Non dire mai addio

I found KANK riveting from the first moment to the last. The theme is one which has been used before in Indian movies but this one makes it seem an entirely new venture. The treatment is fresh and witty. There is a wonderful mix of clever jokes, satire and excellent appropriate dialogue.The script did not have a word out of place. The film took you along on a roller coaster of emotion. The characters were all human and imperfect but with endearing qualities. The situation too understandable but the sympathies were definitely with the lovers.

But the film was much more than the words that I have used. It wrapped the audience in its embrace with its story which unravelled in wit and charm and against a background of New York lovingly portrayed. The train station was a perfect locale though always not always recognisably the Central.

The performances were very good especially Amitabh and Preity Zinta. Abhishek and Rani were good too though Rani cried a bit too much- but that could be Karan's over use of glycerine.

Shah Rukh dominated the film in a brilliant,nuanced, versatile performance given in a very difficult role. He is a cynic and a loser but he keeps the sympathies of the audience and his charm reaches out palpably. It is one of his best performances to date and what more can one say - Shah Rukh at his best is the very best of all. He is the man after one's heart-funny, witty, tragic and heartbreaking.

The music is amazing especially Mitwa movingly picturised on Shah Rukh. This should prove not only a box office super hit but also a herald of the new Indian movies though not many will come close.

....Karan Johar for KANK!

I was waiting with so much excitement for this movie only to have my hopes dashed in the biggest way possible. I have loved some of Karan Johar's earlier films and thoroughly enjoyed them. However, I think this time around, he has completely got it wrong! (Which is OK because we are all humans and we make mistakes). This being a Rs500 million one.

This movie dragged on endlessly. The only salvation to all this... Amitabh Bachchan and Abishek Bachchan, who stole the show with their on-screen chemistry.

Is this movie worth a watch? No...not unless you have absolutely nothing better to do. Even then, I'd recommend chewing or biting your arm off as a better option.

• Magnificent sets

• Intricate art design

• Designer costumes

• Eye-pleasing visuals

• Loads of celebrations

• A Punjabi track with bikini babes

• Feel-good factor

• Trademark Shahrukh Khan

• Complimentary Kajol fluttering sari for a 5 second song appearance

• Predicted houseful openings

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna has all the regular contents of a Karan Johar extravaganza. Plus a story this time!

In 1981, Yash Chopra made Silsila on extra-marital affairs that was considered ahead of its times. The culmination of its theme, however, was as per the Indian sensibilities of those times. 25 years later, Karan Johar makes a film on extra-marital affairs (am not drawing any parallels between the two films whatsoever) and the culmination of the plot makes it the so called 'different' or a 'bold' film.

A bold film is not about sex, skin or sleaze. It's about matured mindsets and moving ahead with times. Karan also moves ahead with KANK. In terms of its plot outlines, while Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was an overrated triangular love story and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum was just another conventional family drama, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna has a comparatively sensible and substantial story to back the candy floss on the screen.

The story, as everybody and their second cousin by now know, is about an extra marital affair.

The visual appeal in a Karan Johar film is, like always, intricate and immaculate. Be it Anil Mehta's eye-pleasing camera-work, Sharmista Roy's appealing art design, Manish Malhotra's fashion fiesta or Farah Khan's cosmic choreography, everyone is just perfect in their department.

But as I earlier said, apart from the visual dazzlery, the movie clicks because it has something to say in which it succeeds. Karan always had heart in his films; here he puts in a lot of soul too. Shibani Bhatija who earlier wrote the overrated Fanaa this year, co-writes a more cohesive, convincing and a satisfying screenplay for KANK with Karan Johar. The comic scenes are very well written while the emotional ones are deftly acted and executed. Dialogues vary from the tongue-in-cheek lines in the lighthearted scenes to the regular ones in the emotional outbursts. Niranjan Iyenger's witty one-liners compliment the funny scenes without a glitch.

Also the screenplay balances the bittersweet act and maintains the equilibrium. While a Karan Johar film is broadly envisaged as a compulsive tearjerker, KANK has sufficient light-hearted frivolous relief in the first half. The scene where Rani Mukherjee tries to impersonate a BDSM girl is outrageously hilarious. If you go to compare KANK with Karan's earlier works, the tone of the film is more like a Kal Ho Naa Ho (which was written by Karan) as compared to his over-dramatic first two directions. In fact what sets the film apart from the daily soaps on the idiot box (each one of which is based on an extra-marital affair) is that the performances never get overtly melodramatic even in the emotional outbursts.

