Indian Movie Review: Kabhi
Alvida Na Kehna

chillibreeze writer — Mira Shah

Get set for another upper crust, fun filled emotional roller coaster from the Johar stable. The setting is the same as his earlier films -urban, sophisticated NRI, the theme is similar too-love triangles et al, and so is the cast. But there the similarity ends - crushed unequivocally by the big B’s superb act as a sexagenarian, widower, playboy, with a veiled morality and worldly advise to match. He delivers a superb performance as a father, while he observes his son Abhishek’s marriage with Rani dissolving. Rani is a frigid, home bird and constantly rebuff’s Abhishek’s overtures until he turns hostile.

Indian cinema’s reigning ‘King Khan’, Shah Rukh, is the ex - football prima donna, dealing with the frustration of obscurity brought about by a leg injury. This is worsened by the relentless success of his wife (Priety Zinta) as a top executive with a fashion magazine, she fits the bill to the T. She and khan gel well together and deliver convincing performances of a yuppie couple drawn apart by circumstances and divergent priorities.

Meanwhile Amitabh and Kiron Kher (Preity’s mother) have a rollicking friendship as well, she is the perfect foil to Amitabh’s barb, wasted on his young disco dolly girlfriends. Abhishek and Priety (the spouses, remember?) in the meantime are brought into proximity via their work and some not too subtle contrivance by Amitabh and Kiron. They click with each other’s vibes to the torment of Khan and Rani.

Khan’s initial meeting with Rani Mukherjee, (Abhishek’s wife) on the wedding day is nothing short of ludicrous, but the next one is brought about by Khan’s son in a sequence with a ‘cut and paste’ feel to it. They, however find mutual solace in trying to salvage their marriages. This soon turns into a romance of their own culminating in infidelity and Amitabh does a graceful exit, shocked by his daughter in law’s affair.

Abhishek and Priety are however, too loyal and wrapped up in work to let it affect them, until the infidelity is exposed. Predictably, both vent their pent up feelings and Khan and Rani are out of their homes and marriages. Alas they are also out of touch.

Arjun Rampal, Priety’s boss, is meanwhile, smitten by her and as an emotional support for her he does his bit well, without the typical overtures one expects. Life goes on for the four principals, now alone and at Abhishek’s wedding to his new blonde girlfriend, a poorly contrived situation finally sends Rani galloping to catch the Khan before his Train (whew! That’s a change from the airport!) departs. One wonders what happened to everyone’s cellphone. At the end we have two triangle’s among two couples dissolving into two couples and a single but happy mom. This time, Johar has managed to keep us guessing throughout a la Frederick Forsyth. The cast has delivered, by and large, though Abhishek and Rani are prone to overacting on certain stretches. The others are pretty good. The plot meanders a bit, getting positively boring by the third hour. The unpredictability is what keeps the audience seated. That and the superbly choreographed humour all through the movie.

Amitabh is simply awesome, from flashy old playboy to dear departing father, he commands attention with aplomb and without diluting his persona in silly theatrics.

The trademark glitz and glamour of a Johar production wrap up this one and elicit the remark- definitely worth watching once. For the women, maybe twice!

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Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

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—About our writer: Mira writes for chillibreeze.

 

 

 

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