BLAST MAN STANDING
Yet another story about yet another terrorist. The hardware is there, but where’s the heart?
NOV 22, 2009 – KURBAAN WEARS ITS HOT-BUTTON topicality proudly, like a gleaming medal that’s been well and truly earned. And the members of the cast do most of the earning, each one entrusted with disbursing a bit of the sugar-coated bitter medicine. Saif Ali Khan plays Ehsaan, who not only teaches a course titled “Muslim Identity in the Modern World,” but does so in jeans – he’s that liberal a Muslim. At the other end of the soapbox spectrum lies Abbu (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who bemoans the fact that his US-bred television-reporter son, Riyaz (Vivek Oberoi), doesn’t think like a Musalmaan but more along the lines of an American. Riyaz, meanwhile, sneaks into Ehsaan’s lecture, one day, and engages in a heated debate with white-Americans, arguing that if 3000 people were killed on 9/11, over 15000 have perished in Afghanistan over the years. Even the ultra-conservative Nasreen (Kirron Kher) – in her ultra-limited screen-time – sneaks in a few sound-bytes about how the West’s lust for oil has rained fire on her homeland.
But Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) has precious little to say. As the token Hindu caught between the “good” (i.e. peace-loving) Muslim and the “bad” (i.e. jehadi) Muslim – I’m generalising a little – you might think she’d be called upon to represent a community trapped between the sentimentalities of the past (Hindu-Muslim bhai–bhai, and all that) and the suspicions of the present. Her father, played by Aakash Khurana, has a beautiful line where he expresses his misgivings about Ehsaan becoming his son-in-law – not because he’s a Musalmaan but because the lesser the difference between the partners, the better. (And who can deny the rift that has widened ever-so-gradually between Allah and Ram?) It’s the kind of dialogue that (unlike the film) locates the personal amidst the political with minimal fuss. But Avantika adds nothing to the discourse. If she’s an instrument of change, it doesn’t register forcefully. If she’s a mouthpiece for ideology, that’s not evident either. She’s simply a pawn. She’s nothing.
And that’s a pity, because for a while, she seemed to be shaping into something. Either producer Karan Johar or director Rensil D’Silva, I’ll bet, are huge fans of Ira Levin – for the portions of the film that unfold as Avantika and Ehsaan move from New Delhi to New York play like The Stepford Wives-meets-Rosemary’s Baby. The newlywed housewife curious about a strange suburbia, the instant welcome from cheery neighbours, the robotically subservient wives and the husbands who exclude them from matters of importance, the fanatical (almost cultish) devotion to a devilish cause – it’s all in here in some shape or form. And here’s where I began to wonder if Avantika would become (a) a Stepford Wife, brainwashed and programmed to fulfill a purpose, or (b) like Rosemary, a hormonal Cassandra whose hysterical doomsday prophecies no one will believe.
But having thrown up a whole bunch of questions in the air, the director hunkers down to focus on the most uninteresting of them all: should the red wire be snapped in order to stop the bomb, or the blue wire? The abstract political and personal issues surrounding Avantika evaporate as we’re plunged headlong into the what-where-how of an overfamiliar bombing plot – though, to be fair, these portions are staged quite well. There’s a clickety-clack mechanical efficiency – which is at least a craft, if not exactly an art – in the way the film lurches to its reasonably involving conclusion. Along the way, of course, we’re asked to gloss over the idiocies we now take for granted in thrillers of this nature – the all-too-easy ways in which terrorist cells are infiltrated, the undercover good-guy discovering a vital piece of information and opting to announce it to the world that very instant (in the vicinity of the villains), and insultingly convenient changes of heart.
While not exactly a bad film (translation: at least it’s staged and serviced better by its cast than New York was), it’s a mystery why Kurbaan isn’t much more. Why is this film – a Karan Johar production for crying out loud – so embarrassed about taking an emotional stand? Why is the hero-heroine meet-cute so juvenile? (For all its latter-half faults, the similarly themed Fanaa at least got the meeting-mating rituals right.) When a character has lost a son and when he finds his wife pregnant again, why don’t we feel what he’s feeling? Why, for that matter, don’t we register what Avantika is beginning to feel about her nightmarish situation? Why does she recede so far into the background that she practically blends in with the wallpaper? Why does everyone (and everything) feel so remote, as if occurring in a dream dimension far, far away? As I said, a dozen questions, and the only one the director is really interested in is: red wire or blue wire?
