| Subject: Review of "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" |
Author:
Ramnik Shah
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Date Posted: Sat, December 30 2006, 17:37:08-4
And finally, here is my review of `Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna"
posted on the Africana-Orientalia List a few months ago, which I have modified and extended slightly. With best wishes to everyone for a Happy New Year!
`Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna` (or `Never Say Goodbye`)
This is a Bollywood blockbuster indeed, but with a big difference. It is not set in India (and conspicuously eshews any coverage of it) but rather in New York, and is about the lives of Indian diasporans there (and by implication elsewhere in the West). So it is a puzzle as to why the film was not made in English, with the bilingual actors using their own authentic voices for an additional Hindi version as well, considering that a lot of the dialogue in whole or part is in English, which reflects the true life-style of the characters it portrays.
Be that as it may, the readily decipherable English subtitles (which also appear when English is spoken!) do make it easy to follow the movie (more so if one has a smattering of the lingo), which however is long, too long at 3 hrs and 13 mins! The first hour or so is a veritable hotchpotch of the traditional Bollywood-style extravaganza of carefully choreographed dance, colourful costumes and loud music (some of which is quite jazzy and energizing) with scenes of surreal shenanigans and brash bafoonery thrown in - enjoyable no doubt to the mass loyal followers of Hindi cinema, but embarrassing for the critical viewer because of its lack of intellectual subtlety and nuance. This is no art movie; it is a commercial production for a vast global market that now spans across from South Asia to the Middle East and Africa and to Europe and North America in the West and Australasia in the Far East.
But what is so especially novel about the film, so we are told, is that it deals with a taboo subject: of adultery and sexuality, in a very explicit way, which goes against the grain of the standard Indian movie fare. That may be a revolutionary departure from the norms of Indian society but in the the wider world outside (in Britain, North America and Australasia and increasingly now, apparently, in East Africa as well) it is just another facet of the new social realism that affects the lives of second, third and fourth generation sub-continental diasporans. Even so, the movie-makers are to be congratulated for daring to tackle a sensitive issue in a way that would not be offensive to their mutli-million mass home audiences. For them this is truly a `Bollywood blockbuster` because it stars a galaxy of their heart-throbs: Amitabh Bhachan, Sharukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bhachan et all, with all accompanying gimmickry designed to appeal to and entertain them.
The plot, shorn of its hype and many pointless highways and byways, can be reduced to a simple scenario: of how two mis-matched couples struggling to cope with their unhappy marriages and moral dilemmas born of a cultural inheritance that inhibits their freedom of action and even expression of sentiment, come to terms with their inner emotional and personal conflicts. This broad theme is explored against the background of the daily hassle and struggles of living and working in the world`s greatest metropolis, though the city portrayed in this movie is not the New York of `Manhattan` or `Marathon Man`. The skyline backdrop seems to bit stilted, while the moving scenes are competently done but lack a dynamic edge.
The real life father-son (Amitabh and Abhishek Bhachan) also play the same character roles in the story as Sam and Rishi respectively. Their celluloid affection for each other (greetings of "Hey, dude" as well as genuine and feigned exclamations of exasperation that often pass between parents and grown up children) may or may not be mirrored in actuality, but in the movie it strikes a poignant note. The older Bhachan`s sexual antics come across at first as those of an ageing playboy bent on making up for earlier missed opportunities but later these give way to a paternalist concern for the welfare of his son and more especially of his daughter-in-law and protege` Maya (Rani Mukherjee) even though she is cold and unfeeling towards her husband, and in fact he advises her to get out of an unloving marriage rather than endure it. There are of course lots of twists and turns to the story, with the other couple (Rhea - played by Preity Zinta - and her good-for-nothing hubby Dev) weaving in and out of focus as Dev and Maya get drawn ever closer to each other through a succession of romantic trysts.
After all the early silliness, it is when the film moves on to the plateau of relationships that it begins to hold our serious attention. When confidences are exchanged and there is a corresponding build-up of empathy and understanding all round, we do feel drawn to the characters, with the one exception of Dev, played by Sharukh Khan - a cantankerous and truly obnoxious figure masquerading as an Al Pacino verisimilitude - his speech full of `shit`, his manners equally crude (his gruff demeanour is perhaps modelled on `A Scent of a Woman` or `Dog Day Afternoon`!) except that he doesn`t quite pull it off ! If his foul-mouthed temper was the result of a sporting injury that finished off his career as a rising football star, and if his damaged psyche dictates all his actions, then that does not sit well with the notion of spiritual redemption through love. His domestic relations with his wife (a smart business executive) and mother-in-law are never fully explored, but it is his cruelty to their only son that is so shocking that not even the rather limp attempt to bring about a soft reckoning between them at the end mitigates the sheer horror of his total unsuitability and indifference as a parent.
The absence of chemistry between the married partners of each couple leads to their inevitable rupture but the tantalising expectation of a cross- affair between Rishi and Rhea never materializes beyond some chaste exchanges, while on the other hand we are allowed to witness the one and only sexual encounter in a hotel room that is the denouement of the movie (a la `Madame Bovary`), albeit rather suggestively than in sequenced detail, as the fulfilment of their illicit desire by Dev and Maya. There are all kinds of peripheral goings on and other loose ends all of which have to be tied up somehow, which is done either hurriedly or half-heartedly - hall marks of a long story that is short on direction! Perhaps that is unfair to the director, Karan Johar, who has created his own unique genre of films with the `K` syntax, as in "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai", "Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham", "Kal Ho Naa Ho" etc. He has certainly made a concerted effort to move away from the conventional storyline of Hindi movies with the bigger diasporan potential in mind.
But despite some of these flaws, there is a kind of symmetry in the finale: relationships do fall into place, the characters do get their just deserts, and above all the message is conveyed: that just as Indian diasporans are coming to terms with modernity in the West (at least as far as adultery and divorce are concerned, though sex without commitment may be a step too far!), so Indians back at home (the `desi` types) who hitherto have largely been the voyeurs of alien occidental lifestyles too are becoming more adept at adapting and handling them in the context of their own rising middle-class aspirations and affluence. All this is already evident from the daily soap opera features of domestic Indian tv screens, which so many diasporans watch assiduously on their cable networks. All said and done, the movie is an experience not to be missed.
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