Looks like Karan Johar has gotten into this belief that anything he shoots will succeed at the box office. It is hard to believe that this movie is from the same guy who gave movies like "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai", "Kabhi Kush Kabhi Gham" and "Kal Ho Naa Ho". Though family drama is not my favourite genre of movies, these movies made me sit watch them and i am sure i will watch them again. But with Karan's latest offering, i had to fight the sleep that was gradually building within.
To say it in simple terms, the movie is bad. It is boringly long. I agree that the director has assembled a great cast. But seeing frame after frame of their acting skills is not gonna be really entertaining. Speaking of the actors, there are some great performances. The usual Shah Rukh Khan (Dev), whose hamming skills seem to be increasing movie after movie. In this one, he is visibly old as well and seeing his contortions isnt entertaining anymore. Prety (Rhea) as Dev's wife has come out with a commendable performance. Her role is subdued, but has strong characterisation and Preity has done well. Next on line is Rani (Maya), who has got the weakest of all roles and fails inspite of her hardest efforts. Abhishek (Rishi) is Maya's husband and the stand out performer in the movie. His role goes through the entire spectrum of emotions and Abhishek has proved that he capable to handle such roles. Apart from the two couple, Amitabh (Why Big B??? Why?!?!) and Kiron Kher occupy some screen space.
The cast is strong. It is the screen play which is week. This is a story of extra marital affairs, fine. This is a movie which attempts at glorifying it. But for that to succeed the non indulging part of each pair has to be bad or unwilling in some way. This is where Karan had failed miserably. With the Dev-Rhea pair, Rhea is extremely likeable. She gives more time to work than her miserable, loser husband. As Rhea says in the movie, she becomes the man of the house because the man is a failure. Dev on the other hand is an egoist. He cannot see the female succeed and that is his problem. I am sure that no one would complain Rhea for the state of affairs in their house. With the Rishi-Maya pair, I cannot point a finger at Rishi. He tries so hard to win her love. It is Maya who is unresponsive. As Rishi says, she never married him. She made a compromise and was always looking a way out of it.
So when the director tries to convince the audience that Dev and Maya are "incomplete" and are only trying to fill the gaps in their individual life, he miserably fails. And with that the movie fails. I got this feeling when Dev and Maya meets in the Railway Station and proposes their love to each other and hence it becomes one long bore from then on when the director take us through the romantic journey of this pair. Add to it the length of the movie and it was a painful bore.
The movie works in parts. There are some good scenes, some comedy scenes which bring out a laugh, the cool dance movements of Abhishek, Rani's expressions, the music, the cinematography (New York's suc a beautiful place anyway) , Big B's babes – there are things to look forward in the movie. The end of the movie was a pleasant deviation from what's expected of Karan or any other Indian director. But as mentioned earlier, the core of the movie is flawed. I only hope this is a minor aberration from the otherwise good director. A bold decision to try a bold theme. But Karan's failed.
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7 comments:
Karan Johar - a good director??? Who are you kidding? He turns out one family melodrama after another, year after year. K3G, kuch kuch hota hai, shah rukh's prime sacrifice in KHNH , all make you want to puke. How can Extramarital affair be an exception? And he declares that Shah Rukh is his world on TV. How much lamer can he get?
How can u expect sense from Karan Johar !! you can only get a little more inspried to earn more money. He'd better start making the K- series TV serials.. BTW i havent seen the movie as yet.
Would you believe that I haven't watch one, yes not even one Karan Johar movie so far. I started watching KKHH but lost interest midway. I have made it a point not to watch his films.
So in one sentence your verdict is "KANK directed by a CRANK simply STANK!!!!" eh?
Hmm... Is that a haiku? :)
@juggler:
family melodramas yes agreed. but i am okay with family melodramas.
perhaps the biggest share of his movie budget goes to purchasing glycerine :D
but i liked K3G and KHNH - perhaps because they were a great deviation from the bloodshed we get to see on screen.
K3G - i dunno why i liked that one, perhaps i was concentrating on Hrithik and his dance moves :)
KHNH was coz of Saif.
Shah Rukh and his hamming skills are better left unspoken :P
@inblue:
inspired to earn lots of money for sure. If u happen to see the movie (or hear abt it) this inspiration for me comes from Sexy Sam :P
what i was trying to say that even for Karan's standards, this was pretty bad.
i accept that i might have overrated the director, reason being i liked his earlier movies.
but when compared to those movies - KANK is Aweful.
@scipio:
Trust me man - u r lucky.
@all:
It might appear that i'm getting a bit defensive. I am yes. Been speaking to ppl around abt how bad the movie was and everyone gives me this standard line "It's a Karan Johar movie yaar". I then looked back at his movies and realised that i was perhaps insipired by a few good characters, the songs and there is nothing big in his earlier movies too. Now u ask, i'd definitely not say "Karan's a good director".
i won't accept KKHH was a bad movie.
in its genre, it was a great movie and it is.
can't say much about the remaining.
don't be so harsh in SRK. he is very good at acting. now a days ppl expectation has changed. When hero's mother dies, he is expected to just shed tears and stand instead of roll on the floor and scream. When a wooden performance from junior B comes up, they say it was an excellent subdued performance. not to mention the cool factor these ppl invent about them.
yes, HS is a good dancer. in fact terrific. but he could never match the grace and simplicity that SRK steps have. nor can he bring the comic happiness present in govinda's steps.
@ram:
KKHH was not a good movie either. Might look like i have reversed roles - yes!
it is a told-a-million-times love triangle, which i think struck a chord with the audience coz of the new Glam Doll(?!?!) rani, the awesome music and all those kids. SRK's hystrionics were pretty new and hence unboring then. so one can consider that to be a reason too. The box office returns notwithstanding, the film dint do well coz of the director's quality.
In a way, Karan hides his inability behind the star power. That's how it appears to me now. All his movies have a great cast and they pull it off. The discussion above was on whether Karan is a good director as i had mentioned. I now accept that he is not.
SRK's too boring man. He is so unrealistic. and yes - he visibly appears old too. His character is irritating at times. I've been seeing junior B's movies off late and he's doing well. Cool dude for sure. He can act as well. Just like Saif stole the show in KHNH, Abhishek does it here. And belive me, they havent tried too hard. they've just been normal.
HS is a Kickass dancer. Period. SRK is nowhere around. See the "Bhole Chudiyan..." song in K3G. You can compare HS and SRK and u'll know what i mean. Govinda is a good dancer too. Will he be able to do the technically difficult steps HS does movie after movie - i dont think so.
Bhole Chudiyan is the only reference i too have.
I liked SRK more than HR in that dance. This guy with all his muscle was jumping, moving clinically like a machine which is programmed to dance. In few places, he is so fast that he outspeeds (new term invented) the music beats. But SRK dances cooly with grace.
Just like the range of dance that HS can do is bigger than SRK, so his SRK acting skills bigger than the current crop.
If the character itself is lacking logic, what can an actor do about it?
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