Kabhi Alvida na Kehna....
So KANK was the upcoming Karan Johar fare that I was most looking forward to. From the time that I saw the promos in the theatre while watching, I think it was RDB (Rang De Basanti- for the uninitiated!!), I was counting days till its release. I am a complete sucker for all the candy-floss, larger-than-life, highly unrealistic, yet so completely fantastic Karan Johar cinema. I did, really did have very high hopes for KANK. Moreover it was shot entirely in NY and somehow made it closer to my heart. I somehow feel the need to start with my love for the KJ films as a preamble to my post, because I know once you're done reading with my review of the movie you are not going to believe that a KJ fan wrote it.
So we land up at the cinemas... which is a bit of a trudge away from home. I take a train and connecting bus upto to the theatre and Sougata manages to get to the theatre similarly from office. We hang around in the lobby, being an hour early, taking in the magnificent visuals of the oversized posters and gobbling down bhelpuri, samosa-chana and mango lassi. We manage to enter the theatre well ahead of time and secure good seats and thoroughly enjoy the Dhoom2 and DON promos before the start of movie.
Here we are waiting with bated breath and the story opens. The first couple of minutes are fine.. we are enjoying it so far as SRK and Rani meet on a park bench.. SRK waiting for his mum (the wedding planner/caterer- not sure!) and Rani getting cold feet before her marriage. And then they start fighting with each other, even just having met each other for the first time and pour their hearts out to each other (of course for the benefit of the viewers to know their inner most thoughts!) and then things get very weird. They finish their uncomfortable conversation and walk away from each other constantly looking back over their shoulder!!! I thought SRK was waiting for his mom? Where is he going? And what's there to look back every few seconds??? And he stands at the gated entrance of the villa or palace or mansion or whatever those structures that are convenient homes of all KJ characters and whammmm he gets hit by a car. I did NOT get that... and that was just the start!!!
So well things started going bad in spurts after that. We have all had enough of SRK's expressions and his "tch-tch-chup-chup" routine whether it is a happy scene or a sad scene or he's being romantic or angry.. it don't matter 'cause the dude knows only so many ways to contort his face. And it gets excruciating watching him over and over again every couple of minutes... and was it my imagination or did it really seem like Rani was reflecting his expressions after sometime??
The movie does have its moments and I will have to credit Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan solely for that. Younger B was par excellence. He was real, believable and absolutely adorable. Every single scene that lent him an opportunity for KJ melodrama, he resisted and delivered such a wonderfully restrained and mature performance that it was a complete treat to watch! I think even the harshest critics of the movie have unequivocally lauded Li'l B's work in the movie.
Senior B was also so delightfully different. He was classy and completely in the skin of the character he played. He was naughty and incorrigible yet so warm and human. His character could easily have been a caricature had it been played by anyone else who didn't have his panache!
So getting back to the movie per se... I don't want to provide any spoilers for those still keen on watching the movie. There were huge gaps in the story. Rani's character was completely unjustified. Right from the start. I didn't get why she didn't love her husband, why she was sooo unhappy in her marriage, why she didn't get turned on by a hotttt husband like AB who was so doting on her and of course, how... oh how on earth did she find true love in SRK who was constantly complaining and scowling and making sarcastic, cynical remarks about every-******-thing in life!!! And it became more and more confusing when it seemed like everyone was making an effort to make their respective marriages work!
Well in any case... the absolute deal-breaker for me was the fact that in the end they justified the extramarital affair and said that THIS is their true love and you shouldn't be afraid to even step out of the boundaries or breach the loyalty of marriage to pursue your "true love"!! Well OK whatever dude!!!
For anyone who's interested, KANK is written by the same lady who wrote Fanaa and it is quite obvious why the story is the way it is!! I would say it's worth a watch for the sake of the two ABs.
For those who've seen it, let me know what you thought of the film :)
So we land up at the cinemas... which is a bit of a trudge away from home. I take a train and connecting bus upto to the theatre and Sougata manages to get to the theatre similarly from office. We hang around in the lobby, being an hour early, taking in the magnificent visuals of the oversized posters and gobbling down bhelpuri, samosa-chana and mango lassi. We manage to enter the theatre well ahead of time and secure good seats and thoroughly enjoy the Dhoom2 and DON promos before the start of movie.
Here we are waiting with bated breath and the story opens. The first couple of minutes are fine.. we are enjoying it so far as SRK and Rani meet on a park bench.. SRK waiting for his mum (the wedding planner/caterer- not sure!) and Rani getting cold feet before her marriage. And then they start fighting with each other, even just having met each other for the first time and pour their hearts out to each other (of course for the benefit of the viewers to know their inner most thoughts!) and then things get very weird. They finish their uncomfortable conversation and walk away from each other constantly looking back over their shoulder!!! I thought SRK was waiting for his mom? Where is he going? And what's there to look back every few seconds??? And he stands at the gated entrance of the villa or palace or mansion or whatever those structures that are convenient homes of all KJ characters and whammmm he gets hit by a car. I did NOT get that... and that was just the start!!!
So well things started going bad in spurts after that. We have all had enough of SRK's expressions and his "tch-tch-chup-chup" routine whether it is a happy scene or a sad scene or he's being romantic or angry.. it don't matter 'cause the dude knows only so many ways to contort his face. And it gets excruciating watching him over and over again every couple of minutes... and was it my imagination or did it really seem like Rani was reflecting his expressions after sometime??
The movie does have its moments and I will have to credit Abhishek and Amitabh Bachchan solely for that. Younger B was par excellence. He was real, believable and absolutely adorable. Every single scene that lent him an opportunity for KJ melodrama, he resisted and delivered such a wonderfully restrained and mature performance that it was a complete treat to watch! I think even the harshest critics of the movie have unequivocally lauded Li'l B's work in the movie.
Senior B was also so delightfully different. He was classy and completely in the skin of the character he played. He was naughty and incorrigible yet so warm and human. His character could easily have been a caricature had it been played by anyone else who didn't have his panache!
So getting back to the movie per se... I don't want to provide any spoilers for those still keen on watching the movie. There were huge gaps in the story. Rani's character was completely unjustified. Right from the start. I didn't get why she didn't love her husband, why she was sooo unhappy in her marriage, why she didn't get turned on by a hotttt husband like AB who was so doting on her and of course, how... oh how on earth did she find true love in SRK who was constantly complaining and scowling and making sarcastic, cynical remarks about every-******-thing in life!!! And it became more and more confusing when it seemed like everyone was making an effort to make their respective marriages work!
Well in any case... the absolute deal-breaker for me was the fact that in the end they justified the extramarital affair and said that THIS is their true love and you shouldn't be afraid to even step out of the boundaries or breach the loyalty of marriage to pursue your "true love"!! Well OK whatever dude!!!
For anyone who's interested, KANK is written by the same lady who wrote Fanaa and it is quite obvious why the story is the way it is!! I would say it's worth a watch for the sake of the two ABs.
For those who've seen it, let me know what you thought of the film :)
posted by Shreya at 12:47 PM
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