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Kishor
November 22, 2009
This simply represents the fact that our filmmakers have not evolved as much as the audience have evolved. In the rediff interview yesterday, Karan Johar clearly stated that he is not at all interested in working with any new comer. That says it all. These people want just lots of profits. Okay, that is not bad as long as they are producing good pictures. But these people don’t want to evolve at all, don’t experiment at all, and just want to cheat us and want to cash on our carnal desires by giving glamour, glamour, and more glamour. I don’t know why a theme on terrorism needs to publicize itself on its bare-backed heroine. Same is the case with Mani Ratnam also, he wants great music and beautiful actresses in his terrorist themed movies. I don’t believe we can produce a good film on serious themes in the next 500 years also.
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brangan
November 22, 2009
Kishor: I thought he said he didn’t want to work with new actors, but he was very excited about working with new filmmakers. That’s more important according to me, giving fresh voices a chance under a big banner. Some will make it, some will blow it, but at least, there’ll be a whole bunch of different voice up there. For all my problems with “Wake Up Sid” I think it’s great that Karan Johar took a chance on that new director.
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Anand
November 22, 2009
BR: Dont agree with you on the heart part!!!
Example no.1: Khalid comes home with a bullet in his shoulder and Avantika helps him remove the bullet. Such a cliche – but see what follows, Avantika looks at the blood in her hand and starts crying. Fabulous.
Eample no.2: When Khalid is shot in the climax, he asks Avantika to leave. Much has discussed here about the answer she gives, but more importantly, she asks the question – whats is your real name?
Forget the simplification of global terrorism, forget the debate about Islam and West etc, the film works because there are directorial touches like the above throughout the film.
Before someone points out, I have posted the exact comment on PFC also.
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Elizabeth
November 22, 2009
I’m not sure how I feel about this film to be honest. I thought it was well made and well acted (pretty much the entire cast was good), but at the same time I was left feeling not very strongly one way or the other. One thing I felt it DID do effectively was actually getting across the sheer horror of the situation Avantika found herself in. Everything about it, right from the her first meeting with the neighbors was staged well enough that it was scary as all hell. Well, it scared the crap out of me at least and in that sense, taking the fear into account, I was not entirely put off by Avantika sinking into the background because I think it worked considering the situation her character was in.
I thought Vivek Oberoi did especially well considering that a third of the way through the film, he becomes the protagonist.
Ehsaan telling the sandwich guy to “keep the change” when not seconds ago they had a gun pointed at his back got a chuckle out of me.
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kamil
November 22, 2009
Havent seen the film yet but have been perusing the reviews lately. Maybe the movie gave a major impression prior to release as one that was going to be an intelligent thriller capable of delving deep if not addressing) into those areas which you mention. Shouldnt have we just realized that this was going to be another type of sophisticated potboiler that will be palatable for all the aam aadmis ?
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Rohit
November 22, 2009
I didnt find anything positive about the movie. The plot was completely non existent and there were gaping holes in pretty much everything. Its not worth going into the details
Read somewhere in an interview where Rensil said that writing can not be learnt and it is a gift. I sure hope it came with a return receipt…
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Pradyumna M
November 22, 2009
I had a lot of expectations and in the end I was disappointed by it.Like you mentioned in the last paragraph,we don’t feel for any of the protagonists unlike in RDB which was co-written by D’Silva.
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Arun
November 22, 2009
i thought kurbaan is pointless, trying hard to wean itself from the strong anti-muslim & pro US plot! made more for an US audience maybe,.. why could’nt times square station be dadar station? even dadar has seen terror attacks! hate this bollywoods obsession for america; New york, this movie, and God knows what ‘my name is khan’ has to offer..
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Cherish
November 22, 2009
No word…on the make out scene? Even so called professors kissing nd making it out in the college campus…how bad can it get?
While I appreciate Karan taking chances working with diverse themes and directors, his penchant for box office success scores more than the content of the movie. There was absolutely no need of the bare back scene? It was there for all the publicity…how else you explain the ridiculous scene?
