- Magnificent sets
- Intricate art design
- Designer costumes
- Eye-pleasing visuals
- Loads of celebrations
- A Punjabi track with bikini babes
- Feel-good factor
- Trademark Shahrukh Khan
- Complimentary Kajol fluttering sari for a 5 second song appearance
- Predicted houseful openings
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna has all the regular contents of a Karan Johar extravaganza. Plus a story this time!
In 1981, Yash Chopra made Silsila on extra-marital affairs that was considered ahead of its times. The culmination of its theme, however, was as per the Indian sensibilities of those times. 25 years later, Karan Johar makes a film on extra-marital affairs (am not drawing any parallels between the two films whatsoever) and the culmination of the plot makes it the so called 'different' or a 'bold' film.
A bold film is not about sex, skin or sleaze. It's about matured mindsets and moving ahead with times. Karan also moves ahead with KANK. In terms of its plot outlines, while Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was an overrated triangular love story and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum was just another conventional family drama, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna has a comparatively sensible and substantial story to back the candy floss on the screen.
The story, as everybody and their second cousin by now know, is about an extra marital affair.
The visual appeal in a Karan Johar film is, like always, intricate and immaculate. Be it Anil Mehta's eye-pleasing camera-work, Sharmista Roy's appealing art design, Manish Malhotra's fashion fiesta or Farah Khan's cosmic choreography, everyone is just perfect in their department.
But as I earlier said, apart from the visual dazzlery, the movie clicks because it has something to say in which it succeeds. Karan always had heart in his films; here he puts in a lot of soul too. Shibani Bhatija who earlier wrote the overrated Fanaa this year, co-writes a more cohesive, convincing and a satisfying screenplay for KANK with Karan Johar. The comic scenes are very well written while the emotional ones are deftly acted and executed. Dialogues vary from the tongue-in-cheek lines in the lighthearted scenes to the regular ones in the emotional outbursts. Niranjan Iyenger's witty one-liners compliment the funny scenes without a glitch.
Also the screenplay balances the bittersweet act and maintains the equilibrium. While a Karan Johar film is broadly envisaged as a compulsive tearjerker, KANK has sufficient light-hearted frivolous relief in the first half. The scene where Rani Mukherjee tries to impersonate a BDSM girl is outrageously hilarious. If you go to compare KANK with Karan's earlier works, the tone of the film is more like a Kal Ho Naa Ho (which was written by Karan) as compared to his over-dramatic first two directions. In fact what sets the film apart from the daily soaps on the idiot box (each one of which is based on an extra-marital affair) is that the performances never get overtly melodramatic even in the emotional outbursts.
The pace is slow and the movie does get stretched in the second half. The conclusion could have been impermeable to the audiences' mentality but the screenplay has enough conviction to make it digestible. And while Karan took excuses of the bhartiya sanskriti and parampara in his first two films, here thankfully he stays free from the culture crap and sanskaar endorsements. On the contrary, KANK strides against the clichés in culture to make its own way. And the best part is that it doesn't do this blatantly.
Of course while going off-route, there are some elements where he arguably takes the fast-forward path. Like Amitabh Bachchan's characterization of a philandering sexagenarian might not gel well with the Indian sensibilities. But since his character adds a comic angle to the film and isn't the central focus either, one doesn't take it quite seriously. Still, the idea of imagining Amitabh Bachchan and his character sleeping with a new whore every night, without a trace of repentance and with the full knowledge of his son, isn't easily digestible.
What's notable in this film is that rather than just being the usual Chopra-Johar escapist cinema, it has a lot of realism too. For instance Shahrukh in KANK is not just the regular lover-boy. Though he continues his legacy of wooing the female species and taking away a woman from his initial partner in the film (he has been doing this since ever), he still isn't that man who makes things happen for others. The Dev Saran of KANK has a lot of vulnerability in him that makes him much human rather than the regular perfectionist SRK (of films like Main Hoon Na, Mohobbatien or Kal Ho Naa Ho) who plays the peacemaker and makes things happen for others. Imperfection makes Dev Saran real rather than starry.
In an age of breaking marriages and failing relationships, the movie's portrayal of the incompatibility in marital bonding is something that a contemporary audience can relate to. In a film that demands a lot of emotional play, the performances are as natural as it can get. Preity Zinta has the spunk to carry off the career woman character, Abhishek has a melting intensity, Rani only gets better like an old wine and Shahrukh, despite indulging in his trademark antiques, is acceptable for his character's vulnerability.
I am not a hardcore Karan Johar fan, neither am I cynical about his flamboyant films. I watched KANK with an open mind and without preconceived notions. So on the credit of its content, KANK ended up being neither a superlative piece of cinema nor the abysmal film tagged by its hypercritical detractors. It's just the perfect balance of entertainment.
Maturity, sensibility and entertainment increased in direct proportion from Karan Johar's K2H2 to K3G to KHNH. KANK continues the trend.