Customer Reviews

Cinema Indian | Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an emotionally gripping and controversial film about two married people who fall in love with each other. I know it has attracted a lot of criticism because of that but it's quality will outlast the controversy. Fantastic acting, beautiful sets, a dialogue that crackles with tension and sensational music (it doesn't get any better than 'Rock and Roll Soniye')will make this movie a classic. The dinner table confrontation between SRK and Amitabh Bachchan was worth the entrance fee alone. My asian girlfriend loved the first part but hated the ending - you'll have to make your own mind up about it - but don't let others make it up before you've even seen it!

Karan's name equates with quality and the director and polished script writer has an attention to detail and KANK is another testimony of his ability to grasp human relationships. What makes relationship work/break but at the same time the fine line between friendship and more than friends between the opposite sexes! KANK is a movie which combines a lot of emotion and looks at the bonding of mariage which is supposed to be a holy institution but then people change and when like the weather after the storm there is the sun which pops out. KANK is just like that - detailing the relationship of 2 mariages which are hitting the rocks blended by some memorable tunes, MITWA! This movie deserves to be seen and one does not see how it lasts just above 3 hours!

Very slow moving it took about 2 hours of patiently watching this movie before it started heading anywhere. A couple of nice songs and picked up towards the end but not as good as my asian friend recommended.

This film takes some challenging issues (for Bollywood) and gives them the sumptuous Karan Johar treatment. It follows two flawed (ie wounded) people on their journey to healing and redemption. The setting is not classic Bollywood, dealing as it does with the angst and preoccupations of contemporary, affluent young people in a modern New York setting, more Hollywood in flavour (although being Bollywood there IS melodrama and of course fabulous music numbers!). Once I got over that and realised that it was not going to deliver the classic Bollywood wish fulfilment within the traditional social framework of `punishment' for the transgressors and 'happy ever after' for the morally upright, I was able to enjoy it in its own right.

I know a lot of people have got hung up on the infidelity, but for me the film was about different kinds of love, trying to be authentic in how that love is expressed, and how the pain of unhealed wounds prevents people from being true to themselves. The two leads have each made an error in choosing to marry for 'the wrong type of love'. Dev (SRK) & Rhea (Preity) were essentially college sweethearts, each with their own driven ambitions. From their opening conversation, it is clear that it is a childish, fun-times type of love and they should have remained as old college buddies. Thus, when tragedy strikes at the height of Dev's career, there is not enough in the relationship to sustain him and support his healing.

Maya (Rani) has more of a sibling type of love for Rishi (Abishek), since Rishi's father, Sam(Amitabh) raised them both. She also has wounds (orphaned herself and unable to have children) which together with gratitude and perhaps loneliness have led her to marry but again her wounds are not being healed within her marriage either.

The initial mistake of marrying these partners put fault lines through the foundations of their respective marriages, which over time have become cracks. The more Dev and Maya try to 'conform' and pretend, in order to patch up these cracks the more their pain intensifies and these cracks grow into ever widening chasms. The big difference when they meet each other is that from the very beginning, even before their emotions are involved, their interaction is honest. They can be themselves, making an authentic, intimate connection and thus, at last, their healing begins. This process is brought out further in the deleted scenes, explicitly exploring Maya's obsessive compulsive cleanliness issues for example.

Interestingly, when things finally come to a head, the 'authentic' characters, Rishi and Rhea, have an honest reaction, end their marriages, heal and move on most quickly. Maya and Dev have a final lesson to learn and are, at this critical juncture not able to be honest with each other, both pretending to have patched up their marriages and THIS is the reason why they suffer a further 3 years in the wilderness, not because they have been `unfaithful'. I think Karan Johar is trying to say the real act of unfaithfulness is in marrying and tying up another person to you when you know in your heart of hearts that you can not give them real authentic love from the heart and soul. It is obvious that Amitabh's character totally 'gets' this and whilst his behaviour is supposedly scandalous, he never wavers in his honesty and the joie de vivre that this has liberated.

This is a bold message for a Bollywood movie, but since divorce is on the rise and arranged marriages are being increasingly supplanted by love marriages among the movie-going audience, the classic Bollywood themes of Duty and Honour need to also make room for dialogue about emotional maturity and authenticity in choosing your life-partner. For this alone, I applaud this film. When this is put together with all the Karan Johar hallmarks -superb cinematography, lavish production and costume design, exquisite music, beautiful A-list cast, genuine comedy and deep emotion it earns every one of its 5 stars.

This HIndi Film comes with english subtitles and concerns two couples living in USA who are married to the wrong people and how they divorce and re-marry or continue life. The productions standards are high as are the quality of the songs with Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji acting to their usual high standards and careful nuances of emotions as we watch their voyage towards happiness interrupted by rocks on their path ably supported by other titans of India cinema

Good movie, great actors.
Abhishek Bachchan is perfect in dramatic scenes.
Amithab Bachchan doesn't need to speak: his gaze tell everything much better than words.
Bel film con ottimi attori.
Abhishek Bachchan è così realistico nelle scene drammatiche e suo padre, Amithab Bachchan, riesce con un solo sguardo a trasmettere molto più di quanto possono fare le parole.

I loved it...saw it when it first came out, and absolutely loved it.
I know that's not much help as a review, but i thought Abishek was incredible, the emotional scenes were handled well and with dignity, the love scenes were everything a love scene should be, and some of the comedy was cheesy almost but they really pulled it off....
certainly one of my all-time favourites

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna [DVD]

this one was an eye opener, i got it as part of a dvd set with 6 sharukh khan films, and loved it ,i have seen a few Bfilms maybe 30 tops and had settled into thinking and accepting the no kiss, hardly touching policy,so this one was venturing on new territories but takes nothing away from this beautiful love story,very realistic sometimes the end of a relationship can be the beginning of somtg new and better...

One of my very favorite Bollywood films. The story is great, although quite sad in parts. Acting super and has everything you would expect from a Bollywood film, good looking people, smile enducing dance routine, amusing and entertaining. Over 3 hours so also terrific value. Totally hooked me on Bollywood films after seeing this.

I saw this film on a flight to New York, and I totally loved it.

For a start, I really enjoyed that the film was set entirely in New York City, it breathed new life into a city that I love so well for me.

I also found it heart-wrenching and funny all at once. Although I have to say if it were me having to choose between Shah Rukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, Abhishek would win every time!

I thought it was particularly daring with some of the scenes (I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the film, but those who do probably know exactly which scene I am referring to), although, as with all Bollywood films, there was no kissing on the mouth or gratuitous nudity. It just goes to show, in an era where Hollywood is churning out all kinds of porno-dross that you don't need to it convey real love and sexual tension- the chemistry between Khan and Mukherjee was very intense.

The only reason that I gave it 4 stars and not 5 is that I felt the ending was too Hollywood for me- I would have preferred it if they have kept the two apart, a more bittersweet ending. But maybe I am alone in that, and it is not an enormous gripe for me. Definitely one people should watch!