In 1952, a film critic
in UK said of Mehboob Khan’s Aan –
Aan goes on and on. Wonder what he would
have said of this 3-hours plus laborious film
that by the end just makes you want the director
to get it over and done with. Perhaps Karan Johar’s
weakest script to date, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
(KANK) – is salvaged only by Rani Mukherji’s
rising above the script act, the odd sporadic
‘Karan Johar’ moment, a pretty sound
if not outstanding musical score and Anil Mehta’s
polished cinematography.
 The
film looks at the institution of marriage and
on a story level explores and breaks standard
myths and conceptions particularly on Indian takes
on marriage and in that sense is a pretty interesting
choice of subject for someone associated with
candy floss romance and tear jerking melodrama.
However things begin to falter once the story
is fleshed out into a screenplay.
The characters while having some sort of graph
are still weakly sketched and their backgrounds
are most callously introduced. You know Rani is
a teacher only because she says she is. (Only
towards the end of a film do we see her actually
in a classroom). Otherwise she is freely all over
the place in New York be it day or night but somehow
never near a classroom. You know that Shah Rukh
changes trains and takes the same train as her
only because he says so to her. Yes cinema is
an Audio-Visual Medium but the Visual Medium is
by far the dominating factor which lends itself
to more dynamic cinematic representation and surely
these scenes could have been established earlier
visually rather than banal information giving
dialogue. (Again, a bane of Bollywood).
Shah Rukh’s cynical and angry at the world
character is actually quite unlikable and while
that explains the crack in his and Preity Zinta’s
marriage, Rani falling for him since he is often
obnoxious with her as well looks unconvincing
as is her being frigid and unreceptive to Abhishek
Bachchan who clearly loves her and would do anything
for her.
Preity’s role again like Corporate suffers
from the usual Bollywood working woman can’t
handle a family syndrome and is also the weakest
written role in the film redeemed only somewhere
by her last scene with Rani.
The wild swings from loud comedy to dark seriousness
are what don’t gel at all in the film. The
comedy track in particular barring a stray moment
or two is puerile and childish (the Black Beast
misunderstanding is embarrassing or the ensuing
Hospital sequence) and takes much away from the
film which otherwise tries to be ‘real’
in its more serious parts. And to be fair to Karan,
the film does have its moments in some of these
more intense sequences where one sees a certain
maturity with the way they have been dealt with
(the dinner sequence or the two fights post the
anniversary dinners) – but these are few
and too far in between. By and large the film
relies on contrived and predictable coincidences
that would make a Manmohan Desai proud and that
old age device of the Hindi films of the 1950s
and 60s - ‘kisi ne dekh liya’ to create
conflict and get the plot moving.
 One
wonders why New York was used as the setting of
this film. Is it just for Production Value? Because
the city is just a backdrop and not an integral
part of the film at all. With the film exploring
and questioning the institution of an ‘Indian’
marriage, it might have worked better had it been
set in modern urban India like Delhi or South
Mumbai for instance. But one supposes Johar felt
he just had to bring out his fondness for When
Harry met Sally (an extremely clumsy recreation
of Meg Ryan’s orgasm scene) or Friends…
Coming to the actors, Rani Mukeherji is really
the life of the film. Every moment be it the corny
but genuinely funny scene of trying to present
a kinky sexed up version of herself for her husband
or grappling with herself while she tries to come
to terms with the fact she loves Shah Rukh while
married to Abhishek, she is spot on gamely giving
life to every scene however clichéd or
hackneyed. That by and large she has never looked
better helps. Shah Rukh is now showing his age
and his repetitive over the top hamming got by
earlier with his infectious energy or a well written
script but it is now beginning to pall. The actor
needs to reinvent himself for surely one feels
he is capable of something much more – Swades
for instance where he was reined in and outstanding.
(Incidentally, is it limping season for our heroes
– Saif in Omkara and now Shah Rukh
here???) As the spouses kept in the dark about
the Shah Rukh – Rani Affair, Preity Zinta,
never the greatest of actresses, does still manage
her odd moment or two like in her confrontation
after their anniversary dinner or when she meets
Rani at the wedding party but as mentioned earlier
she is largely defeated by perhaps the weakest
sketched role in the film while Abhishek gamely
rises above proceedings showing some extremely
good comic timing yet exuding seriousness, sensitivity
and intensity when he has to. Amitabh
Bachchan brings life to the film with his
colourful role as an older stud while Kirron Kher
is adequate.
 The
Music of the film comes to life in the two party
songs (Rock n Roll Soniye and Where’s
the Party Tonight) and particularly Mitwa,
extremely well sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali (even
if has echoes of Junoon). The Title Refrain
is a bit of a disappointment though. On the technical
side, the film is aided greatly by Anil Mehta’s
neat and assured camera work. However the film
could do with some drastic editing particularly
in the first half. The dialogue is extremely corny
at times though the two key fight scenes pre interval
do have some bite to them.
All in all, KANK is strictly average
fare at best.
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