Dear Karan,
When one goes for your movie, by now he knows what to expect. There are emotions and more emotions coming his way, vibrant and colourful songs with skimpy clad foreign models good songs though, especially the title track and the final tsunami of emotion to leave the handkerchief without a square dry inch. Those have been your success mantra till date, but please Karan, give us a break from your regular bandwagon at public expense.
Here's a story of Dev (Shah Rukh) and Maya (Rani Mukherjee). The movie starts out with these two strangers meeting on a bench where the would-be bride Maya is biding her time before tying the knot with childhood pal Rishi (Abhishek). Follows next is a dialogue where Dev raises a question: 'What if a person fell in love after marriage?' After uttering this portent line around which the movie revolves, our promising footballer, married to an ambitious Rhea (Preiti Zinta) is still on the high of getting his team to the next round on a penalty kick and being offered a $5 million contract, till he meets with an accident outside the bride's house. Sure comes across as a promising start. But the rest simply leaves an unfinished taste in the mouth.
The plot thickens as we cut across to the scenario after 4 years Dev, the frustrated husband with a permanent limp living off his wife's earnings due to his accident injury; Maya a cold turkey in a marriage with Rishi that has borne neither kids nor mental and emotional satisfaction at her end.
So when Dev and Maya meet again, an extra marital affair is on the cards with Amitabh Bachchan as playboy Sam dropping in between scenes to add a shot of adrenaline to dull proceedings and remind the audience of his presence in the script as Dad for Rishi and foster Dad for Maya.
The movie drags on then for its entire runtime of close to three and half hours. However on the positive side the movie showcases: 1)The director's courage to deal with a theme on an extra marital affair for a traditional mindset back home. 2)Good performances by Amitabh, Rani, Preity, Kiron Kher (playing Mom for Dev), and Abhishek who thrives in his role of a faithful and caring husband. He sure has earned his award for 'Best Supporting Actor.' Purely for the performances extracted, this movie gets a 6 out of 10 from me. 3)Handling with flair the emotive moments. 4)Catchy musical numbers especially the title track that should make for good listening while driving down in your car.
Alas, the negatives outweigh the positives, them namely being:
1)A plot that tastes like gum after losing its flavour in the first 20 minutes but one is forced to chew on it for the next 3 hours. 2)Shahrukh who is the main actor but gets on the viewers nerve with an extra effort at his end which an actor of his talent does not require. 3)We could do without your clichés: including your lucky mascot Kajol for a 10 sec cameo. That has become quite commonplace. Now you add insult to injury by giving a cameo to John Abraham and Arjun Rampal. -Getting Amitabh again to lie down on the hospital bed in a critical condition; -Making Abhishek wear the famous lapel coat worn by his dad Amitabh for the movie Silsila and trying to titillate an educated movie audience of the 80s. -Your camera focus which should start showing something else besides Rani's eyes, Preiti's dimples and exhibiting your preference for mini skirts, chiffon saris and miniscule cholis. 4)Please Karan Give us a break! Why do you have to include these phirang models dressed to the bare minimum in all your dance and party songs? We Indians are not that starved after the adequate doses you and your ilk have fed us over the past. 5)How hypocritical to portray Amitabh as a flamboyant playboy and then have him deliver a speech on the virtues of a good marriage and his love for his expired wife. 6)Making a movie that caters more for an urban educated class that visits the multiplexes but would leave the masses at towns and villages with a movie that is hard to identify with.
Well Karan, perhaps you are under the impression that you can use all your usual ingredients and come up with a winner. You sure do deserve credit for coming up once again with a theme that is different for Indian cinema since you talk of falling in love after marriage.
But why give it a 'Tea Break Treatment' while shooting for 'Koffee with Karan.'
Yours faithfully, A Disappointed Fan.
When one goes for your movie, by now he knows what to expect. There are emotions and more emotions coming his way, vibrant and colourful songs with skimpy clad foreign models good songs though, especially the title track and the final tsunami of emotion to leave the handkerchief without a square dry inch. Those have been your success mantra till date, but please Karan, give us a break from your regular bandwagon at public expense.
Here's a story of Dev (Shah Rukh) and Maya (Rani Mukherjee). The movie starts out with these two strangers meeting on a bench where the would-be bride Maya is biding her time before tying the knot with childhood pal Rishi (Abhishek). Follows next is a dialogue where Dev raises a question: 'What if a person fell in love after marriage?' After uttering this portent line around which the movie revolves, our promising footballer, married to an ambitious Rhea (Preiti Zinta) is still on the high of getting his team to the next round on a penalty kick and being offered a $5 million contract, till he meets with an accident outside the bride's house. Sure comes across as a promising start. But the rest simply leaves an unfinished taste in the mouth.
The plot thickens as we cut across to the scenario after 4 years Dev, the frustrated husband with a permanent limp living off his wife's earnings due to his accident injury; Maya a cold turkey in a marriage with Rishi that has borne neither kids nor mental and emotional satisfaction at her end.
So when Dev and Maya meet again, an extra marital affair is on the cards with Amitabh Bachchan as playboy Sam dropping in between scenes to add a shot of adrenaline to dull proceedings and remind the audience of his presence in the script as Dad for Rishi and foster Dad for Maya.
The movie drags on then for its entire runtime of close to three and half hours. However on the positive side the movie showcases: 1)The director's courage to deal with a theme on an extra marital affair for a traditional mindset back home. 2)Good performances by Amitabh, Rani, Preity, Kiron Kher (playing Mom for Dev), and Abhishek who thrives in his role of a faithful and caring husband. He sure has earned his award for 'Best Supporting Actor.' Purely for the performances extracted, this movie gets a 6 out of 10 from me. 3)Handling with flair the emotive moments. 4)Catchy musical numbers especially the title track that should make for good listening while driving down in your car.
Alas, the negatives outweigh the positives, them namely being:
1)A plot that tastes like gum after losing its flavour in the first 20 minutes but one is forced to chew on it for the next 3 hours. 2)Shahrukh who is the main actor but gets on the viewers nerve with an extra effort at his end which an actor of his talent does not require. 3)We could do without your clichés: including your lucky mascot Kajol for a 10 sec cameo. That has become quite commonplace. Now you add insult to injury by giving a cameo to John Abraham and Arjun Rampal. -Getting Amitabh again to lie down on the hospital bed in a critical condition; -Making Abhishek wear the famous lapel coat worn by his dad Amitabh for the movie Silsila and trying to titillate an educated movie audience of the 80s. -Your camera focus which should start showing something else besides Rani's eyes, Preiti's dimples and exhibiting your preference for mini skirts, chiffon saris and miniscule cholis. 4)Please Karan Give us a break! Why do you have to include these phirang models dressed to the bare minimum in all your dance and party songs? We Indians are not that starved after the adequate doses you and your ilk have fed us over the past. 5)How hypocritical to portray Amitabh as a flamboyant playboy and then have him deliver a speech on the virtues of a good marriage and his love for his expired wife. 6)Making a movie that caters more for an urban educated class that visits the multiplexes but would leave the masses at towns and villages with a movie that is hard to identify with.
Well Karan, perhaps you are under the impression that you can use all your usual ingredients and come up with a winner. You sure do deserve credit for coming up once again with a theme that is different for Indian cinema since you talk of falling in love after marriage.
But why give it a 'Tea Break Treatment' while shooting for 'Koffee with Karan.'
Yours faithfully, A Disappointed Fan.