Dear Karan,
I am a big fan of your movies. I am sure you have heard this millions of times. I am also sure that you have heard (or read) millions of times how bad your movies are. There is a section of audience who loves your movies and a section who hates them. I belong to the former category and I am writing this letter to show my appreciation of your work.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai released when I was a teenager. I could identify so much with Anjali, Tina and Rahul. I loved this trio, loved Ms. Briganza and loved the goofy principal Mr. Malhotra. For the first time ever I even loved Salman Khan! I swooned over the concept of ‘love is friendship’. I drooled over the colourful clothes. If only Rahul hadn’t worn that ghastly ‘I am Cool’ locket. But the colourful friendship bands made up for it! It was a very mushy movie and I loved it for being so unashamedly mushy. Then came the very disappointing Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. I appreciated your intention but couldn’t help feeling that you were manipulating your audience’s emotions. But the dishy Hrithik Roshan (my crush at that time) made up for the bad movie somewhat.
And then you came with my all time favourite Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna! It had all the honesty that was missing in K3G. It had great characters, more importantly real characters and it had depth. There was so much you said in KANK and so much you deliberately left unsaid. Sadly it was the unsaid part that a large section of the audience didn’t understand. Didn’t understand that Shahrukh and Rani’s characters were incomplete people, full of complexes and that they were jealous of their respective spouses for being the wholesome people they were. Didn’t understand the strength of Preity and Abhishek’s characters – both working hard to make their loveless marriages work. Rani and Shahrukh got together seemingly to make their marriages work but clearly their heart was never in it. I loved the scene where Amitabh and Kiron Kher caught Rani and Shahrukh together. I loved the silences that followed back home – Kiron’s silence was accusing while Amitabh’s eyes showed disappointment of a father more than accusation of a father-in-law. And I absolutely adored the ending where Shahrukh and Rani walk away into the sunset hand in hand – because they did so as social outcasts. Both lost the love and respect of their families and they have no one but each other now. Thanks Karan for not sugar coating the bitter truth that extra marital affairs happen and they break families. Thanks for showing how Preity and Abhishek carried themselves with dignity after being ‘left’ by their spouses. Thanks for showing the consequences of crossing moral lines (Shahrukh’s mother prefers to life with his ex-wife and his son isn’t bothered that he is leaving the country). KANK may have been panned by critics but please don’t forget that it is one of the top grossers ever, specially overseas. That means a big section of audiences loved it, loved your take on present day relationships.
Your latest, My Name is Khan, is a beautiful film. Flawed yes but beautiful. What works for MNIK is your sincerity (and of course Shahrukh’s performance takes it to another level). MNIK is different from your usual style and that’s both a good and bad thing. Bad because you seem to have taken all the criticism your earlier movies received to heart and want to prove that you can make ‘different’ movies too. With MNIK, it is clear that you are trying very hard to prove your detractors wrong. While there is nothing wrong in proving your detractors wrong, please don’t forget that you have admirers too. Their number may seem small because a lot of them don’t say openly that they like your movies for the fear of being ridiculed. But the box office collections of all your movies tell their own story.
I hope that MNIK is a big hit and you get the satisfaction of being called a ‘respected’ and ‘serious’ film maker – and then you go back to making movies that your fans want from you. Let the intelligentsia call them candyfloss or popcorn or whatever – there is a huge audience who likes your candyfloss movies. The same audience who has made all your movies blockbusters. Please don’t forget them to make a few critics happy. Be proud of your kind of cinema and give us more of it. Your fans are waiting.
Love,
Shalu
