Despite an unprecedented media hype, Karan Johar’s KANK remains a largely underwhelming experience. It’s overlong and plodding but the core problem is the two key players, Dev (SRK) and Maya (Rani) and their extra-marital relationship, which is neither convincing nor moving enough to make a connect with the viewers.
Karan does make some calculated departures. He looks at infidelity in a non-judgemental way, doesn’t take any moral stand on the issue and doesn’t resort to the usual sindoor and mangalsutra tripe. But, like his earlier films, infidelity too gets grounded in the familiar friendship versus love debate. Should you marry someone just because you have fallen in friendship than in love? What should you do when true love comes after marriage? And so you have Dev and Maya, both rude, bad-tempered, whiny, grouchy, self-pitying people. That’s ok; losers too have a right to fall in forbidden love. But then what is it that draws them so inexorably together; where is the incredible pull? Do you walk out of a marriage because of a bad mood day, do you fall in love with another person because he is as much of a sourpuss as you are? And when in love, don’t you grow and change? Dev and Maya stay stiff and stuffy, more affected than affecting.
The star acts are uniquely colourless too. Rani with her designer tears looks like a bland mannequin and SRK is well SRK, only less charming, more grating. Take his grand entry. As he lifts that T-shirt to reveal his dimpled face and stretches his arms (which remain eternally stretched in Mitwa), it doesn’t create magic, only orders you: "Look at me, I’m a star".
Karan claims KANK came to him from Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset. But there you could feel the bonding between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy even through their everyday conversations on Paris streets. You could feel that passionate spark between Amitabh and Rekha in Silsila, you could see the dilemmas on the tender face of Leela Naidu when her old love returns in Anuradha. Clandestine love has to be made of sterner stuff than KANK.
High Fivese
Bollywood
1. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
2. Omkara
3. Anthony Kaun Hai?
4. Golmaal: Fun Unlimited
5. Krrish
Hollywood
1. Talladega Nights
2. Step Up
3. World Trade Center
4. Barnyard
5. Pulse
R&B and Soul
1. Bright Idea (Orson)
2. A Girl Like Me (Rihanna)
3. Corinne Bailey Rae (Corinne Bailey)
4. The Definitive Ray Charles (Ray Charles)
5. Urban Weekend (Various Artists)
Courtesy: Film Information
