Saw this movie two weeks ago in totemlake theatre from 11 pm to 3.30 am.
The story is essentially about 2 people - 1 shahrukh khan who is married to a "good" friend of his (Preity Zinta) and is a passionate footballer. The other person is Rani Mujherjee who took 3 years of deliberation to marry Abhishek Bachchan (girl what were you thinking!) and gives a half hearted smile eventually when she gets married after being persuaded by Shahrukh(then a stranger to her) on a park bench. One thing they both come out knowing from the conversation is that they both really do not love their spouses but are just moving along with the flow.
Well the conversation distracts shahrukh so much that he ends up meeting with an accident and losing his footballer leg.
Cut to present - Shahrukh (very convincing and entertaining in his annoyed frustrated and sarcastic role which no one except me enjoyed :() feels inferior to his successful wife and Rani as a wife keeps trying all of abhishek's attempt to make out with her (girl what were you thinking!)..
The story is all about Rani and Shahrukh discovering a connection with each other, denying and admitting their love for eachother, feeling guilty for their straying and well eventually getting together. To make the dragging 3.30 min film fun(?)-filled we have shahrukh's kid who looks like calvin of calvin and hobbs (and yeah he is sweet) and a womaniser amitabh bachchan obsessed with kiron kher's butt and I am sure most of us wil not be really interestd in finding more about that.
The movie is watchable once for the performances. Preity looks old and I guess the director realized it and hence sidelined her completely and Abhishek looks gorgeous and yeah acts great too. Rani is good again but her character doesnt seem to be justified in hating abhishek. I agree that when you fall in love you just fall in love and there is no justification for it but what is the justification for hating someone who is so nice and understanding.
Anyways story not-withstanding I am glad that we finally have a main stream movie that shows that it is okay to fall in love at any point/ at any age in your life. Yeah we have a society out there but I think we should use it as a guideline however every individual has needs and desires and sometimes self-gratification can gain precedence over the rules laid down by the society. And it is okay.
Yeah one thing our hindi movies still have to learn is that career minded girls are not vamps. Its also okay to have desire to rise in life. Why are strong career minded guys heroes and strong career minded girls vamps? I think if a guy is not strong career minded and wants to slack in his life even then he can be a hero and similarly if a girl wants to work hard (dude being career minded is a lot of work) for herself she can be a heroine too. I mean lets not have 2-3 prototypes of people and try to fit everyone in it and draw conclusions. That is the thing about strict soceity rules. It tries to prototype you and makes you feel guilty if you are not one of their ideal bahus or ideal daughters.
Its way too judgemental.
At the end of the day a person's happiness is more important than the whole society's whim. What would you prefer - that a person pretends to be happy or that he/she really is ? Having said that, I am not completely discounting the rules laid down by the soceity because sometimes what you think is best for yourself might not actually be the best for you. But again - sometimes it might be and the individual should take the call and not the society.
10 comments:
The main problem with film, IMHO, KJo-ish larger than life setup. Huge sets, gawdy lights and trunks of makeup doesn't let you focus on the characters or movie. If you want to make a movie character/story centric, focus on them, don't distract spectators too much. Performance-wise only Bacchans shine (Little AB more of it). Rani Mukherjee - too tired. Preity Zinta - too pale. SRK - too SRK. Frankly, couldn't bare it till the end
Well I do agree on that .the lost song almost made me crig on my seat ...but I am a big AB (lttle AB more ;)) fan so I guess that kept me going
I checked out the movie with a "crazy" little-AB fan, and "that" in itself was total time-pass :D
A couple of things that disturbed me were.....
1. The characters did not have a real good reason to leave their marriages. For a movie that was 3.5 hours long, KJ could have easily taken some time to establish why Shah Rukh wanted to leave Preity and like-wise Rani and AB.
2. Infidelity: One of India's greatest strengths is the respect for "family" values. While I don't feel one way or the other about pre-marital sex, I think extra-marital sex is kinda bad. Shah Rukh "always" represented a larger than life character for me - I have'nt seen a lotta Shah Rukh since the Kuch-Kuch days, and was totally disappointed with Shah and Rani doing that thing even while they were still married (not to each other) :D
@skylar: I personally feel that mentally straying is a bigger deal than physically straying. Honestly if I get married and my husband strays physically then I would understand but if he falls in love with someone then it will be difficult for me to continue in the relationship.
I do agree here any straying was not justified and as one of my friends said that gay people are known to be more sensitive but KJ lost it.
Hey, your last para is very interesting and the kind of conflict I have been facing these days: Society minded mentality of most desis and a relativistic attitude (whether I am happy) of most amrus.
Straying happens at the mental level much before it happens at the physical level. So how is mentally straying a bigger deal than the physical one? Physical straying implies mental straying...
True love can forgive and accept. True love is unconditional. Faith and trust in marriage are not imposed on the married individuals... they gradually build up through every day interactions and through moments of sharing thoughts and feelings whole-heartedly with each other.
Being career-minded is nowadays used as an excuse for every thing imaginable, from not having time to meet friends,relatives to Preity & SRK not having time for each other. At some point, one needs to think of life beyond a career.. be it a man or a woman.
agree with @commenter here .. its easy to lose track of your thoughts and 'stray' mentally .. but to actually indulge in a physical act that too knowingly fully well that you are breaking someone's trust in you, is the bigger 'sin' .. controlling the mind is infinite time more difficult than controlling the body (and as @commenter said, the former preceds the latter), so should be given the benefit of doubt .. :-) ..
testing
@to everyone above:
my mental straying meant that you are thinking the possibility of having a relationship with the person. mental straying in my context doesn't mean having a crush or infactuation but is a serious contemplation.
@to the last anonymous - was the test successful?
I am sure even KJ didnt put in so much thought on KANK...
A couple of things that kept bothering me about it -
1. Why New York..why NRIs..??? Isnt India a place where people can fall in love...or is it just not sofiii enough..! I want to see a movie coming from KJ which is shot in India and is about common ppl living in India..!
2. I do understand Shahrukh's frustration for his being a looser..but i do not understand Rani for falling for such a disgruntled guy..and leaving the handsome AB..! I mean how long is this new marriage gonna last..???
It all felt too unreal...and forced..!
It just gave me a feeling that the loosers went one way and the winners the other..!
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