Karan Johar has a tried and tested formula for success and currently he is riding on a wave of popularity. Let me be very honest and tell you that I enjoy watching his movies when I wish to get entertained because his movies translate to good entertainment almost always.
What works for him :
1. Great Star Cast
Karan Johar does not believe in experimenting when it comes to casting. Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee?.he makes sure that his star cast really shines the brightest. No headache of newcomers for him. Half the job is done if the best actors consent to be a part of his movies.
2. Songs that rock
You can buy the music CD of Karan Johar?s movies without even listening to the first track. His songs are simply magical. They are the biggest hits of the year and are always feature in the ?Most Wanted? in all music channels. Also, they are picturized in a grand and stunning manner.
3. Family entertainers
Don?t expect a ?Jism? or a ?Murder? from Karan Johar. That’s never going to happen. He believes in a story telling format which can be safely watched with your parents sitting next to you. His movies may hint at sensuality sometimes, but no bare-dare scenes or violence-and-blood galore.
4. Story that starts with a low
All his stories star with gloom and depression. Remember Rani?s death scene in KKHH, Preity?s hopelessness reflected in her low voice introducing herself in KHNH and the two grandmothers relating the sob story of the family breaking up to Hrithik in KKKG. That makes the viewers really interested in the story right from the beginning.
5. Happy Flashbacks
After the gloomy introduction, begins a flashback of those happy days ! So from a dark and dingy hospital scene the viewer is suddenly transported to a bright college which resembles a Riverdale school and you can bet the viewer?s interest has gone up a few more notches. Right away your mind starts ticking ?So what happened next ??
6. Friends and lovers
Friendship and love merge and blend dangerously with the general ambience of Valentine?s days, hearts and dates. Marriages and children soon follow with a lot of dancing on songs which go ?Shava shava? or ?Sonia? with fifty extras in the background.
7. Disaster strikes
Disaster strikes in the form of a rigid father banishing the dutiful, obedient son or the mother of an eight year old dying in the hospital. Tears, tears and more tears. Take out your handkerchiefs, sob, sob. Indians are very emotional, you know. So you know ? So does Mr. Karan Johar
8. The Angel theory
Here comes an angel, with his wings on his back, waving a magic wand to banish all gloom, to bring back the smiles, to make flowers bloom again (Am I getting poetic ? Blame Karan Johar). The angel comes in assorted shapes and sizes. As a thirty-nine going on forty SRK, as an eight year old precocious, most irritating brat or as a teary-eyed Hrithik. The shapes and sizes vary but the I-am-going-to-set-things-right look on the face remains the same. Makes me wanna go ?Mera angel kab aayega ?? or something equally inane (Help ! There I go again)
9. More tears follow
Cry, sob, weep, sniff. Whatever. EVERYBODY has to shed tears. Yeah ! Even the angel. In fact, the angel has to cry buckets. Yes, I know that most grown men don?t weep in public. But this is a Karan Johar movie. Sorry. The rules stand
10. And everybody lives happily ever after
After mucho weeping, the saga ends with everybody grinning in the camera, looking like they have been through a holocaust and come out unscathed, thanks to the angel. The angel stands there, with a I-told-you-I-am-going-to-set-things-right look. THE END.
What does not work for him :
Friends are NOT lovers. I repeat, friends are NOT lovers and cannot ever be. I don?t know where this came from but this whole thing is so ridiculous. I have a number of male friends who remain just that ? friends. Crossing this boundary amounts to sacrilege, in my opinion. Yet, Karan Johar, goes on and on. He is literally obsessed with this idea.
I shudder to think that if people start identifying with his characters, then one may not be left with any friends of opposite sex at all. It?s a primitive thinking which almost borders to insulting : that men and women who are friends can change into lovers any time. It makes one look at innocent friendships with suspicion and mistrust. I wish he would toss this thinking out of the window.