We Are Family

A remake of the 1998 Hollywood-hit 'Stepmom', 'We Are Family' is a decent film, but, it caters to Women mainly, lacking universal appeal. Debutant-Director Siddharth Malhotra, pays homage to it's original... but again, the emotion what 'Stepmom' offered, this film lacks in that department.

'We Are Family' is about a divorced couple, played by Arjun Rampal & Kajol respectively, their 3 kids and their would-be Stepmom, played by Kareena Kapoor.

'We Are Family' has it's share of wonderful moments, and to be honest, the first hour is power-packed. The problem begins in the Second Hour, the Screenplay goes for a toss. The culmination in the original, was a pure genius. Whereas, the culmination of this remake is out of emotions. It doesn't leave the impact, as per expectations. Another sore point is its soundtrack by Shankar-Eshaan-Loy. None of the songs are memorable.

Production Values, as expected from Karan Johar, are first-rate. Siddharth Malhotra makes a fine debut as a filmmaker. The adapted Screenplay drags itself in the second hour. Mohanan's Cinematography is passable. Editing by Deepa Bhatia is good.

In the acting department, Arjun Rampal is superb. He plays his part with control and patience. Kajol is believable, as always. Kareena Kapoor is good. All the kids, are highly efficient.

On the whole, 'We Are Family' is a decent film, that has some potential working on it's advantage. Watch it if you must!

Such a boring movie, with unlikeable characters, cliched situations and bad dialogue. Nothing to redeem the movie at all. Performances are so average, it's like the actors sleep walked their way through the film. Certainly worth a miss.

I appreciate that 'We Are Family' is an official remake and not a rip-off (which has become the traditional Bollywood thing to do). More than a decade ago, when I first saw 'Stepmom', I knew Bollywood was going to copy this. 'Am only surprised it took them this long.

'We Are Family' is pretty much a melodramatic tearjerker. The scenes that were directly copied from 'Stepmom' were quite laughable. I preferred the more original sequences, like when Maya and Shreya go shopping with Aaliyah, Shreya chooses a dress for Aaliyah who is thrilled while Maya feels some resentment.

'We Are Family' has the look of a typical Yashraj film. It's shot in Australia. Really, why couldn't they have made the movie in India? Are the makers really that ashamed of their own country? The movie, not surprisingly, revolves around very rich people. The story is told in a melodramatic and sugarcoated fashion. The sets are quite lavish. Cinematography is flat and music is horrendous. The 'Jailhouse Rock' remake is one of the worst songs and the way it was visualized made me cringe.

It's good to see Kajol not pair up with someone who's not a Khan or a Devgan. Her pairing with Arjun Rampal was quite refreshing and both actors have good chemistry. However, Rampal is underused as the film is more about Shreya and Maya. Kareena Kapoor tries his best but she's completely overshadowed by Kajol. 'We Are Family' belongs to Kajol who yet again delivers an excellent performance. If there is anything watchable about 'We Are Family' then it's her.

Despite what some people might say, this movie was great. It was filled with emotional moments. Every actor/actress delivered a strong performance. Even the kids were great and believable as the characters.

And yea, I doubt this would happen the way it did in real life, but isn't the point of making movies is to step away from reality for a few hours? If you wanna see something sad, something real, something about love, something about trust, something about sacrifice and something about family...then this is your movie. Don't expect perfection but it comes close enough...

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A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

We Are Family is an official remake of the famous 1998 Hollywood movie Stepmom. The story of the film is just perfect for a Hindi film because that's what Indian audiences like and can relate to. I never understood, why bother to remake a film which in itself was not particularly great, but the movie certainly lacks the verve of Stepmom and as expected it resorts to sentimentality far more often. I did not expect much from We Are Family, and it was just the way I thought it would be. The movie is a melodramatic tearjerker of its sort. It is of course much more realistic in its overall portrayal but there too it had its share of loopholes, being a tad too dated and conservative for its time.

The film is of course highly predictable, but it has its touching moments from time to time despite being generally unconvincing. At first the film was really poorly developed and later on it turned into a very sentimental and emotionally unrestrained tale which is fairly enjoyable and occasionally moving but never particularly memorable. Towards the second half, the film has a very familiar Kal Ho Naa Ho feel to it, but while the latter was flavoured with great comedy and a witty touch of New York's realism, We Are Family sometimes lacks soul. In its favour it can be said that it's focused, but at the same time it's a bit too long for the story it tells, although not very long per se, where Hindi film parameters are concerned.

One of the main reasons I decided to go through the film was of course the casting. Kajol leads the film with a heartfelt and natural performance which is compelling and moving. Kareena Kapoor supports really well in a restrained act, but at times I felt the story did not dig enough into her character's thoughts, dilemmas and fears before she took the decision to do what she did, and that's one of the examples of the faulty script. Arjun Rampal is convincing as the caring ex-husband. Among the kids, they're above average to okay but the cute-as-a-button Diya Sonecha was really likable, even if not particularly for her acting. She at times reminded me of the adorable little kid playing the younger daughter in Shekhar Kapur's classic Masoom.

Many movies have shown films about families in times of trouble and their way of dealing with it together, whether it's Terms of Endearment, Stepmom or the Indian movies Anuraag, Kaash. We Are Family is one of them. I still wonder why it was so necessary to make it, and though it generally lacks the power to captivate and stay with you after the show has ended and is lacking in substance, it's still a well-acted and generally watchable movie despite its flaws.