KANK – The movie

First things first… You should watch KANK if…

- you’ve enjoyed watching KKHH, K3G,

- love for you is an absolute truth,

- relationships is food for your thought,

- you don’t find emotion talk a bore,

- you are not expecting a classic but a movie with brilliant performances,

You should NOT see KANK if…

- you cannot withstand KJ

-style tears & melodrama,

- length of a movie makes you lose interest,

- you expect KJ delivers an even superior product than his previous films,

- you are looking for glorification of “bhartiya sabhyata”

KANK may not be ground-breaking cinema, but you would enjoy the movie if you identify with KJ school of filmmaking. If you are ready to believe his story, you will find the three hours a breeze! However, if you try & question the director’s vision of love & marriage, you find every passing minute more tormenting & illogical than the last.

So even though I do not concur with his belief, of true love being the elixir for all the unhappiness in life, I still kept my thoughts aside & let KJ narrate his saga of two shattered marriages leading to victory of love.

Here’s my take on the characters…

Dev is the typical temperamental guy, one who has not been able to cope up with the vagaries of life. As a husband, he is grey – you cannot make out if he resents his wife’s success, though it never seems obvious, or if he just thinks she is unfair to him & their family. Shahrukh does well, the role suits him to a T.

Rhea has a sad life for no fault of hers; she works hard & tries her best to balance her personal life. She loves her husband & says so. However, her husband fails to perceive it the same way. Preity is convincing in her role of a woman, who tries to give her best shot at everything she does but fails on a personal front.

Rishi loves his wife whole-heartedly and yearns for her to reciprocate. He keeps his cool despite the cold treatment meted out to him, which probably explains his outburst & jealousy when Maya confesses she has an extra-marital affair. Abhishek is pure brilliance, as he steps into Rishi’s shoes. Be it the comic scenes with his dad or his madness at losing the only woman he loves, Aby Jr. adds sheen to every frame he is part of.

Maya is a complex character, someone I’m not sure if Rani and for that matter KJ himself have been able to portray as intended. She takes the decision to marry, out of returning a favour (of Talwar Sr.) but fails to give her husband the passion so required to keep their marriage going. Love colours her life, and she transforms from a supposedly asexual woman to a passionate lover. Rani had a tough act here & she does her best to breathe life into Maya’s intricate character. Perhaps, KJ should take up the blame for the lack (whatever there was) of conviction in her character.

Many times during the film, you begin to feel as if characterizations don’t justify the plot entirely. My sympathies were with Rhea & Rishi than with the in-love pair of Dev & Maya, who “wronged” their marriages. KJ had to resort to Rhea & Rishi mouthing real harsh words (which did seem out-of-character for them) in one of the some spat scenes to have the audience believe Dev & Maya had no option but to fall for each other. This forced justification is what didn’t go down well with me.

KJ had a bold film at hand. He could have gone the “Silsila” way & have the couples bury their differences in the end. Yet he brilliantly chose to go the modern & perhaps more realistic way; but he tried to show Dev & Maya as the victims of marriage than blame the circumstances or even themselves for having made mistakes & not being tolerant enough to carry these forward.

The genius of KJ is that even in such a setting he makes you sympathize with couples committing adultery. Maybe I was expecting him to paint Rhea & Rishi as villains, but this is where he breaks the cliché. Trying to potray every character as human, trapped in their own insecurities & emotions, KJ sums it up in one line by Maya – “Galti ki to maafi maangi ja sakti hai, khudgarzi ki kya sazaa milni chahiye?” (One can forgive a mistake, but how does one punish human selfishness?). Truly an awesome moment!

Another fascinating facet of the movie is the chemistry between Amitabh & Kiron Kher. The elderly duo, so diverse in their outlook to life, gets drawn to one another as friends. Both witness their families breaking apart, yet as a father-in-law he forgives his bahu & wants his son to start a fresh life with someone who really loves him. Kiron Kher as a mother, however, is not willing to pardon her son’s mistake & decides to stay with her daughter-in-law & grandson. This again is Johar’s attempt to show his characters naturally; while the spouses of both Dev & Maya forgive their ex-partners for breaking the marriages, Kiron Kher as a conservative mother cannot make herself do this. Amitabh as a womanizer is again par excellence & gives the movie it much-needed comic relief.

The dialogues are mint fresh, simple yet evoking the right emotions. The music doesn’t live up to KJ’s previous hits. And no, it doesn’t grow on you; the songs are good while they last but sadly don’t stay on for longer. The cinematography needless to say paints Manhattan in all the right shades. The color theme song is perhaps the most well shot of the lot & sounds the best too – it is vintage KJ.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is thought-provoking. It does not offer anything outstanding, yet it is fine film making where subtle things just spring up (that is) if you care to observe them. It depends on your sensibilities if you chose to marvel at the intricacies in the frame or chose to call it sheer inanity. It throws many a question at you, regarding what makes a successful marriage, what can keep it going, is love worth breaking marriages? Sadly, the true answers could only have been revealed if the story went beyond its ending. Perhaps, my thoughts on the movie’s subject are matter for another post…