way. But surprisingly in the end, he becomes adamant about not forgiving the one woman he has loved all his life.

Dev is pulled away from his wife because of his cynicism, and Maya is pulled away from her husband because of the gap in their maturity levels. Both find solace in each other’s company and help one another handle their marriages, but the counseling session later turns into love. And although both know that there is no result to their relationship, they plunge in just so that they can be happy for whatever little time. Meanwhile both their respective spouses decide to give one more try to their marriage but soon realize that their better (bitter??) halves have strayed. The plot till here makes sense after which the movie is converted into a typical Hindi pot-boiler, with rona-dhona, unforgiving spouses, divorce, and each person living separately. The movie ends with everyone getting who they love, or finding new loves. No one lives without a partner because it seems KJo wants to propagate relationships through the entire movie.

The best part about this movie is Kajol in a 10 second appearance and the maturity shown in the treatment of the relationships. While the box-office says that Karan Johar has made a superhit, he could surely have improved the movie a bit more to make it worth being proud of.

Words to remember from the film:
"Ham dono jaante hai ki is rishtey ka koi anjaam nahi."
Maya pronounces out the future of her and Dev's love.



"Ham is rishtey ko is sunder mod pe chod denge"
Dev ends his relationship with Maya to face the reality.


Things I learnt from this film: It takes maturity to handle love, relationships and destiny. And it also takes maturity to understand the essence of this film.

6 comments:

Aniruddha said...

I cant believe you liked this movie .. According to me, this is the worst movie made by Karan Johar (Law of averages)! I like the concept of the movie as its very real ... The theme is good but thats pretty much the best in it I could find .. The story, acting, dance steps could have been much much better ! sorry to say it so harshly but watching the same english movie twice would have been a better way of spending these 3.5 hours !!

I never go by the reviews and gave a fair chance to the movie but ... You said it yourself there, if the best part of the movie is 10 second apperance of Kajol then that speaks for itself !! isnt it ?

~The Dream Catcher~ said...

Lol, the first comment I made after the final credits was that I would never see this movie twice even if I was offered money for it!! I dont think I ever said I liked the film!! I think the concept is good, but it could have been made in much much much raise to n better way. And the concept, the essence of the film, the well potrayed characters are all I liked, after Kajol that is.

But to be fair, I would think that this is not the worst movie made by Johar, he's tried to step out of his protective cocoon, even if he made a mess out of it. Looking back I think K3G was his worst film. U might just think this is worst film coz he messed up, but that film was seriously too.. too.. *at a loss of words*.. filmy??

Anonymous said...

let the world talk wht they want to... i haf liked the movie,, its easy to 4get the one who loves you,,, but its equaly tough to 4get whom u in love with,,,it takes years,,, n much more than tht,,,

Anonymous said...

I agree with Destiny and I too half like the movie . Also it requires maturity to understand love, relationships and offcourse the movie!

Anonymous said...

hey j,,, thx 4 agreeing yar,,,mauturity in love is uncommon nowdays..neways looking fwd to your comments,,,

Anonymous said...

ah i agree with all yuor words i too satisfied with movie nd all those emotional scenes made me cry,how can i forget tht,could hav been better,i love tht johar thing,he is tha best,aha,he is dead cool