Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna – The Film : My Thoughts

The bad press that ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ ( KANK) got from Day 1 was the reason I preferred to give it a miss.  Nothing, not even Abhishek Bachchan as part of the cast, could change my decision.

Then I happened to read this wonderful review by fellow-Caferatian Vandana Vasudevan, and I couldn’t wait to see it!!

I walked into the movie with Vandana’s eight reasons, and from the first scene itself, I became part of the lives of

Dev (I-am-going-to-rain-on-everyone’s-parade)
and
Rhea (I-refuse-to-be-apologetic-for-being-happy-and-successful) Saran.

Maya (I-don’t-know-what-I-want-but-crave-for-it-anyways)
and
Rishi (what-is-this-woman ’s-problem) Talwar.

I am clueless about why people complained that the characters were half-baked or not fleshed out enough.

Preity Zinta is Rhea Saran. A confident, successful magazine editor married to a bitter, cynical football coach, Dev. She is a strong woman who understands that she is the one who has to bring in the bread, butter, and caviar to the table after her husband’s accident.  At the same time not make him realize it. She goes about doing just that and at the same time tries her best to keep her marriage alive in her subtle way.

Shah Rukh Khan is Dev Saran. A major league football player who had just signed a 5 million dollar contract when a freak accident smashed his knee, his dreams, and his self-esteem to smithereens. Just like his knee, he too never recovered fully from this incident/accident. Dev is a ruthless, cynical, and bitter person whose ego rules him. When a person doesn’t have anything else going for him, his ego takes over, and this is also the case here. He resents every person he comes across because he resents himself the most. That attitude seeps into all areas of his life, whether it is his relationship with his wife and child or with strangers.

Rani Mukherji plays Maya Talwar. A repressed, confused, dissatisfied nursery teacher who doesn’t know how to handle life’s bounties and finds ways to be miserable. She marries Abhishek as an obligation, as she states at the very start, because Abhishek and his Dad (Amitabh Bachchan) took her in and brought her up since she was a kid. Besides being obliged, she isn’t strong enough to say “No” to the marriage and goes ahead with it despite all her misgivings, and is fully aware of the fact that she doesn’t, nor ever will, love Abhishek.

Abhishek Bachchan plays Rishi Talwar, a successful, easy-going event manager who loves his wife to bits and does everything he can to make her happy, including bringing her flowers, paying her compliments, clowning around, and indulging her Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, among other things. He shares a great relationship with his flirtatious, fun-loving father, Samarjit Talwar (Amitabh Bachchan has outdone himself) or “Sexy Sam” as he is known.

No amount of effort put in by their better halves (literally speaking) is enough to make the marriages of Maya and Dev work.  Till fate, presumably quite tired of the gloom of the former and rants of the latter, decides to introduce one to the other.
Misery loves company, and both these despondent people get together to find a solution to make their respective marriages work, but find solace in each other’s company instead. They blossom in the attention showered on them by the other, and between sharing endless cups of coffee and infinite advice and solutions on how to get closer to their respective spouses, they realize that they are closer to each other instead.

Their spouses, Rishi and Rhea, completely oblivious to this entire backstage drama, are pleasantly surprised by the change and view it as a positive turn of events. Please watch the movie to see what happens next.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna features a mature script and direction by Karan Johar. The sensitive dialogues, written by Niranjan Iyer, left me misty-eyed and with a lump in my throat at many places.
This movie has loads of class and common sense, and I fail to understand what people see ‘wrong’ in what the movie had to convey.

The story, as I saw it, was about four different characters and two marriages. Extramarital affairs happen all the time and all around us. It takes one person to mess up a marriage but BOTH the spouses to put it right. Share on X No matter what goes wrong in a marriage or who caused it; the effort to put it right has to be from BOTH sides, which wasn’t happening in either of these marriages.

Each of the characters brought what they had into the marriage. So, Rhea and Rishi brought loyalty, commitment, and the positives, as well as thought of solutions and ways to make their marriages work. Dev and Maya, on the other hand, concentrated on finding nonexistent negatives and ways to evade their spouses’ marital responsibilities.

When Dev said that ‘Love is what makes a marriage work,’ he was right. Love comprises many things put together, such as respect, loyalty, commitment, honesty, trust, and caring, to name a few. And when you ‘love’ your spouse and your marriage enough, you pull all the stops and put everything you have into it to make it work, as Rhea and Rishi did.

But when there is no ‘Love’ for your spouse or marriage, like in Maya and Dev’s case, then nothing can make it work.  Not even well-meaning spouses who want it to.
Maya and Dev were two very disgruntled people who didn’t know what they wanted from life. The only thing they had in common was a bad marriage.

I loved the movie and the layers that each character came wrapped in.

Sexy Sam’s over-the-top, bawdy behavior, behind which a sharp eye detects his daughter-in-law has fallen out of love with his son before anyone can.

Preity Zinta’s loyalty and deep love for her undeserving husband, which you realize only at the end, when the sophisticated sparring of words takes place between her and Rani.

Kirron Kher plays a refreshingly different, not only from reel but real life too, mother-in-law who supports and stands by her daughter-in-law and accepts that her son has erred.

Abhishek’s strength of character and his adoration for Rani that is revealed subtly in so many places (when he bandages her foot, when he tells her ‘she is finding ways to get out of the marriage while he is finding ways to stay in it’)

And, most of all, King Khan. This role must have been the only one where no acting was required *wicked smile* the frustration, the envy, the insecurity, each emotion played out effortlessly.

Movies are not made to change your lives; they are made to change your mood, and Karan Johar does a great job of it each time. Irrespective of which continent, class, or crowd he makes his movies for, I enjoy the 3 hours of opulence, grandeur, and fantastic color combinations in each of his films.

For me, movies are just a source of entertainment, and Karan Johar never fails to deliver his side of the bargain.

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