Hey friends,
When it comes to Indian movies, I only watch Aamir Khan or Shahrukh Khan movies in the theatres, because these actors guarantee a good movie. Other Indian movies, I will avoid at cinema and wait for DVD. One such movie I watched in the theatre recently was Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna-- Never Say Goodbye.
The maker of this film was troubled by the rising number ofa failed marriages and according to him, there are three kinds of marriages: 1. where the guy and girl love each other and marry (which the director agrees with); 2. where marriages are arranged, some which work well others which fail (something he doesn't understand till today); 3. and finally, a marriage where people marry for money, family, name, or parental pressure, and it is with this kind of marriage does the movie ask the question: what if you married someone, and find out your soulmate is someone else? What do you do?
Dev (SRK) is married to Rhea (Preity Zinta). Maya (Rani) marries Rishi (Abhishek) and she marries him bceause his family took her under their shelter and looked after her when her parents were killed. Just before Maya marries, she meets Dev, and realizes how well she connected with him. Dev asks Maya why she is marrying, and she stumbles upon that question. Why exactly is she marrying Rishi? Is it love? It is because she feels obligated to his family?
4 years later, Maya and Dev bump into each other, and while they remember their first encounter, they are married people now, not to each other but to their spouses. However, Maya's relationship with her husband isnt peachy where he wants sex with her all the time. Dev's marriage is on the rocks, as his over-ambitious wife is the bread winner of the house since Dev has a permanent leg injury rendering him ineffective as an athlete. Their marriages are failed marriages. Hence Maya and Dev become good friends, with the sole purpose of helping each other with their marriages, and in the process realize how much they are actually meant for each other. Their intial friendship turns into a blooming love affair, with extremely disastrous consequences for their respective spouses and marriages. Hence the tagline: a love that broke all relationships.
Dev's wife leaves him. Maya's husband asks her to leave. So the two friends turned lovers leave their marriages, all the while telling each other that they are still with their spouses. Will Dev and Maya ever find out they are single? Will they ever get together? Or will their respective marriages be saved? Will Rhea forgive Dev and take him back, or will she marry her boss? Will Rishi take back his wife, or completely cut her out? The story reaches climax when another 3 years pass with Dev and Maya realizing the truth about each other.
No doubt this movie is an amalgamation of several movies (think Silsilay, Brief Encounter and Closer) but it's an interesting, and a uniquely different one, for an Indian movie. For the first time, the movie keeps it real and no candyfloss romance or running around the trees kind of thing. There are two lessons to be taken out of this movie: 1. marriage should be based on love only and 2. you should not wait to tell anyone you love them, if you want to say it, say it now because no perfect time will come ever for you to say that.
My favorite scene in the movie clearly is when the two couples are having dinner, and Dev confesses ever so seriously to his wife that he is in love with another woman, and everyone is shocked, only for him to say he is joking. So much tension in that scene.
On the technical side, the acting is superb (Amitabh was being over), but Rani stole the show from everyone! She is an awesome actress. The songs were memorable; my favorite one being Mitwa, which I found out later was sung by a Pakistani singer of the Fuzon band. The scenes dealing with the relationships were exectued well. My only concern was the tasteless comedy at some points, but it made sense to have that comedy considering the serious nature of the movie.
All in all, a good night out, and a well made movie.
**** out of *****
Mansur
9 comments:
I HATE SHAH RUKH KHAN! yuks.
But I love renee mukherjee. :D
hey, i went with my habibi to see this movie at the I-MAX (theatre with big giant 2-story screen, i'm sure you have them in dubai). i liked the songs...and well, who doesn't love abhishek bachan? i'm a big shah rukh fan, but ab really made the movie. i loved the scene where he was tearing the whole house apart.
Even my own sister was excited to see Abhishek and she claims the scene where he shouts at Rani is a classic scene, because how many times would you see someone shouting like that to Rani on screen?
Mansur
why is it that noone has commented on how wrong they were? infidelity?? thats never acceptable. for god sakes they slept together!!! while STILL married to each other? thats wrong. I am sorry I think they movie was based on an idiotic idea. it wasnt a love story. it was basically telling us its okay to cheat as long as u "love" the other person. call me self-rightous but cheating is NEVER right. ethically and morally the movie was wrong.
I didnt think the movie was telling us it's ok to sleep with another person while married to your spouse. This movie aims to raise the question of what one can do should they find their soulmate somewhere else out there. Haven't we seen enough failed marriages out there? Why are they failing? Why do we find people marrying for the wrong reasons? In Saudi Arabia itself, 1 in 3 marriages end in divorce. The message the movie was trying to get across was that one should marry for love only and no other reason, and I will agree with that.
The scenario in the movie is a hypothetical one. It's not sending out a message that everyone who is married today go out and look for your soulmate.
Also, the two couple pay a price for their infidelity. They are no longer married. They leave their respective spouses.
SRK FAN!
RM gave a spectacular performance but I think it was a C.R.A.P. movie. Everyone knows how big an impact movies have in reality. The movie blatantly claims that is A-okay to fall in love and be a complete twat to your spouse and cheat on them coz you have supposedly fallen in love.
Yes it’s a reality and I’ll give KJ some slack for dealing with some real issues rather than your typical boy-meets-girl story BUT I think the guilt that people had in them (which they most definitely deserve to take to the grave) has been forsaken now. Now they have a clear conscience – thinking nah it wasn’t that big a deal.
It is a big deal and I don’t think it’s okay to cheat on your spouse no matter what the reason. I dislike the reflection of the movie. IT IS NOT OKAY. Period.
If you really want to watch a good movie I highly recommend Omkara. It is an excellent movie with the entire star cast giving a most spectacular performance.
keep reminding yourself..it's only a movie, it's only a movie. Maybe KJ felt the need to address this issue about marrying for love and not other reason. The scenario he's depicted in this movie is a hypothetical situation. I don't think he is advocating married couples to look for their soulmates elsewhere; I think the bigger idea is that people should marry for the right reasons.
Mansur
truely you should marry for the right reasons (this could have been portrayed in a million other ways) BUT once your married ferfuks sake stay in your pants!
repeat after me - CHEATS ARE SCUM
hypothetically or otherwise
so will you be backing KJ in all the other morbid needs he may encounter!??
Well, I have told myself this is a movie, and this is KJ's brainchild. This is an issue he wants to discuss and bring up, and he certainly has managed to get that going between the people here. I don't take Indian movies seriously, because for most parts they are fantasies. KANK is another fantasy filled movie. Yes, I agree with you, there should be no tolerance for cheating spouses. I would be very upset if I found out that my wife were sleeping around with another man behind my back. However, KANK is a fantasy movie, and I watched it purely for entertainment's sake.
Although, I know Indian movies, like you said, can have a big impact on the masses, and that's where the danger lies. For those with weak senses, can take the message of this movie to heart and try to look for their soul mates while still married. Indian movies are very influential, and can cause certain people to emulate the big screen actors, and when you have SRK on the main screen, guys will want to imitate him, and when they realize they cannot translate that fantasy into reality, they suffer from emotional and psychological reasons.
Ok, I could like write a whole essay on this! LOL!
Mansur
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