Never, Never, Never. But Yeah, Goodbye To An Experience
by Tagore Almeida
Ok we’ve all seen KANK, and no matter what negative comments you have to say about it, the film is going to be one of the biggest hits of Bollywood this year. It has already reached the 100crore mark (in less than a fortnight). Remember that statement, as we cannot ignore that fact. Kudos to Karan in many aspects, however not all. Please don’t get me wrong, this is NOT going to be another KANK bashing (or for that matter Praising) article. Read on, you’ll see what I mean.
Reel Life - First things first, let us focus on the content of the film. Remember (and if you hadn’t realized, then know now), the story/script of any film is what makes a film. Brush off that feeling that you go there to see great locales & costumes – grow up. You can do that on Television these days. The main essence of KANK is that it’s a very bold film, taken on by a man who had the guts to take it on, but unfortunately was labeled as a film-maker who made a certain genre of cinema. KANK, does not fall within that genre in anyway. Both these facts, worked against Karan, and sadly Karan took a step onto a new road, but never completely let go of elements from his past work – which is what was needed here. KANK as we all know it is about Dev and Maya getting into a relationship even though they are married to other people. Well Dev, could easily be granted an excuse to seek solace outside his marriage, as there were some reasons for him to do so. Like his personal tragedy that affects his success and ego, which results in him not being able to be ‘the’ provider of the home. I truly saw it that way. To make things worse, his wife though she showed signs of being in love with him (look closely, she does) she was very keen on her own career (nothing wrong with that) and perhaps got cynical with the fact that she was living with man who had now become his own enemy (Recall she tells him in one scene, that she had fallen in love with a different Dev). Dev’s relationship with his son was definitely unrealistic. Though many parents enforce their own wishes and dreams on their kids, and sometimes fanatically – Dev never showed any real compassion for his kid. Ok, I do agree that there are some real a*#%hole fathers out there, BUT if Dev was one of them, trust me he would never have any emotions / compassion / friendship to share with a stranger – Maya, unless he wanted to merely have a physical relationship/encounter with her. That never came across (Gosh, imagine poor Shah Rukh portraying that character? His critics would have slaughtered him even more).
Now coming to Maya – She was pathetic – ethically as well as characteristically. She’s grown up with the guy she’s about to marry. She’s never been forced to marry the guy in any way and there she is on her wedding day, giving her breath and time to a stranger on a park bench!!!!! Guys when I got married I was surrounded by distant relatives, and so was my wife Alia. The only time I was left alone on my wedding day was when I wanted to take a leak (and I won’t tell you how many relatives wanted me to leave the bathroom door open stating “Oh when you were small you ran around us naked, so we’ve seen all that we had to!!!”. But there was Maya, all dressed up, sitting alone on a bench, and nobody was even looking for her. Then get this, she has doubts about a man who she has literally known all her life AND who adores her like mad, and she’s giving a thought (The turn back and look at Dev as they walk away) to a stranger and then for a moment when she’s taking the Saath Pheras too!!!! Wo, woman sort your life out. Then she gets married to this amazing guy called Rishi (Abhishek – you rock. It’s in your blood dude – both sources), who is the kinda guy women today want to have as a spouse (Thank you Alia, for reminding me about that all thru the film and after). She cannot and does NOT have a reason to look out of her marriage, not for SEX and surely not for companionship. She did though, and so conveniently (to herself, DEV, the director and the writer of the flick). HHhmmm.
Finally, this is where I felt really let down by Karan, is that he ended the film with making the victims support the betrayers and that too glamorized it with the Candy floss elements that he should never have brought to this film. I’m very open minded about this (Alia is going to slaughter me), I mean yeah if Dev and Maya were going to end up together in the end, they both deserved to suffer each other (in my opinion), but hello Karan, you don’t need it to take it to a DDLJ or KKHH level. Those love stories were amazing, made you cry when they got together. KANK should have ended with Dev and Maya together, but not supported/initiated by the spouses they betrayed, and surely not given, as I mentioned earlier the DDLJ or KKHH treatment. That fell flat on it’s face.
Real Life – Folks, marriage is an institution. It’s sacred and more importantly, it is so beautiful deep rooted into our souls. Anywhere in the world, marriage starts off (unless it’s a marriage of convenience or arranged) being beautiful, being divine, and if and when it starts to go wary, it is because two people fail – NOT the Marriage. And here is the bit that I always emphasize on – Marriage must always be based on love and friendship, and to support that you need to nourish it with your heart and soul and NOT your mind. The moment you bring your mind in, you start to fuel the pain. Of course we all have differences, we sometimes say things that we didn’t need to say, but then after all of that, it needs to be healed with your heart and soul. Skeptics reading this will accuse me of perhaps not understanding the world today, to which I can clearly say – DO NOT EVER MAKE THE WORLD TODAY HAVE ANY INFLUENCE ON YOUR MARRIED LIFE. The world will change, but what marriage is will never change. If you think it has, then let me get you to think on this – Marriage hasn’t changed, your take on it has, and your take on it has changed because you are letting the world today influence it. On a very superficial level, I tell people this, marriage is like getting naked – your get off everything that you got from the world, designer labels, types of clothing, attitudes, egos, emotions and get into bed with your spouse, letting just your naked (no pun intended) souls belong to each other, because it is your naked souls that shares your love, respect and companionship to each other, and this is something that you share at that level, with ONLY your spouse. Remember that. I believe that GOD blesses us, and if we do our best, with all honesty, HE will always play a part in fixing / making better anything in this world.
Cinematically – Great, amazingly great locations. Kudos to Karan who is THE ultimate in knowing how to package a cinematic product, right from it’s look and feel to it’s marketing and so forth. Karan has always been, and will always be one of my teachers in cinema, because Karan knows the business & glamour side of cinema like no other in Bollywood. Hats off to you dude. Shah Rukh, hats off to you for taking on that role, you did it with conviction and I am sure for the respect that you have for the Johar household. It’s not your fault that the character was not sketched out well, BUT, you needed to leave the Shah Rukh of other roles out of this one, as this was a role that Shah Rukh had never done. So since you had to guts to do this, you should have done it 100% different. Let your fans feel let them down if they didn’t see you dancing around and being the lover boy. You have so many fans that even a drop in a million fans could be seen as a rounding error in those numbers. You ARE a superstar like no other Bollywood person (Exception of Mr. Big B). Abhishek – I said this before when I reviewed Sarkar, you carry a legacy (Both sides of your parents) and dude, you carry it well. Preity, you were quiet convincing in your role. Big B – Well what can I say? No other actor / star could have done what you did with Sexy Sam. Seriously, you rocked. Rani – no comments, I came out of the cinema, missing two actresses – Kajol & Karishma Kapoor. Sorry, that’s how I felt.
So I’m saying goodbye to an emotion that was provoked by KANK, but seriously folk, love is something that doesn’t need this kind of escapism, as our souls need to nurture it. Frankly speaking Karan, I respect you for taking on this subject, but you could have kept up with morale of life and for that matter even our culture and put it forth on a platter then, with all your dressings included on the side.
Tagore is a IT professional, peace seeker and scriptwriter, based out of Dubai. He is constantly seeking to remind mankind to share the goodness that he believes we all carry. He writes, cooks and does whatever he can to persuade those around him in the powers of love, goodness, peace and faith. He runs a peace group called The Uncultured Company (www.theunculturedcompany.com)