For me its better not to make a movie on terrorism than this badly researched one
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 22, 2009
This is another pathetic attempt by the shameless Karan ‘Gay’har to attract the pakistani and other Middle-Eastern audience. What has this movie got to do with India and the Indian audience? Indians have to boycott this film.
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 22, 2009
Karan H Joker has also done his best to undermine Hindu culture. By having his leading lady as a Hindu married to a Muslim, he is subtly encouraging the Hindu girls to marry Muslim men and abandon their religion.
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brangan
November 22, 2009
Anand: I agree there were a few nicely “directed” moments (like the “naam kya hai” scene you mention), but too few to tilt the movie in any significant way for me.
kamil: Well, Fanaa would be what you’d call a potboiler — a film with absolutely no pretentions except to “entertain” the audience with a terrorist story. This one had slightly higher aspirations, IMO.
Arun: “why could’nt times square station be dadar station?” I completely agree on one level. But with NY and a Muslim plot, it resonates more on a global-marketing scale. (I’m not defending it; just stating the economics of it.) Like Kishor said in his first comment, even Mani Ratnam wants “great music and beautiful actresses in his terrorist themed movies.” With big movies (as opposed to say, A Wednesday or Welcome to Sajjanpur), the global market (unfortunately) dictates everything from the casting to the locales and so on.
This difference between big and small movies has slowly crept into Tamil cinema too (though, thankfully, not yet on such a scale). The Naadodigal and the Pasanga are the only “real” movies any more. Almost anything by the big stars has a compensatory element of gratuitous gloss in it. (Foreign locales and other such gimmickry.)
Also, I feel that people who really love cinema for cinema’s sake (i.e. like you or me) wince at these irritants. But it would be interesting to see what the so-called man on the street has to say. I’d guess all this would be an added attraction for him, and I’m betting Karan Johar and Mani Ratnam and so on have the pulse of that man (who views cinema as just entertainment), and they’re doing what they have to do to put butts on seats. Just a half-baked theory :-).
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Shankar
November 22, 2009
I agree that Karan Johar and Mani do see the so called “add-ons” as market driven and I certainly wince at them too…like the “September Madham” song in Alai Paayudhe, totally unnecessary. I feel, in the recent times, films such as the ones you mention as well as Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu show that you can put butts on the seats without resorting to gimmickry. However, if it has to come down to making big money, these “add-ons” seem to do the trick for the star movies.
Also, in Hindi, I feel this trend has really gone overboard with whole movies being shot abroad, for insufficient reasons. It’s just not about songs and some scenes…it’s the whole thing now!! I don’t quite agree with the fact that these movies are positioned towards NRIs…well, maybe the film maker has that in his mind however, in most cases, the execution is so awful and cringeworthy that it fails. By normal reasoning, wouldn’t you think NRIs would love to see stories set in their homeland rather than watch their fav stars cavorting in their (places like UK and US etc) worlds? Besides, in most cases, the lives shown in these “NRI movies” isn’t what everyone leads here unfortunately…maybe a “Mitr” had some semblance to reality!!
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sureshkumar
November 22, 2009
(Offtopic) Just bought Pixar’s ‘UP’ DVD, and came here to see that you haven’t written anything on ‘UP’ yet.
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Arnav
November 22, 2009
This seems like a case of a critic finding a reason to criticize. There might have been some flaws, but I am quite surprised that you haven’t spoken more about the better aspects of the film. The film is surely so much better made than we see in Hindi films. I thought the film-maker got the tension right in so many places, and the cast was quite competent.
Karan Jauhar is actually making interesting films, and for some reason people continue to treat him like dirt. There is a lot of merit in making a good film without diluting its commercial aspects, which a lot of film-makers and some very opinionated viewers can’t seem to fathom.
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Santosh Kumar T K
November 22, 2009
Raj Balakrishnan,
Do you have a template of standard replies ready to be dispersed through a machine gun every time you see a review on a topical film?
Come on this is not a one off instance, this is a trend. In your efforts in ascribing political and geographical motives to Karan Johar, you hint at his orientations which is none of your or my bloody business! How lower could you go?
It happened for Firaaq, it happened for god knows how many movies after that.
I am sorry to say this you sound like those Indian Express-reading-Gurumurthy-hailing-filter coffee-sipping oldies of the yore who would have only sad things to say about a Sonia Gandhi, a Shah Rukh Khan, a Nandita Das, a Javed Akhtar, and you know what I mean. Pardon me for bringing this up but the frequency of your stuff forced this.
