Aditya (Akshay Kumar) and Sonia (Bipasha Basu) is engaged in a conventional way. Both are concentrating in their careers. Aditya is an automobile engineer and Sonia is a fashion designer. Soon after engagement Aditya have to fly Canada and Sonia’s trip to Paris for fashion show is pre-booked. Their relation is not in good mood, as both of them take career first and relation the second.
In Canada, Aditya meet Jia (Katrina Kaif), incidently she is also engaged but not happy as Karan (Anil Kapoor) is a business magnet and he do not have time to spend with her. Jia later discover that it is better to call the engagement as a takeover, where Karan is more interested in takeover of her father’s fortunes. Coincidences or destiny allow Aditya and Jia meet several times. Jia find her ideal partner in Aditya, impressed by his care for her and his good manners and values. Sooner they fall in love. Karan enters now and which give tense moments for both of them. One of the secret shared by Jia to Aditya leaked through Aditya’s friend and Jia now distrust Aditya. Adding to the worry, Karan and Jia leaves for Mumbai in hurry and preparations for their marriage starts. Surprise came in the form of Sonia, who reaches Canada, longing for Aditya. After some sleepless nights, Aditya and Sonia returned Mumbai where destiny allow Aditya and Jiya meet in Jia’s wedding day.
Who get Jia? What will be the fate of the other 2? How the turn of events take place, better watch HDKG.
PERFORMANCES
Akshay Kumar - Performs well, as usual.
Bipasha Basu - Ok, but no importance for her role and not so enthusiastic in some of the scenes.
Katrina Kaif - She is the surprise package and she deliver a good performance and leave a mark. Her desire in eyes and cuteness in face contribute much to the viewing value of the film.
Anil Kapoor - is only a shade of Anil Kapoor we have seen in many of the films. Even he is not groomed well for his character.
Rest everybody is ok, where they have only small roles to do.
MUSIC is average. In fact they are quite big in number. No exceptional songs.
CHOREOGRAPHY, Good, average and bad in parts.
LOCATIONS, Good
CINEMATOGRAPHY - Good in some parts and Bad in some parts.
EDITING - Bad. The film could have easily trimmed 10 to 15 minutes and it would have help to hold the grip which is losing in the mid way of the show. An important scene like Unwilling Jia is been taken by Karan and their walking can be cited as a good example. The scene requires a gloomy Jia’s walking with Karan. The scene starts exactly the same way, in a pale colour shot. Then suddenly you can see Jia is walking happily with Karan, with good coloured shot, now again the pale shot with the gloomy face.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Raj Kanwar, who is famous for his family dramas also depends his favourite subject here again.
The movie starts and proceed in good pace. With the help of some comedy scenes, the film moves forward for about an hour then it starts dragging. The story takes some turn when Karan appears, but then it goes back to the same circle and only at the last 10 to 15 minutes only the story comes to life.
For a family cinema the script with emotions and relations should be the main tool of the director to hold the audience. Strong characters are required and the director should have some message to tell.
HDKG tells the value of ’Ehsaas’, on which the relations are existing. ’Ehsass’ and not ’Rishtey’ can keep relations.
However, weak characterisation let Raj Kanwar down in many places. And it leaves a lot of questions in the minds of the audience than the answers. What is common with all characters is that all are having identity crisis and because of that audience cannot identify the characters in general.
Aditya - Who is behaving as lazy and careless, so much so that on his engagement day, at 6.05 pm (His engagement time is 6.00pm), he is at office, sometimes flirting with girls. When he rush to the scene, (he is changing in a running car) he forget the wedding ring which he just shown the manager a minute before they start. Once engagement is finished, he is so loving and caring. Soon after their departure, he completely forget her engaged partner. He is also not sure how to proceed in the case of Jiya. To her, he is the finest man on earth she can find!
Sonia - Being a modern and ambitious girl she is shown full interest in the engagement. She throws a cold hand immediately after the engagement (may be because she knows the ring she carry is not bought by Aditya), so much so that she even refuse to give a good night kiss to Aditya. In their flight journey she treat Aditya so indifferently. Aditya ask Sonia, are we really engaged? At Paris she didn’t even care to call him even once. Suddenly when she reach Canada, she is telling she is madly in love and so much longing for him.
Jiya - An engaged girl met with Aditya by coincidence or destiny. She is in love and refrain from telling that, which we can understand. However, her eyes are full of desire, her actions are directive and after little persuation, she is happily fall into the hands of Aditya, so much so that they sleep together (Without physical relation, of course) not one night, but 2 nights in different occasions. But in the next scene she will be again playing the hide and seek game. Even after her marriage she is confused and even when the film ends, I belive her confusion is not yet over.
Karan - Who is described as a powerful business magnet, who will do anything for his cause and supposedly responsible for the car accident of Jiya at the end (Which is not explained properly, any way) looking as an onlooker when his wife is in danger. When you see him in the next scene preaching about Ehsaas and Rishtey and what not... one may pity that character.
The confusion not stay only with the characters, but it is been handed over to the writer director and he is confused between Ehsaas and Rishtey. He want to tell that Ehsaas is required to keep Rishtey, end up giving up Rishtey for Ehsaas.
So, the Script and Characterisation is the weak point of the film.
Direction is also not without faults. Some of the scenes which could have been converted to the highlights of the film ended up the worst scenes of the film, which is better edit and remove. The one at the Car Rally is an example. A good car rally is always a thrilling experience and it will increase the heart beats of the audience, but the car rally in the film ended up less in quality than an overrun computer game. And the scene at Flight where the european insult the Indians altogether.... it do not have any positive implication and it can be treated as an insult to the audience.
Having said all above, still the movie is a watchable one. Thanks to freshness in the pairing of Akshay & Katrina. Their love story holds the interest of the audience and it is really nice to watch them together. Also the first 1 hour goes in good pace and you wouldn’t have to yawn from the beginning. There are some interesting surprises here and there and that keeps your interest in the rest part of the film. The end is hurried but hold drama, though not so convincing. In brief, HDKG is a strictly average film. One which you can watch without much boring.
If you are expecting a perfect cinema or exceptional cinema, this is not the stuff (By the way, Perfect cinema is still a no show and exceptional cinema is so exceptional in Bollywood now. Right?)
At the box office, the film should get an average response. Considering the flow of biggies week after week, it may find difficult to hold for long.