KANK fails to create magic!

The verdict is out. I have to confess that I have never been a fan of Karan Johar’s movies and he has proved why again. Had he spent some more time on a more convincing reason for this pyar-mohabbat soap opera than promoting everyday on NDTV and other
television channels, the movie stood a chance of appealing to the viewers. It is too long, too flashy and melodramatic. There was more than once when I thought the movie was over. In short, with all the hype built around this so called bold movie, his
success formula hasn’t worked this time around and comes across as a satire on the institution of marriage (arranged and love) itself.

The BOLD plot: Shot in New York, with infidelity and extra marital affair being the central theme, the story is about 2 failed marriages – that of Dev Saran (Shah Rukh Khan) – Rhea (Preity Zinta) and Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan)-Maya (Rani Mukherji). Sam
(Amitabh Bachchan) plays the role of Rishi’s father and Kiron Kher as Dev’s mom. Dev meets Maya, clad in a dashing scarlet red wedding ghaghra, sitting alone on a bench in the sprawling lush green garden on her marriage day – pondering over the difference between pyaar and mohabbat. In his usual melodramatic way, Dev offers her advice and the movie takes a turning point – he is hit by a car outside the gates of Maya’s mansion and he becomes the cranky Khan for the rest of the movie.

Dev turns into frustrated soul after the accident leaves him limped for the rest of his life. Not able to pursue his dream of playing football (or should I say soccer) he turns mean and vents out all his pent-up anger on his successful fashion-diva wife, Rhea, who runs a magazine called “Diva”. His obsession with football doesn’t fade however and it is hilarious when his son picks up the football in a game and hands it over to the opponent’s goalie.

Three years later, Dev’s and Maya’s paths cross again, and their animosity gives way to friendship which blossoms into love as they find ways to save their marriages with the help of books and discussions over top-notch cafes of New York. Yet I fail to understand why Maya is unhappy with her marriage. Rishi sounds like the perfect husband who runs an upstart party planning firm, is successful and a loving husband. All he demands of her is a bit of social life and passion in the bedroom while she engages in her mundane champa bhai activities of cleaning the spic and span
apartment clad in expensive clothes! For a change none of the lead actors die except Big B who had to go for he couldn’t go around sleeping with all the white females when everyone else was weeping.
There is no twist per se in the end with Rishi finding new love.

The KJ Formula: Karan does it again what he does best – making his protagonists sob. The entire family was found weeping time and again in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Khan and Mukherji don the crying hats this time. Other ingredients of KJ’s moviemaking are in abundance as well with Shah Rukh again in the lead, Amitabh/Jaya Bachchan take turns in his movies with both of them in K3G followed by Jaya in Kal Ho Na Ho and now it is Big B’s turn. Once again, you can see the larger than life size lifestyle with all of them donning designer outfits, driving swanky cars, beautifully furnished apartments – the sophisticated life. Khan has to patronize a game in every movie. If
it was Basketball in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, it is football in KANK.

What to watch out for: The chemistry between the Bachchan duo and the screentime they share together account for the only lighter moments of the film. The first half has many such jolly scenes and passes by quickly. Definitely a movie worth seeing if you get free tickets as I did.

Categories: movie, review, KANK, Kabhi-alvida-na-kahna