Karan H Joker has also done his best to undermine Hindu culture. By having his leading lady as a Hindu married to a Muslim, he is subtly encouraging the Hindu girls to marry Muslim men and abandon their religion. Where did this come from?!!??!! Again, don’t ascribe so much intelligence to them for they are busy running to their coffers all the time.
See for you the movie in question is never relevant, you find a few keywords and that is enough for you to go on a hyperbole about Islam Hindutva and what not?!!
We had better had brace ourselves to your volleys for there is a My Name is a Khan in the pipeline, and this time your Johar not just produces it but wields the megaphone too!
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vijay
November 22, 2009
If Mani is able to integrate songs into his films successfully more power to him. In Kannathil Muthamittal, for instance, I never found the songs, or the choice of Simran, irritating.Mani has matured since the Roja/Bombay days. And even back then, his movies were anyways more about the romance of the central pair with terrorism or other social issues as just the backdrop. Rang De Basanthi was another film which did a fine job with its songs.Cant remember the movie without Roobaroo playing thru your mind.
It might takes guts to not have songs.
But I feel it takes a certain level of craftsmanship to have them and then integrate them seamlessly with the screenplay.Mani loves his music, I don’t want him to give up on his songs and become all arty just to satisfy a few jolna-pai critics.
And Iruvar is a movie where the cinema lover did not quite wince at the songs, whereas the junta didn’t care for the movie despite the music. Kannathil Muthamittaal flopped too. So much for putting butts in seats.
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sachita
November 22, 2009
“resonates more on a global-marketing scale.” – there isnt a global market for now. dont think nris and diaspora really wud want another ny setting.
I do find it a bit too much when even terrorism based plot has to be taken to NY. it is one thing to set the usual tringular, quadrangular love stories in ny. I mean we have grown up with terrorism on all four sides. It is staring right at our faces here.
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vivek
November 23, 2009
To me, Dil se remains the movie to beat when it comes to all consuming destructive passion, kurbaan’s attempt, while laudable fails mainly due to some very unneccessary plot loopholes. Almost all loopholes could have been taken care of without changing the plot significantly and wouldn’t have left us distracted from the core love story.
I didn’t really know whether to laugh out loud when kareena sees saif the first time aftr the plane bombing and all she asks him is if all his love was mere pretence. If after a guy kills 150 guys, a girl is feeling plain cheated it is incredible but could have understood had the raw passion been introduced earlier.
Too bad saif and kareena weren’t good enough to pull off a coceit of this magnutude.
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Harish S Ram
November 23, 2009
this should be the best review of urs in recent times … am not saying in terms of ur analogy which has always been spot on .. but the way you were able to put across the points… oh wish my writing on Kurbaan could be like this .. lol
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Arun
November 23, 2009
one comment says karan made this movie to corrupt Hindu women and make ’em marry Muslim men! Now, what was that! 🙂
what an insight sirji!
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Rahul
November 23, 2009
Its ironic that Anand is going all Ranganish in looking for pearls in what seems to be a lost cause; and Rangan’s opinion is more like everyone else. 🙂
I sometimes wonder what would have happened to the SRK brand if Karan Johar and Farah Khan hadn’t happened to him. But perhaps Karan Johar is the logical conclusion of Aditya Chopra’s DDLJ. Its hard to resist to build up on that kind of stardom.SRK used to be experimental early on in his career.
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KPV balaji
November 23, 2009
Did you really mean Nadodigal as “real” movie ?? i safely assume subramaniapuram was what you intended to type 🙂
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Farrah
November 23, 2009
I found the movie Kurbaan to be quite Anti-Muslim. I am usually very open-minded about movies I watch, but in this case felt the producer, Karan Johar, should have been more responsible as I feel he has encouraged muslim hatred.
In the cinema I went to watch Kurbaan in, members of the audience were heckling and encouraged by the anti-muslim comments made by the university students regarding 9/11.
They didn’t have much to say when the 3000 dead in US were compared to the 15,000 killed in Afghanistan!
There were a couple of sentences portraying the muslim view, but the rest of it was quite anti-muslim.
