The Hindu Business Line : Why `Kabhi Alvida...' doesn't work

The theme is very contemporary, and the setting flashy. But the lead actors, especially Shah Rukh and Rani Mukherji, and the director himself, have let the film down.

Except for Abhishek who gets all the sympathy, there is no one that Johar tells you to love instantly. Which is great, because it is time we got rounded characters who are not all good, nor all bad, and who do things that needy, desirous humans do.

AFFAIRS OF THE HEART: Rani Mukherji and Shah Rukh Khan in `Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'.

Why are so many people confused about how they should react to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna? This is not to say that this confusion is uniform — there are enough viewers who will absolutely see it, no matter what.

For the record, for this writer, the film doesn't work. The theme is very contemporary, sure. The setting is very flashy. Some of the dialogues are wonderfully realised. And no one can mount a movie like Karan Johar can, except perhaps Sanjay Leela Bhansali; but the latter can't give me Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherji in the same frame. Maybe even Yash Chopra can't! Ironically, it is the lead actors, essentially Johar's I-will-never-make-a-film-without-him Shah Rukh and Rani who let the film down. As well as the director, who tells you he's going to go on to a limb, and then scrambles to safety.

But to me, this did-I-like-it-did-I-not business has made the movie more interesting than it appeared while I watched it. And as it heads towards its third week, it is clear that the ambiguity stems more from the fact that Johar hasn't given us any pointers to how we should react. He's left the hard work to us.

Johar's latest film, about unhappy marriages and adulterous relationships, is very far removed from the resolutely happy worlds he has created before. Right from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (KKHH) to Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G), to Kal Ho Naa Ho (which he produced), he's given us Big Moments, to laugh, to cry. He spends all those in-between sequences in the films gearing up for these moments, knowing that you will take these away with you.

One of my favourite ah-moments is from his debut, in which Shah Rukh, Kajol, and Rani played students in a Riverdale-style school, with the stars playing Archie, Betty and Veronica variants. Kajol, the tomboy, is mad about Mr Popular Shah Rukh who is crazy about Lil Miss Sexy Rani. In one sequence, Shah Rukh breaks into Rani's room to declare his feelings. Aadmi ka sir sirf teen baar jhukta hai, he says — in front of his god, his mother, and his beloved. And as he stands there, with his head bent; you grin. And then you sigh.

It's not as if he doesn't have you weeping buckets towards the end, when Shah Rukh and Kajol are finally coming together. Rani is conveniently bumped off, and a fresh threat in the shape of a fiancé is brushed aside by the machinations of a little girl and her grandma. But not before it's made you laugh.

KKHH was a huge hit because it achieved something that most movies do not — it targeted teeny bops who wished they wore Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY tees, and also those who did wear them. It also spoke to little kids (big chunks of the movie have Shah Rukh interact with an eight-year-old who plays his daughter and a bunch of other children). And to matrons who love going to the movies to wallow in techni-colour romance. He also didn't forget the older souls, because he gave them the ageless Farida Jalal, in the pert-we'll-fix-everything-grandma role.

He didn't really move away from that template in his next. K3G was also a huge hit despite its regressive storyline. Super-rich dad turns his back on beloved adopted son because the latter dares to marry beneath him for love. (Actually, he was just expanding on the theme of his first movie — short-haired sharp-tongued tomboys will only get their man when they grow their tresses, and wear shimmery chiffons). Amitabh plays the iron-willed patriarch; Shah Rukh the disobedient son; and Hrithik the younger son who gets the family back together. The love interest of the lads are Kajol, and Kareena, and Jaya is Amitabh's wife, just like in Silsila, and just like in real life!

The stars were all there. A large part of the film was set in London. And just like KKHH, the music was a rage. So who, apart from a handful of hard-to-please critics, cared if Johar was merrily carrying on his self-confessed intention to make movies while incorporating the big influences of his growing-up years? That Rani's character in KKHH was modelled on Zeenat Aman's in her initial movies where Zeenat wore skin-tight shirt-waisters and micro-minis. That Bachchan's iron-willed father was a character who should have been written off in the 1960s.

Bachchan and Shah Rukh did Shava Shava. Hrithik and Kareena burnt up the dance floor in You Are My Soniya. Kajol ate up everyone else with her exuberance. And Johar notched up another one.

Kal Ho Naa Ho, which came from his production house, had all the Johar trademarks in it. New York, Shah Rukh, Saif, Preity, and Jaya. Big star cast, big locations and terrific music. Johar's tribute to Anand has Shah Rukh die in a lovely scene (it goes on and on, but who cares, when Shah Rukh, Saif and Preity are choking back tears and being heroic). The handkerchiefs were out, big time.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna does not tug at our heartstrings, because Johar has decided to grow up, and create characters who have, notionally, grown up too. Shah Rukh is an embittered football coach, and can't bear his wife's (Preity's) on-the-up-and-up career. He can't even talk straight to his son, who likes music, not football. Rani gets into a marriage of convenience with a man she has known all her life but doesn't love. Poor Abhishek keeps trying, but she isn't interested. She'd rather clean her already sparkling apartment instead of cosying up to her loving husband.

Quite apart from the fact that Shah Rukh and Rani don't combust (he is much too twitchy and mannered, and she spends all her time wiping away tears), they are not specially likeable characters. Except for Abhishek who gets all the sympathy, there is no one that Johar tells you to love instantly. Which is great, because it is time we got rounded characters who are not all good, nor all bad, and who do things that needy, desirous humans do. They make mistakes, and get into bed with people who are not their spouses.

Wonderful. But then Johar does a cop-out. He can't bear to see people having to make tough choices and live with them, and emerge on top. He would rather have them all neatly tied up with a pink bow, and delivered. The marriages that Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna starts out with do break up. But the movie ends up, after all, celebrating couple-dom and love.

Maybe Johar needs to do some more growing up.