Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - A Review

An urban setting, a director with an excellent track record, good music and a star cast to die for. These are the ingredients which will draw the crowds to the theatres to watch one of the most awaited movies of the year - Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna!!! And does the movie live up to the hype surrounding it? Read on to find out.

One of the first things to strike you in the movie is the camerawork....stark grey landscapes from urban New York have been captured very nicely in the movie, be it the parks, the crossings or the railway station. It makes a very striking contrast when you compare it to a movie like Parineeta, which makes use of vibrant colours to capture the Kolkata of the 60's.

The movie revolves around two individuals, SRK and Rani, who are unhappy with their respective marriages. A chance meeting on a park bench and a poorly executed chase spark off a series of meetings, which finally culminate in love. However, social and marital obstacles thwart them at every step. How they overcome these and finally manage to get together after aeons, is what seems to be the gist of the story. I use the word 'seems' because I can never tell for sure why the characters in the movie do whatever they do!!!

The movie seems to finally have a different storyline - a rarity in movies from the Dharma Productions stable. However, Karan Johar seems to have stretched a promising story almost to the point of mediocrity!!! He sure seems to need a shot of Koffee!!! Rani cries all the time, pausing only briefly to push off an "eager" Abhishek!!!! Believe me, tear stains on such a pretty face are not very good to look at!!! SRK is grumpy all the time. God knows his character could give me some serious competition for surliness!!! Preity appears confused all the time, alternating between the all-conquering career woman and the hurt wife!!! The kid is cute, and brings a few smiles to movie-goers' faces. But, the real stars are the father-son duo of the Bachchans. They share a fantastic camaraderie on screen. Abhishek's goofy look is the perfect foil for the casanova-like Big B. Truly, he is the best actor in Indian cinema today, and by a long way!!! Kirron Kher delivers a very compact performance, something we have now come to naturally expect from her.

The movie does tend to disappoint, given the high expectations from it, but somehow, it isn't as bad as many people make it out to be. Go for it, but be prepared to stare periodically at your watch and wonder how much more time's left for it to end!!!