Thursday, August 17, 2006

KANK

Ok i have been instigated to review now. I had been trying my best to avoid talking about this cause i dint want to be spurting, well....poison! But i guess i just have to put up a view i feel so strongly for! yes i am talking about dear karan johar and his latest venture. ugh! whatever of a film..!
Fine we all knew what the story was before it started, so good he did his bit in preparing an 'orthodox' audience to a 'progressive' thought. I have nothing against that, nothing against the plot either. Its the treatment that i want to kill him for! I mean a film that speaks of agreeing you with a certain 'grey'ness to life, as you are to believe that all that is immoral, socially unacceptable, unequal even as a basis for a relationship, and truly self-centered, is allowed. Its alright, because sometimes life isnt fair and you've got to live with it.. I agree. But the way its told is with the most unfortunate too-good-to-be-true karan johar rubber stamp. Playing between fairy tale romance, perfect settings, senseless humour (everything that is a formula film) and bringing it down to even fairytale fights! I mean if you say something is infact challenging all that you said to be 'good living', then it definitely cant be as black and white as a 'kuch kuch hota hai' or k3g would be. What can i say, cant really blame him cause he only knows one way to direct shah rukh 'raj' khan. Even as 'raj' stumbles (in a moral moral world), he stumbles in all grace and pride. Its like saying whatever happens, no grudges against our lead characters.
For instance, that rani suffered in silence for 3 years, (which by the way, had to be mentioned in so many words on screen, further balancing the equation for us), was justified enough for them to 'happily' get back together. The mother is always the understanding, moralistic yet open minded binder of the family, i guess nothing changed since farida jalal in kuch kuch... And he exemplifies it further by kiron kher standing for her 'fairness' by sticking to her grandchild over the son. LHS = RHS. Did we forget the film was all about 'unfair' circumstances, was this reasoning neccessary? Anyways, so shah rukh leaves home and moves on to the next chapter, that is, time for reconcilations and a few more tears.... What next? lets conclude... Abhishek finds love (so the audience stops feeling as bad for him as they wud have and in turn ms. lead character is saved some anger). Priety has moved on, so ten points to her, shah rukh can breathe now! Everyone meets for a grand finale so that confrontations happen and the great revelation can occur which can finally climax the glycerine fiesta. I think the climax scene was the most believable, reinforcing all the levels of unrealism that the film was about. Compare this to a hazaaron khwahishien aisi where one can really know what unequal relationships are about. But that would be asking for too much now, wouldnt it? i mean if tooty-frooty is your style, why try a realistic canvas at all!
On the fairer side, there were some great perfomances. for a change shah rukh as the grumpy, bitter, not-so-perfect man did a good job. Some real genuine attempt to be unlike himself, which in itself is a lot from the SRK! Abhishek... i genuinely feel bad for him cause he tried his best. gave the role much much more than anything on the script. Definitely a 200 per cent to something that hardly gave him that space. Here is one character who could have brought a brilliant closure to all the mangled realtionships, to the film, but unfortunately, was dealt with in such a side-hero manner all through, that his life just seemed to be justifying rather than concludingfor teh film. One was just left guessing his emotional journey. Rani is par par excellence. amazing, brilliant and doing complete justice to every aspect of her character. i feel one of the only aspects of the film that had come a full circle there, largely because of the reactions that the actor brought to every situation (and surely not because of the script). Preity was the same looking good, dancing bad and smiling great. Karan Johar can do with some help on how to handle an Amitabh Bachan, to say the least. Kiron Kher was in her usual good performance spirit. but seriously, how much can any of that save a backdrop itself so flawed?!
Sometimes i wonder if the actor pairs were reversed, abhishek-preity v/s shah rukh-rani. And abhishek-rani breaking all rules. Just so much more believable simply because of the brillaint existing acting chemistry. I mean when you know the plot is a one liner, its obvious that its got to be all about the way its told. About situations, reactions, dialogues and conversations. Then why not stick to what works on screen, rather than making everyone go through an extra effort to 'look' compatible. I guess shah rukh had to be lead and that answers all my questions, probably any questions any critic ever had!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home