The worst of Karan Johar’s characteristics are brought together in magnified exaggeration in his latest movie. His favourite actors, locations and theme – everything is mixed together in undue proportions with too much masala to create an undercooked platter.
What was patient and sacrificing love in his earlier movies becomes unjustified, unnecessary and devoid of any emotions in this one. The viewer is left with hundreds of unanswered questions.
One of my first questions was: Was any of the marriages really unsuccessful? Many marriage situations are worse off than the ones depicted here. In SRK and PZ marriage, it’s the tale of successful woman with an egoist, good-for-nothing husband. In AB Jr and RM marriage, it’s about wife giving her passionate husband a cold shoulder in bed. Johar takes pains to make the point clear that both AB Jr’s and PZ’s characters are true to their marriages, and do something to make their marriages work better. Whilst SRK and RM are left with their own insecurities, and failures and their ideas fail miserably. Surprisingly, they make no second attempts and do not even delve on their own shortcomings. Obviously, if SRK would get a good job and forget about his unattainable dream and RM would see a good doctor or adopt a baby, things would have looked up.
Both AB Sr and KK and AB Jr. and PZ present the example of two people coming together to discuss their problems and finding solutions, and yet remaining restricted with the lines of friendship. However SRK and RM both cross the same line without any qualms. What is surprising is the poor screenplay and direction which makes the emotion of falling in love a mere mundane task of singing songs amid flying autumn leaves.
Karan Johar needs to look for some other topic or hire a scriptwriter. The movie is unnecessarily long and the roles of AB Jr and PZ are sadly truncated. Immediately after the movie, I was left with twin nagging questions: why does freezing RM who refuses to please her husband gladly sleeps with a limping ex-football player? And why SRK falls for an ebony doll vis-à-vis his sexy wife? If Karan Johar’s answer to these questions is Love, then pray why did both SRK and RM marry for love in the first place?
However, these nagging questions changed after a while. In spite of being a cool dude why didn’t AB Jr seek pleasure in other arms and why didn’t PZ make better use of her hunky boss since her husband was so ineffectual? If the answer to these questions is loyalty, what was Karan Johar trying to prove – Love is mightier than loyalty?
I have no doubt that Karan Johar was rather confused about his viewpoint. If he wanted to hail love, then the reason for seeking love out of marriage should have been a stronger one. If he didn’t want to back extra-marital affair, SRK and RM should have fallen in love after a divorce. If he wanted to advocate loyalty, both these characters should have remained estranged at the end. Clearly, what the director wants to say through this film remains a puzzle.
He has also blissfully ignores the implications a broken home has on children. SRK claims to be a mother to his son, but not a single scene shows his fatherly love, let alone his motherly one. His son is scared of him and a mere scapegoat meant to finish his father’s unfulfilled dreams.
RM’s view about love is as muddled as the direction. She thinks she loves AB Jr when she marries him but doesn’t want his love in return. She is looking for understanding and platonic love. Ok, no harm in that, but does she get that from SRK? I don’t think so, especially after the unprecedented steamy sex scene in a cheap hotel room.
On the whole a very disappointing film from every perspective. Gone are the days when SRK’s innocent charm would make you weep and RM’s simplicity would make you smile. I went for this movie solely for the Bachchans and although AB Sr performance as Sam is perfection, it is wholly wasted in such a doleful saga. Even the music does not compensate for the lack of sense in the movie. The movie is trite and uninteresting right from the first irksome scene of SRK and RM chatting in the lawn.
Footnote: I have used the initials of the actors’ names rather than the characters because I am not at all convinced with the characters. But the only good point I found in the movie was that Karan Johar used NYC as the setting, which makes this extra-marital-affair-is-good-for-limpling-husbands-and-cold-wives-tale a bit digestible.
Karan Johar needs a break!