A nice subject taken but in very bore manner. Karan jauhar totally fails to spread his magic like his other films. In this film director is so confuse what he want to show? What did he want to convey? Film has generated tremendous heat within and outside the film industry. It’s not the star cast alone that has resulted in unparalleled, unmatched and unprecedented craze for the film. This time, Karan Johar seems to have got the formula somewhat skewed. For unlike his earlier successful celluloid soap operas, the audience doesn’t get to shed any real tears even though the protagonists keep crying. In all his earlier ventures, the characters would hardly need the tissues despite the heartbreak, heartache, heartburn. It was the viewer who’d do all the crying, sighing and tear jerking ’coz Shah Rukh chose to laugh while he died. But this time round, the rona-dhona becomes somebody else’s business, the jolly good fella bits seem to be in short supply and the aam janata ends up feeling gypped. Primarily because it doesn’t know why Rani relentlessly sobs and Shah Rukh goes gruff-gruff and all those designer marriages suck...
KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA narrates the story of two families -- Sarans and Talwars -- both not connected to one another. But circumstances bring them together. Dev Saran [Shah Rukh Khan] has an uneasy and troubled relationship with his wife Rhea [Preity Zinta] and son Arjun [child artist Ahsaas]. He resents his wife’s growing success and in the process, ends up turning all his anger towards his loved ones.
Okay, we know that Shah Rukh’s angry because he’s got a perpetual limp, he can’t play football, his wife’s (Preity Zinta) more successful than him and someone’s told him his pout looks sexy. But is that reason enough to fall in love with a wannabe bride (Rani) he meets on a bench one New Yorky afternoon as she ruminates on this whole marriage business and the grand mohabbat myths? And is that reason enough to pout permanently in the film as he goes through the entire gamut of incompatibility, infidelity, separation and reunion, barking down on anybody who happens to cross his path. Even his bechara beta!
Unconvincing again are the reasons behind Rani’s drift. All that hubby Abhishek demands from her is a bit of passion in bed, some rock-and-roll in dad’s (Amitabh) rocking party and a bit of bonhomie in their day-to-day life. Is that asking for too much from a roz-roz-morose Miss?
So, on the one hand you have a weak foundation to the extra-marital affair between Shah Rukh and Rani, and on the other, you have a weird reason that brings them together. The duo befriend each other to play marriage counsellor to each other, discussing books and techniques on ‘how to save your shaadi and stay happy forever’. And guess what? They end up breaking their marriages and biting into cold TV dinners by themselves.
If the film holds, it’s because of the few dramatic moments that manage to touch you, a pretty New York backdrop and some fine chemistry between that father-son duo again. Amitabh and Abhishek once again create magic when they are together, even as the big daddy of Bollywood creates one of the most flamboyant playboys on the desi screen. Catch his throwaway lines and you’d realise Hugh Heffner’s got competition. Unfortunately, they have very little screen time together. As for Preity, now what’s she doing in a walk-on part that seems a pale shadow of Kal Ho Na Ho?