Kurbaan

Kurbaan is a major disappointment for me. I expected much more from Karan Johar and was ready to see a powerful and moving picture. But it neither moved nor entertained me as I thought it would. Though the first half is fairly interesting, the entire suspense thing was a complete letdown. Once the so-called "secret" was unveiled, the movie became very predictable, and not even once was I particularly thrilled or shocked or surprised. The script is the film's weakest link. The film fails to convince the viewer. The romance between Saif and Kareena was not believable, the proceedings seemed unjustified by any means, the background of the characters was vague and the reasoning behind their actions was overlooked. At some point the film became overly messy and that too while being slow and boring. The film's subject was hardly evident in it and was seemingly used as a pretext. I did not see the point of the story and what exactly it tried to convey. Did you?

Kurbaan's saving grace may lie in some of the performances. Some. Saif Ali Khan did not impress me here, he was sort of ordinary. Kareena Kapoor was pretty good in her role. She was likable and looked stunning throughout the movie. One performance that completely amazed me though was that of Kirron Kher. She was absolutely outstanding, and her dialogue delivery was natural and powerful. Vivek Oberoi was strictly okay though one must note that his role is underwritten. The film's soundtrack was very good. "Shukran Allah" is a nice song, "Kurbaan Hua" is also very good. The film's last scene was somewhat effective with good acting by Kareena, but a few pluses cannot save this movie, and the final verdict is average. Kurbaan may be a decent one-time watch but overall it is a great disappointment. It is best described as a wannabe thriller which lacks the power to captivate and enthrall. Watch it if you must.

Though a native of India, Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) is currently a professor at a college in New York. On a trip to visit her ailing father in Delhi, Avantika meets and falls in love with another professor, the dapper and dashing Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan). After a whirlwind courtship - which seems to take place in a slickly-produced shampoo commercial - the star-crossed lovers set up a new life for themselves as a married couple in the States. But all is not unadulterated marital bliss for the newlyweds, as Avantika quickly discovers that Ehsaan is, in reality, a secret Islamic terrorist who married her strictly as a means of getting easy ingress into the United States. The other major character is Riyaz (Vivek Oberoi), a war correspondent for a local news station, who allows himself to be recruited into the sleeper cell of which Ehsaan is a member.

Though "Kurbaan" starts out as a fairly typical - i.e., overly cutesy - Bollywood romance, it quickly transitions into an admittedly bloated but moderately gripping action-movie thriller with serious social overtones. Perhaps because this is an Indian film, the terrorists, though by no means the "heroes" of the story, do get to air their grievances in a somewhat more sympathetic and even-handed fashion than they would were it an American-made production. On the other hand, like most Indian films, this one suffers from over-length and a tendency towards hyperbole when understatement might have been the better course to take. And while the Indian actors are all fine, the American performers leave much to be desired (perhaps the result of an Indian director, Rensil D'Silva, not being able to identify poor line readings when delivered in another language). In addition, the action sequences are often clunky and unconvincingly staged, especially when contrasted with something like the expertly executed "24."

Yet, despite its flaws, "Kurbaan" combines suspense, social commentary, romance and clue-gathering in generally appropriate proportions, which makes the two-hour-and-forty-minute running time pass reasonably quickly.

Since the success of Aamir Khan's Fanaa there has been a surge of terrorist themed Bollywood movies, (A Wednesday, New York and now Kurbaan). I've deliberately left out My Name is Khan because it wasn't about the terrorist themselves but about how the common man is affected by their actions. I remember Yash Raj's New York came out now long before Kurbaan and was a pretty big hit. Maybe that's the reason why Kurbaan went largely unnoticed. Another reason could be that it lacks the hallmarks of a Karan Johar production. In a typical Karan Johar movie there's plenty of songs and dancing. and occasionally funny in places. It's a shame really because it's far better than I expected.

Where Kurbaan excels is that it is a far more brutal movie than any of the terrorist themed Bollywood movies I've mentioned. In a typical terrorist themed Bollywood movie someone would come along and stop the bomb from exploding or the terrorist would have a sudden change of heart. In Kurbaan the bombs do actually explode and many are injured or killed. The highlight for was not any of the main leads(they were all great however) but it was Om Puri. I've never ever seen him act so serious in the movie but I suppose his role as the leader required him to do that. On a end note I would encourage fans of Bollywood to see this movie, you won't regret it.

Heavily influenced by Hollywood, there are a growing number of non-traditional Bollywood movies that eschew song and dance sequences and employ sync-sound rather than dubbing all dialogue. KURBAAN (aka Sacrificed, 2009) is one, particularly good example of this kind of new Bollywood film. Like so many Hindi films this does use a Hollywood film as a touchstone, but thankfully the source here (1999's ARLINGTON ROAD) is only alluded to in a couple of the plot points and beyond these the story moves in new, interesting directions that make this an interesting companion piece. Gripping for its two and a half hour running time, Renzil D'Silva's movie shares a few things in common with Kabir Khan's NEW YORK but superior thanks to it's consistent tone and credible characters and performances. Om Puri is particularly good in an extremely understated performance.

I generally have no expectations from films that preach. Most of the films on terrorism do exactly that. More so, bollywood movies try to preach quite often, terrorism or not.

So I successfully gave-New York, Fanaa a miss without regrets.

But somehow I watched Kurbaan and it turned out to be a non-preachy good piece of art. Its a decent suspense thriller which will make the first-time-viewer think. It quickly moves from some romantic-love-story to conspiracy-theory without a preachy or sympathetic moral of the story - "its only-innocent-poor that are lured into terrorist activities." It sticks to the story and portrays the confusion of an individual who is torn between religion and his unborn child. Also a lesson for girls who fall prey very easily to romantic one-liners from guys who are very sacrificial for the girl they love. Beware of them and watch this worth-a-watch thriller.