1 thing that annoys me is why did Kareena Kapoor have to be Hindu? Did they not think a Muslim wife would feel horrified at being used by a man to get citizenship and be against terrorism? I am a muslim woman and am completely anti-terrorism from ANY religion.
Very disappointed with Karan Johar!
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Rahul
November 23, 2009
My first comment was before I had seen the movie.
My problem with the movie was that it was plain bad writing.KJO gets away with it for other reasons but there was not much in this movie to compensate for badly writ characters and situations.
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Anand
November 23, 2009
Rahul: Ranganish 🙂 I’ll take it as a compliment!
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brangan
November 23, 2009
vijay: Did you really feel “Maiya Maiya” or “Bolo Guru” were integrated well? The point isn’t to do away with songs, as you seem to suggest. I’d hate Indian cinema to give up the musical format. It’s about the commercial compulsions, like NY locations or casting Aishwarya Rai and so on.
vivek: Oh wow, another Dil Se fan. I love that film. For the most part, it’s easily Mani’s most atmospheric movie, right from the wind-blown barbed-wire beginning — you could cut the tension with a knife. The eerily seductive love angle, the long trek through the barren landscape where the lovers get to know one another, the fantastic music videos (all integrated beautifully, especially Satrangi Re) — it was a film far ahead of its time. Even the political parts where Mani usually falters (or compromises) weren’t as embarrassing here. I wonder how it would do if released in today’s multiplex climate.
KPV balaji: I meant real in terms of setting.
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Kishor
November 23, 2009
Hi Rangan, did u read Khalid Mohamed’s review. He got very offended that KJo used his first name for the terrorist’s real name. Do you think KJo has done it purposefully to insult him ?
This is the part from his reivew
“And ha ha , not only because it is revealed at the end that the real name of Saif Ali Khan’s terrorist happens to be Khalid. Thanks Karan, Rensil..I’d just like to see how you guys would respond if your names were used for heinous criminals on screen. Or even in graffiti. Try it.”
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Elizabeth
November 23, 2009
Are Dil Se fans rare? I love that film. I was too young to really understand it when it was first released, but since then I’ve watched it a few times and I seem to keep finding more reasons to love it. What’s more, I think Preity Zinta gave what was her best performance in what was her first (or was it second?) movie. I wouldn’t ever argue that it’s not commercial, though. I think it was very much a commercial film.
Also, as a fan of Alaipayuthe, I think Saathiya, even though it was almost a scene for scene remake, is a good example of how gloss can sometimes be extraneous. Saathiya was slicker, with designer costumes, et al, yet it didn’t resonate with me as much as the original.
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manish gaekwad
November 23, 2009
In particular, a scene where Saif has a minor argument with Om Puri defending Kareena’s right to live when she discovers their high-voltage plans, one gets a rich taste of Rensil’s artistic framing of his subject as the camera pulls out of the scene on a trolley shot – perfectly timed to the length of the dialogue with Saif’s last lingering shot as a man caught up between duty and love. And the film is riddled with these many beautifully framed shots – so stylized that it seems that was the peg Karan Johar must have been sold on during the script narration.
Also, Brangan, I was wishing for Avantika’s ‘brainwash’ as much as you, but that, in the likelihood of her being a psychology professor, seems far more wishful thinking, than K-jo wanting to give her character that much intelligence over simpering beauty.
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 23, 2009
Santosh Kumar,
I am trying to wake up sleeping Hindus like you.
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Vamshi
November 23, 2009
Responding to BR’s comment No. 12 above. I think or at least hope that audiences have got fed up of seeing our movies, our emotions and our stories being played out in New York or London or Melbourne. Kurbaan has had disastrous openings apparently and hopefully things will turn a new leaf sooner or later (later it seems, seeing the promos of Paa, that too seems to have been set somewhere abroad). This has been a bad year for Hindi cinema and i couldn’t be happier.
In the attempt to cater to a richer audiences (not wider audience), our filmmakers are completely alienating Indian audiences. Why should not someone see a dubbed version of United 93 or even Kingdom etc. rather than see Kurbaan or New York. They don’t realise it, but it is only a short step away. Apart from the cast, if everything is Western, you are already sensitivising the audiences to accept dubbed versions. Contrast that to Chinese cinema which makes rich use of Chinese folklore, history, Hong Kong urban settings, to make very widely appreciated movies ranging from Hero to Crouching Tiger to Infernal Affairs to In the mood for Love.
