Grow up, Johar!
Kal Ho Naa Ho
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Jaya Bachchan, Sonali Bendre
Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Dialogues: Niranjan Iyengar
Story and screenplay: Karan Johar
Direction: Nikhil Advani
COULD they, the Indian film critics, be all wrong? Or is entertainment indeed such an individualised sensibility that one's bouquets turn into brickbats in another one's appreciation?
Breezy reviews, an eager wait, a long queue, a further wait in a crowded lobby, cigarette smoke, laughter, sighs, and a dimly-lit theatre with people fumbling about in the dark for their seats, not to forget the Dhs20, is Kal Ho Naa Ho worth the effort, after all?
Though it brings back the issue of "Bollywood for the masses' entertainment" — a jaded excuse, actually, by the creative bankrupt — Kal Ho Naa Ho is exactly the kind of film that has stifled Bollywood to languish in mediocrity. Utterly candy-floss, insensitive, and cliched, the film works the same "let's-opiate-the-masses" trivia celebrated with gusto by Karan Johar in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
Is style cinema? If so, KHNH, stylishly packaged, makes a statement. A brilliantly shot vertical New York in a cinema-scope format makes for stunning visual imagery. Full marks to Anil Mehta, the cinematographer. Brownie points to Manish Malhotra (costumes), Sharmistha Roy (art) and Farah Khan (choreography) — she even manages to lend that flat Time to Disco song a modicum of viewing pleasure.
Isn't content cinema? A powerful script that does away with clichés, and goes for the jugular with straight-shot effectiveness, isn't that what makes movies? A respect for audience in situations that do not resort to sheer melodrama, contrived sentiments, or a moral high-ground posture, isn't that what makes films powerful tools of expression, entertainment too, if you may?
KHNH falls flat in content. If the story is as old as the hills, the treatment, (which critics have been harping on, makes all the difference) is even less impressive. A linear narration, characters walking in and out of the frames with cliched precision, loud expressionism, corny jokes — what is that about KHNH re-building Bollywood on the base of the refreshing Dil Chahta Hai? Silly.
The whole premise of KHNH rests on one note: The gay abandon of the protagonist, Aman (Shah Rukh Khan, who earns claps galore making a dramatic entry and then brilliantly sketched in the backdrop of a snowy night), a dying man, who is out to bring joy in the lives of his neighbours.
Yes, we have seen him before in many avatars. That's besides the point. Aman isn't even moulded on a contemporary note except in his costumes. He is the jaded self-suffering hero of the 70s transplanted in a different milieu. A superficial make-over is all that Karan Johar, the script-writer, lends to Aman. Otherwise he is just another weeping soul, who in death-bed asks that he be given the hand of the girl he loves, in his after-life. For one who should celebrate today like there's no tomorrow, what is this after-life nonsense?
A heroine that wallows in pity, that's Naina, Preity Zinta. Do spectacles make all the difference? Is such a simple, ubiquitous every-day accessory the difference between a blithe spirit and a responsible girl maturing to womanhood? And is Johar's idea of "living" a few "bottoms-up," stripping one's jacket and dancing at a disco? And why do film-makers still believe that getting a boy is the ultimate goal in any girl's life? Naina, to boot, is just a student.
The third man in the picture, a suave Rohit, Saif Ali Khan. The saving grace of the film. A polished performance, a well-etched role as a happy-go-lucky guy, too unreal though. "Dinner at 8" with a date is his goal, well, a frivolous soul. A nice man, who even keeps his date with someone who he doesn't acknowledge but, but....Aman is dying, Rohit comes to know of it and all he bothers is about his love — fixed by Aman. Well, love makes one selfish, you may say.
And the extras: A loud friend, her maniac sister, a loud grandma, a caring mother, a physically challenged kid, and pertinently, an adopted child. She is the bone of discord in Naina's family. And harmony is restored only when it is learnt that she is indeed family. Why, Johar, why can't she be adopted and the family be just as happy? Insensitive.
Humour. That's said to drive the film. Yes, there are a few genuine laughs. Good one-liners too but they get drowned in the over-dose of digs at ab-"normal" personal bonding. Surely, comedy can be less forced.
Cinema is about performances, for sure. Shah Rukh Khan advises Saif in one of the lighter moments: "Don't over-act." Yes, SR Khan, please, don't overact. With due respect to all who love his ham it up histrionics, it's still too much to see India's top-rated actor performing worse than a high-school amateur.
Three wrinkles on the forehead, a shivering lip, trembling fingers, I-know-it-all-expression, do you need all this to say something as simple as a hello? Shah Rukh is the strength and burden of the film. Strength, his breezy presence. Burden, his laboured performance.
Preity is good, her transformation is convincing; so is Saif Ali Khan, who illustrates that under-acting makes an impression. The supporting cast is a mixed crowd of loud characteristations and cliched performances.
Apart from the slick looks of New York and the cool attitudes of modernity, which drives the first few reels, KHNH fits into the tried and tested genre of pulp dramas — Bollywood style. It works, of course, as the box-office suggests.
And when every KHNH works, Bollywood inches back to its mould of predicable looniness.
Oh yes, the film was directed by Nikhil Advani. If that makes for any difference...
Grow up, guys.
