Dec 09, 2003 10:17 AM
2308 Views
(Updated Dec 09, 2003 10:17 AM)
There are imperfections in life... KHNH is a reflection of the beautiful ones... As was expected, the movie follows the tried-n-tested-n-now-perfected Yash Chopra genre of film making... the world - the happiness as well as sorrow - seen through coloured glasses... But it is just that... The film has a style of its own & one word to sum it up would be ''smart''...
KHNH begins with walking you through the ugly times an Indian family in New York is undergoing... Life has been unkind to the family & none in the household is able to reconcile with their today... Seasons change as a stranger enters their lives... Yes, the formula may be predictable but the treatment is mint-fresh, the script & dialogue, sprinkled with bon mots, being the highlight of the movie...
Full marks to the team of Karan Johar, Niranjan Iyengar & Nikhil Advani for weaving a flawless script which at one point has you in splits & in another terse & bereaved... But the fun never stops, not even at the most melancholic of moments... Their characters are well-etched, there is a purpose as to why each character behaves the way he/she does... Infact, every event in the story has a relevance which unfolds as the tale moves...
The mother-in-law & bahu altercations actually seems to disturb you... The despondency in the house bothers you... Shahrukh's entry in the story brings out this contrast really well... The way he mingles around with the household makes you smile... His charm is infectious & you end up laughing real hard in many scenes... The comedy in the movie is crisp & most of it is handled in a refreshingly light-hearted manner... Even if you can take your guess as to what will happen next, the treatment of it all is worthy...
Jaya Bachchan's Jennifer is unlike any character seen before... A kind of role she hasn't essayed before but a role none could have done better than her... Unlike her earlier roles, where she plays a restrained character, KHNH shows her as a daughter-in-law whose patience has been tested & who will not tolerate the words of her mother-in-law... In the movie, she is ready to charge back... Yet at the same time, she is a loving mother trying hard to make up the loss of her husband... A stupendous performance by the ever spontaneous Jaya ji!!!
Preity is endearing throughout the movie, even as the bespectacled boring girl, she reaches out to you... She looks amazing & carries her role with elan... Saif in an extension of his DCH role, pulls an act equally charming act...
The music is dulcet - sweet & easy on the ears... Immensely danceable & hummable numbers... Writing anything more would be cliche...
People have been quick to label KHNH as a remake of the classic Anand... But makes me wonder if was Hrishi Da's another gem Bawarchi also called a rehash of Anand then??? To me, Shahrukh's Aman is closer to the Rajesh Khanna of Bawarchi... In that regard, most of the movies we see are a mish-mash of hundred other movies... We have been making movies for so long that everything under the sun (which can be covered) has been turned into a celluloid presentation... So it would be unfair to charge a film with being inspired if all it shares is a broad theme with another...
The whole look of the film has been designed keeping in mind the large Indian diaspora... Since a major chunk of NRIs happen to be Gujaratis & Punjabis, care has been taken to give a liberal dose of the two cultures in the movie... I don't mind that... I also don't mind a few scenes of glycerine, after all life is all about kabhi khushi kabhie gham...