The pace is slow and the movie does get stretched in the second half. The conclusion could have been impermeable to the audiences' mentality but the screenplay has enough conviction to make it digestible. And while Karan took excuses of the bhartiya sanskriti and parampara in his first two films, here thankfully he stays free from the culture crap and sanskaar endorsements. On the contrary, KANK strides against the clichés in culture to make its own way. And the best part is that it doesn't do this blatantly.

Of course while going off-route, there are some elements where he arguably takes the fast-forward path. Like Amitabh Bachchan's characterization of a philandering sexagenarian might not gel well with the Indian sensibilities. But since his character adds a comic angle to the film and isn't the central focus either, one doesn't take it quite seriously. Still, the idea of imagining Amitabh Bachchan and his character sleeping with a new whore every night, without a trace of repentance and with the full knowledge of his son, isn't easily digestible.

What's notable in this film is that rather than just being the usual Chopra-Johar escapist cinema, it has a lot of realism too. For instance Shahrukh in KANK is not just the regular lover-boy. Though he continues his legacy of wooing the female species and taking away a woman from his initial partner in the film (he has been doing this since ever), he still isn't that man who makes things happen for others. The Dev Saran of KANK has a lot of vulnerability in him that makes him much human rather than the regular perfectionist SRK (of films like Main Hoon Na, Mohobbatien or Kal Ho Naa Ho) who plays the peacemaker and makes things happen for others. Imperfection makes Dev Saran real rather than starry.

In an age of breaking marriages and failing relationships, the movie's portrayal of the incompatibility in marital bonding is something that a contemporary audience can relate to. In a film that demands a lot of emotional play, the performances are as natural as it can get. Preity Zinta has the spunk to carry off the career woman character, Abhishek has a melting intensity, Rani only gets better like an old wine and Shahrukh, despite indulging in his trademark antiques, is acceptable for his character's vulnerability.

I am not a hardcore Karan Johar fan, neither am I cynical about his flamboyant films. I watched KANK with an open mind and without preconceived notions. So on the credit of its content, KANK ended up being neither a superlative piece of cinema nor the abysmal film tagged by its hypercritical detractors. It's just the perfect balance of entertainment.

Maturity, sensibility and entertainment increased in direct proportion from Karan Johar's K2H2 to K3G to KHNH. KANK continues the trend.

One of the most awaited films of the year is KANK. I'm a Karan Johar fan and I must say, he has excelled as a director. After his recent successes Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, KANK is another masterpiece.

Shah Rukh Khan takes a bold role in this film and does well as a short tempered, disgruntled man. Some of the scenes with Preity and his son were funny. Preity looked pretty as always. Rani also was OK, though the character Maya was too complicated.

Big B and Abhishek were the best in the film. Amithabh playing the old but youthful man who is still the wise 'Samarjit' behind 'Sexy Sam' was very good. Abhishek did well in the emotional scenes but stole the chow in the comic scenes.

Overall, KANK was a good film, but the affair of Dev and Maya was pointless and stupid, I didn't like it one bit. Songs were good like 'Where's the party tonight' and 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'. The film was good.

Worth a Watch.

i gave it an 8 because granted the music wasn't as great as one would as liked but the movie is different and i saw it the day it opened and i am still thinking about it. the movie is bold and different from the typical karan johar movies, it's gets really funny and gets serious. you have to keep an open mind, and if you don't take the contents of the movie to mean that you can cheat on your husband, you'll enjoy it. traditionalist keep an open mind and people you complained about karan's first three movies as being the same and that's true. here is a movie that has never being done in bollywood and it's sad that people are trying to compare to the Hollywood movie closer. there are huge differences between the two movies, closer was about two dishonest couples who took life as a game and lost each other in the process. KANK is about finding out that sometimes when you commit in haste you can hurt others as well as yourself in your quest to make things right. the portrayal of shahrukh as a husband jealous of his wife's success is right on the money about the pressures couples face when the female takes control. can't wait for it to come out on DVD.