Karan Johar’s latest masterpiece was awaited with bated breath. The posters teased. The promos beckoned. The cast looked great. The story had promise. So what went wrong?
Now, don’t get me wrong. Contrary to popular belief, KANK is not a terrible movie. It’s just a simple story that Karan Johar took a very very long time to tell. And that too not very well.
Story:
KANK is the story of two less than happily married couples, who’s lives collide quite by chance. It is a tale of love forbidden, of love forgotten and of love unrequited. Dramatic though it sounds, KANK is basically a story about things that really happen in marriage. Of course it does have the required amount of Bollywood masala added in for flavouring.
Performances:
All Shah Rukh fans can rejoice. Long forgotten is the refreshingly underplayed performance he gave in Main Hoon Na.... Ladies and Gentlemen, the blustering, overperforming Shah Rukh that we worship, is back. He contributes to more than half the drama and emotion in the movie, regardless of whether it was originally in the script or not.
Rani Mukherjee looks so stunning throughout the film, her performance, though competent, really doesn’t matter.
Preity Zinta wears really nice clothes in the movie, being a fashion editor and all. Her performance lacks consistency and swings between somewhat good and ’what did I miss!!!’
Abhishek is an actor or the brink of a great performance. But he’s been on the brink for the last 10 films. His role as ’nice-guy’ tormented by a one-sided marriage is believable and relatable, but somehow not enough.
That brings us to the big B. Amitji, seems to have an wildcard entry into every film nowadays. AB, in his role as an older Romeo with a penchant for pretty young blonde things, is fun. And unreal though it sometimes seems, his relationship with Abhishek (his son in KANK as well) is refreshingly different.
Also worth mention, is the stunning presence of Kirron Kher, a lady that I admire more and more with every performance.
Music:
The songs in the movie are memorable. Party because they’re good songs and partly because every radio station and music channel is playing them.
Cinematography:
The cinematography is stunning. Clean and beautiful frames dominate the movie.
Another plus I’d give KANK is the sometimes frighteningly honest picture it paints of marriage, unhappy or otherwise. Yet, given the way the characters are revealed and introduced, some of the events in the story are highly unbelievable.
KANK as a film has a lot of positives. Some good performances, lovely music, an interesting premise, among others. But when put together they form an unwieldy 4 hours of unfortunate storytelling.
Like I said before, it’s not a terrible film. It has it’s moments. There are some laughs. I would still reccommend it. But my advice is, watch it on dvd. You’ll appreciate the movie a lot more with your finger poised on the fast forward button.