Review : Kabhi khushi kabhi gam

KKKG is what I call an extended STC : “stylized toothpaste commercial”. Doesn’t mean its a bad film, it just means that its a L-O-N-G story without a real villain, with lots of jingly tunes, and a whole host of characters from one big happy family. And yes it entertains, if you know what you’re getting into. This is not serious path-breaking cinema. This is giving the masses what they want, albeit with a little style and panache.And yes, if you are able to tune out the fact that the script is paper-thin, and the characters unnaturally good and nauseatingly selfless you will enjoy this film. Because it has all the makings of a “masala” entertainer; the pathos and the tear-jerkers, rich costumes and sets, lots of foot-tapping numbers with well-choreographed dances, big stars, and the sheen of polished film-making which can only come when the rich make films about the moneyed. Now the story :

Yashovardhan Raichand (Bachhan) and wife Nandini (Jaya), a fantabulously rich couple, have 2 sons younger son Rohan (Hrithik) and adopted son Rahul (Shahrukh). The family also has two grandmothers (Sushma Seth and Achla Sachdev). Rohan much younger than Rahul, is away at boarding school when Rahul falls in love with a middle-class girl Anjali (Kajol) and marries her, spurning the family choice Naina (Rani) who is thought to be more of a social equal. This earns him his father’s wrath and pointed reminders of his being adopted, not having the Raichand blood in him, and hence not able to live upto expected ideals. Subsequently he is estranged from the family, and settles down abroad with wife, sister-in-law and the family Dai-jaan (Farida Jalal). Of course, he misses his family and yearns to see them. The parents apparently miss him too, and Johar milks this emotion for all its worth, stretching out these scenes interminably.

Some years down the road, Rohan all grown up, travels abroad to effect a family reunion. There, while living with Rahul and family, incognito, he meets and falls in live with Anjali’s younger sister Pooja (Kareena). Together the two plan to bring the splintered family together. How they succeed is the rest of the movie.

The film is like a whirlwind of overdone emotions – first the abundant display of close-knit family ties, and the mother-love-drenched emotional scenes. Next the pain of separation, emphasis on parents. Again puke-ably overdone. Third – the yearning for loved ones, emphasized with overwrought dialogues, much handwringing, and restrained sobbing from the men-folk. A fourth emotion, pseudo-patriotism, with scenes engineered via Anjali, is dealt with, with much covert and comedic verbal abuse against the Londoners. If this was targeted towards the NRIs, it was done badly, and I for one found it hard to swallow. It is possible to be patriotic without dissing the country in which you live, but apparently Johar does not share the sentiment.

Acting is good (as good as it can be with this script), and direction is slick. Water-work inducing emotions are balanced out with comedic action from Kajol and Johnny Lever, and dance numbers sizzle courtesy Hrithik and Kareena. Nostalgia, and cliched pativrata sentiments from Jaya B. and Kajol, come in handy to fill in those family-bonding moments.

Ultimately, this is a consummate work of fiction, told with an infinite stretch-it-till-it-breaks emotional quotient. A nice story about the high-fliers and their lofty concerns, sugar-wrapped to be palatable to the common man. Watchable once.