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Arif Attar
November 23, 2009
Dil Se happens to be my favourite as well. Saw that movie twice in the cinema in a week. The movie was so brilliant that I tolerated Shahrukh Khan not once but twice.
I know BR you don’t like to censor comments on your forum, but I think you could give a thought to making an exception to that for one or two of the comments at least.
Arif
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manish gaekwad
November 23, 2009
Yikes, typo … B Rangan I meant! Mea culpa 😦
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Anand
November 23, 2009
Talking about Dil Se, there is a engagement ceremony that happens in the film at Delhi, all relatives sing songs, everyone wears new clothes, children keep playing and running. And yet, you do not get reminded of any Yashraj/Rajshree engagement/wedding scenes.
And I truly believe that it was SRK’s most real performance till date (Swades will come second). How he portrayed the confusion and frustration of the protaganist!!
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Ankur
November 23, 2009
I seriously don’t understand the need for a plot based out of India for each and every movie. It certainly isn’t a demand of the narrative, I am not even sure it has a correlation to box office performance. When DDLJ came out in 96, it was different, but now I find Aamir’s Mumbai scenes more interesting than the now oft-repeated dancing in one of the many European cities.
Now than every Tom, Dick and Harry producer is going out shooting in US and Europe, I hope it suddenly becomes fashionable to shoot in India.
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Vivek
November 23, 2009
@brangan: Yes it’s that eerily seductive love track which I think Kurbaan was going for, but could never reach. Dil se probably would have been better received today, but it wasn’t a “multiplex” movie in as much it wasn’t entertainment really. Slow burning, intense and eerie do not get huge 3 day openings even now.
Btw, while Raj B is quite clearly reading a little too much into KJo’s intentions, I think Kareena’s “Hindu” identity was put across rather subtly. She sports a rather noticebale “Om” pendant in the Delhi scenes. I thought it stood out because there is nothing shown to us highlighting the role of being a Hindu woman plays in her life and OM is a rather unsual pendant for an urbane psychology professor. The said pendant did disappear once she got married though.
Agree with Manish, I thought some of the camera angles used to set up scenes were pretty interesting. esp the ones in that eerie Indian neighbourhood.
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S.Ganesh Kumar
November 23, 2009
It’s almost a foregone conclusion that the film won’t be too serious on the theme,considering more hype was given to Saif-Kareena’s onscreen-chmistry in the publicity,rather than the content or the terrorism topic. 😀
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Harish S Ram
November 23, 2009
why was Anuraj Kashyap used in this film still baffles me … the dialogues were plain straight and the screenplay rarely attempts at being novel …
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Aly
November 23, 2009
Rangan,
so you have issues with Mani casting Aishwarya? I’m assuming for Iruvar, Guru or the upcoming Ravan. Do you have issues with him casting Abhishek or is just reserved for certain actresses. Aishwarya has done some of her best work with Mani. Why shouldn’t she be cast if she fits the role.
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VJ
November 23, 2009
IMO the best movie on Terrorism I have seen so far is Santosh Sivan’s Terrorist . I liked how it eschews the politics and focuses on the psychology of the suicide bomber and the palpable tension towards the end was quite well done.
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the mad momma
November 24, 2009
*raises hand* another Dil Se fan here. Brilliantly done.
and oh – I havent caught this movie yet. the love jihad theory in the papers really annoyed me. and then i see someone quoting it here too. as usual though, your review makes me want to catch it…
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Amrita
November 24, 2009
Is it absolutely weird that this movie reminded me of A History of Violence? As in, this could have been a thriller along those lines and really blown it out of the water if it wasn’t so committed to the need to be important?
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KayKay
November 24, 2009
Sorry for the oft-tangent post, haven’t seen the movie but damn if “Shukran Allah” hasn’t taken possession of my listening senses.
A gorgeous ballad that proves that when Sonu Nigam’s firing on all cylinders, no one wrings every ounce of romantic longing from a tune like him.
Kudos to Salim-Sulaiman for a great soundtrack and that’s saying something, given that it’s fighting for chart space against hefty competition like SEL’s anthemic London Dreams and Pritam’s superlative scores for Tum Mile and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.
