Eagerly awaited, and with high expectations, KANK had a tough challenge- meeting expectations, if not exceeding them. I went to the cinema expecting a merely good movie that falls short of the hype, but it turned out to be a movie that lives up to the hype. Fantastic!
Plot- I guess most of you will be familiar with the plot, so I’ll just brush it up. Dev and Rhea (SRK and PZ) are married to each other, with a kid Arjun, and Rishi and Maya(Abhishek and Rani) are married to each other. SAM Talwar (Amitabh) is Abhishek’s father and Kirron Kher is Shar Rukh’s mom. They seem to be okay with their respective marriages, though it is lifeless, and sometimes there are bad misunderstandings too. Dev and Maya find that their marriages are breaking apart, and so try to help each other, in soving their problems. Eventually though, they fall in love, blah blah blah.....
The movie is pretty funny in the first half, with lots of jokes and is light hearted till the interval. The movie assumes a more serious state at the interval, and becomes serious after the interval. There is a lot of crying, and drama, typically KJ style, but this can be excused. The movie drags a little towards the end, and lasts 3 hours ten minutes, which is pretty long. The pace could have been faster in the second half, but otherwise everything was good.
As already known, marriage and divorce is a controversial topic, especially in India, and conservative people won’t be able to accept this movie. This is a subject that require sa lot of insight., and can easily hurt people, or get messed up. But Karan Johar has handled a sensitive subject beautifully, and with so much scope for messing up, there are only a couple of small holes here and there. Everything in the movie has been done admirably- the personalities of the characters, their conflicts, their emotions, and how Karan Johar has gone about the story- everything is superb. Acting is as good as one expects, and all the people act pretty well. Excellent!
The songs are one of the highlights of the film. Rock n Roll Soniye with Amitabh and Abhishek dancing together is a sight to behold! It lasts in your mind, and just makes you smile :D Mitwa and the title song are beautiful, and Where’s the party tonight is pretty good too. Tumhi Dekho Na is a romantic number, though quite conventional, is melodious. One sore point is that most of the songs seem to be heavily infuenced by the songs from KHNH, but I like the album a lot! The songs blend seamlessly into the movie- It doesn’t look like it came out of nowhere- Amazing...!
Amitabh Bachhan comes in a role that he has never before been seen in, and is a refreshing change. Despite it being quite risky, he handles it with surprising amount of grace, and still retains his respect and class. He transforms from a fun loving old guy to a serious father seamlessly, and has proven again that he is the best! His son on the other hand is equally impressive, and this is easily his best ever performance. He suits the rold perfectly, and he sooo natural and.. blah.... coool! He ends up being one the most loved characters in the movie. Rani Mukherji basically just cries in the film, but there’s more to it. She does her role flawlessly, though some of the drama could have been removed. Shah Rukh too does his role of a guy irritated with life, with aninferiority complex pretty well, and his relationship with Maya is done admirably too. Kirron Kher suits the role well, and doesn’t really have to do anything significant, and does what she has to do decently. Preity Zinta was amazing, her performance just implies how good she is, and she seems to be getting cuter day by day!
Overall, KANK is one helluva movie- the plot is good, the performances are superb, the cinematography, the scale of it, and the extravagance just makes it look better, I just love all the songs, especially in the movie. The guest appearances are pleasant surprises. More than anything, it is the way Karan Johar has handled this subject almost flawlessly, that is amazing. He manages to add all the ingredients of mainstream cinema while making sure that KANK is a cut above his other films, because it has a message relevant to today’s society too. Fantastic!