Mehra, who have this adolescent
thing of discovering anew old things. Mehra sought to show Rang De Basanti
about violent, radical solution to political villainy as though it were a
revolutionary trend, while every B-grade film made in Telugu and Tamil shows
politicians, including chief ministers, being gunned down by vigilante
heroes. Kohli does a retro-romance in Fanna, and he seems to believe that
he has given romance a new twist. Karan Johar, more seasoned than both Mehra
and Kohli, and who is a real insider of Mumbai's Hindi film industry,
entertains illusions of his own originality. Enter Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna
(KANK), the take on a marriage breaking up, and the partners walking off in
a timid escapist manner.
But what seems to have tickled the pseudo-intellectual bone of the
chattering classes in the listless metros, and who are gathered with such
care and love by the television news channels for their superbly inane chat
shows on matters of deadly social importance, KANK seemed to have provided
the ultimate high. Is it right to walk out of a marriage, they asked and
gasped.
Their eyes and voices showed that that is something they would love
to do but would not do because of social and economic reasons. The desire to
be unfaithful is tantalisingly near, but it is never the reality. So, they
talk on endlessly about the movie. It seems that it is more interesting to
discuss the social ramifications of KANK than to talk about it as a film. It
is a perfect social pretext.
Karan Johar is basking in the sunny and free publicity that he is getting on
TV news channels. No one can blame him for not complaining about the
intrusive TV reporters and anchors.
But what about the movie? Not many are keen to talk about it, and expectedly
so. The film's screenplay turns out to be a read, and Johar, with some help
from choreographer Farah Khan, is forced to churn out all those song
sequences, which are mostly space-fillers. Farah chose to rewind the old
American music-hall performances and lyricist Javed Akhtar chipped in with
generous use of English sentences and phrases in the songs. Come to think of
it, about 25 per cent of the dialogue in the film is in English.
And if you
look at the credits of the actors, there is an abundance of American junior
artistes. And like Kal Ho Na Ho, the entire movie is shot in the US. There
is much of New York, including its metro station. You can be forgiven for
thinking that this is a Hollywood production made in Hindi. And KANK seems
to remind you of many of those mushy, pointless Hollywood family romances,
starring Kevin Costner, Keanu Reeves, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts et al.
These are the inessential aspects of KANK. But we are forced to talk about
them because there is nothing to hold the movie. But an attempt should be
made. Dev Saran (Shah Rukh Khan), a bohemian sports teacher, is married to a
career-minded, successful Rhea Saran (Preity Zinta). And there is Maya (Rani
Mukherjee), a primary school teacher who is prissy and who cannot bear
children, married to Rishi Talwar (Abhishek Bachchan), because Maya has been
brought by Rishi's father, Samarjeet Singh Talwar, also known as Sam
(Amitabh Bachchan).
The two disgruntled, unhappy teachers are drawn to each
other, while the two successful entrepreneurs, Rishi and Rhea, do not fall
in love with each other in spite of crossing each other constantly,
especially because of their unhappy partners. Johar must have thought that
if he were to allow Rishi and Rhea to fall in love, then it would amount to
swapping of partners. That would take away from the authentic emotional
complexity that Johar wants to probe through his film.
It could have been an intensely powerful drama fought in the private spaces
of the two marriages. But that is not the Karan Johar way. He, along with
Mehra and Kohli, expresses his love and admiration for old Hindi films, and
their virtues. So, he wants to make a popular film, but wants to insert his
bold theme of marital infidelity into it. So, he shows the awkward scene of
Dev and Maya checking into a hotel room where they abandon themselves to
each other. But that was the easier part.
He fails to show the important and
inevitable hangover. They are not really torn between the bliss of passion
and the searing guilt of being disloyal. There is no dramatic conflict
because the marriages are dead anyway. Rishi and Rhea push Dev and Maya
together in a gesture of generosity which comes so easily to successful
people-of-the-world. The unsuccessful lovebirds are happy to be together.
The issue is not infidelity but finding true love. It is a romance done in a
backhanded fashion. It is one of the quirks of the brat-frat. They get a
kick out of playing the game a little differently. KANK, like Fanna and Rang De
Basanti is self-indulgent. No one can quarrel with that. They got the money
to make those movies. But the audiences need not fret about the meanings of
these movies. The meanings are not there. These are insubstantial movies in
terms of storytelling and filmmaking.
Does KANK reflect the new middle class mores of marriage? That is the
metaphysical question that philosopher-anchors on television channels are
throwing up at the audiences. These anchors are so out of sync with the
world around them especially their own middle class world. The young people
of the early 21st century are trendy conservatives.
Infidelity does not interestthem even as a topic of discussion over tea, fizz and liquor. There are more
important things to discuss: school admissions, the business plan for the
next venture, the summer cruise in Alaska. They do not like to waste time on
issues that have no place in their imagination. Today's middle classes are
wonderfully normal. There are no Byrons and Shelleys raging in their hearts,
fighting heroically against manacles of marriage and family.
Karan Johar knows it only too well. But he is faking this emotional trauma
because he thinks it is cool to do so. Yes. Faking is the cool thing. That
is why it would be inauthentic to look for real meanings, deeper feelings,
the anguish and ecstasy of love between a man and woman. There is neither
romanticism nor classical severity in the telling of the story of Dev and
Maya. They are the feckless, suburban couple of a sprawling American
continent, and they are lost in the crowd.
The movie lacks the poignancy of
David Lean's 1945 film, Brief Encounter. Karan Johar's KANK is more like
the 1984 Robert de Niro-Meryl Streep's damp romantic squib, Falling in
Love. It is quite likely that young Johar has seen Falling in Love and
not Brief Encounter. Forgive, because the brat-frat knows no better. It has
to grow up sufficiently to make adult movies.
