Well, the waiting has paid off. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is here. And it was worth it. It was like breathing a 3 hour sigh of relief! I am so glad the obsession paid off. This movie was brilliant! Where do I start?! I loved it from start to finish. At three hours length it didn’t seem too long - time flew away!
The story:
Dev Saran seemingly has everything. Amazing career, beautiful wife (Rhea), wonderful son. But something seems to be missing from his life. Maya also should in a very happy mood – it’s her wedding day and she’s marrying her life long friend, Rishi Talwar. But she is downhearted. Why? She feels she is not marrying her sole mate. She waits in the garden, questioning her decision to the marriage (which she only accepted after 3 years). As she sits she sees a man, here to pick up his mother, about to litter her garden – which she cleaned just recently! She yells at him for it, and he ends up giving her some advice – go get married. If you stop looking for your sole mate after marriage, you won’t find him! Dev and Maya part, and she marries Rishi. Four years later they meet again, and as they’re marriages are failing, they decide to help eachother repair their broken relationships, by giving birth to a new relationship. They spend time together, and come with new ways to make their spouses happy. However this does not help and eventually Dev and Maya are pushed into eachothers arms. Will their spouses find out about their affair? And will they decide to continue attempting to repair their marriages, or will they decide to keep their own happiness?
Performances:
Shahrukh: Brilliant! As promised, Dev is no Rahul. He’s not quite a big as a jerk SRK said he would be. But definitely he is a broken, jealous and bitter man. And feels more complete and together when he is with Maya.
Rani: Again wonderful. Though I’d say Karan gave her too many tears. She enacts Maya perfectly otherwise. Clean-freak and unable to bear children, Rani makes you truly care for Maya’s character.
Abhishek: Take a guess? Yep. He was brilliant as well. He stands out in the angry scene when the affair is revealed to him. That could have been WAY too OTT in the hands of another actor, but Abhishek slides through it.
Preity: One more brilliant performance! She should no longer hold the “bubbly” image. She was powerful though not around for as long as the two main characters. Stand out scene is when she slaps Dev and also the scene at home on their anniversary when they fight.
Performances from the rest of the cast were brilliant as well.
The characters:
The characters were, for once in a KJo film, believable, real people. I would believe it if someone told me this was a true story and the characters were real, and I think we have Karan and his storytelling to thank for that as well as the outstanding performances from everyone.
The songs:
They are all wonderful and all fit into the narrative - my advice is don’t use them as a bathroom/popcorn/fag break! And why wasn’t title song version 2 that came at the start in the soundtrack?! Really annoyed about that. The background music was a bit repitive - pretty much only the title song and TDN, but it fits into the movie nonetheless.
The stand-out scenes:
-The whip scene was hilarious, as part of the tips Dev and Maya shared with eachother, as was the scene where Dev “massages” Rhea.
-Where’s the part tonight! Brilliant scene there, when the spouses are celebrating their “repaired” marriages, and they are doing …
-Kajol in RNR!!!!
-Mitwa – amazing and so beautiful in showing the growing friendship between Dev and Maya
-The bench scene at the start. Loved it!
-The ending – it was suitable and well done. No OTT climax like K3G/KKHH, or unsatisfying ending like KHNH.
-Wedding rings. They supposedly had so much significance: it was flashed by Dev at the start, seen blatantly on Rishi’s finger, Dev and Rhea even had it on when they were …! But at the end when Dev proposes – no ring.
-NO THUNDER CLAPS!!!
The few problems:
-Rani had too many tears.
-“I love you Maya” – did it have to echo! Please Karan.
-“I want you to be my best man Maya” says Rishi. Please Karan, if you had replaced the line I would have overlooked even the other two little problems I had.
Concluding thoughts:
Well this aint like Karan’s other films, in that it’s very adult. The subject matter as well as the way it is handled. I’d suggest kids steer clear of this one. But anyway, you can see Karan has matured as film maker. There is less in your face stuff (though its still there in some parts, just like the loud OTT music), but Karan’s “grown-up” stuff comes through. I’m sure it’ll have its takers and haters (like all Karan’s films), but really you cannot deny the films importance and Karan’s brilliant film making. My final note: Never say goodbye to this movie. KANK fanatic for life. 10/10