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brangan
November 24, 2009
Vamshi/Ankur: About this whole movies-set-abroad thing, it’d be interesting to see what percent of them are actually set abroad. I think that because the big, splashy films are shot abroad, we forget that an equal number are set right here — including Karan Johar’s own Wake Up Sid, along with Kaminey, Dev.D, Rab Ne and Chak De (for SRK), Ghajini and 3 Idiots (for Aamir)… If someone has the timer (translation: if someone is jobless) they might think of calculating some sort of percentage of films set here versus there 🙂
Arif Attar: I hear you, but then I will have to get into what to censor and what not to. That’s a whole new can of worms.
Vivek: Reg.”it’s that eerily seductive love track which I think Kurbaan was going for…” I don’t think so at all. The romance was given extremely short shrift here (by design, as it was just the key to getting to New York). I think the suburb portions were more designed to be eerie (hence my recall of Levin).
Harish S Ram: Anurag Kashyap needs to pay the bills too, right? 🙂 Sometimes, a job’s just a job, not a personal statement. Even a lot of what I write is because the editor puts a gun to my head. I may not be interested (or even knowledgeable) about the area, but, as I said. sometimes it’s just a job.
Aly: Reg. “Aishwarya has done some of her best work with Mani.” True. But doing one’s best versus being completely suited to the role and being spontaneous and alive on screen — which would you prefer?
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Anil Hingorani
November 24, 2009
“while not exactly a bad film” – you must be kidding!!! this is pure garbage – one of the most offending and badly written/driected/acted films of the year.
It’s funny – the only scene that I actually thought was not bad was the one that reminded me of “rosemary’s baby”. I thought I was nuts to even mention that Polanski masterpiece in the same vicitnity as this drivel. I was happy to see you reference it too.
Cheers,
Anil
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Anand
November 24, 2009
Manish Gaekwad: The shot you were talking about is a typical ‘Mani’ shot. Right from Nayagan, he has used it many times to portray characters in a dilemma. (Watch the scene in which Nayagan tells his daughter: Idhellam Nanga enna venumta panrom, vera vazhi illada kanna). I would like to think that Rensil, who treats Mani as his Drona, has paid tribute to Mani by incorporating this shot.
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Anand
November 24, 2009
Another one in Dil Se (which has been discussed here), where Manisha woders aloud to Mita Vashisht if they are doing the right thing.
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Anand
November 24, 2009
BR: I disagree again. In Iruvar I think she was aptly cast as the beautiful and soft Pushpa and the arrogant and playful Kalpana.
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Harish S Ram
November 24, 2009
came across this comic (yes real comic/graphic) review of Kurbaan!! wow … semma piece http://ow.ly/Ecz6
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brangan
November 25, 2009
Harish S Ram: There’s also a series that runs (or used to run) in Cine Blitz, where they go the “Mad” magazine route and spoof Hindi films (irrespective of whether the film was good, bad or ugly). Some of the sketches were quite funny.
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Shuchi
November 28, 2009
There were too many plot loopholes in Kurbaan to make me take it seriously. The excessive (and unnecessary, IMO) show of blood and gore and the decomposing dead body also put me off.
The parts soon after their move to the Indian neighborhood were well done, but that’s about it. I thought Vivek Oberoi’s role needed acting of a higher caliber to bring it conviction.
PS: If one must pick a message about Hindu-Muslim marriages from such films, then surely the message is ‘Avoid!’. No matter how nice and normal the Muslim guy appears, the film’s Hindu heroine ends up finding out that she made a horrible mistake!
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indian muslim
December 17, 2009
BR – I have been a fan of your reviews but I must say I was sorely disappointed by this one. It is obvious you didn’t like the movie, but that’s not a surprise considering how poorly the movie was made.
A couple of things that irked me about your review – Riyaz does not ‘sneak’ into Ehsaan’s lecture hall, he shows up after being invited. Avantika is in no sense ‘torn’ between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ Muslim – she’s simply not smart enough to call 911.
Every scene in the movie is so overly contrived that I was torn between crying and laughing at the stupidity of it all.
I’m Indian, I was raised a Muslim and I’ve lived in the US for about ten years and there wasn’t a single thought or idea in Kurbaan that I could connect with.
I have to respond to Arun’s comment – no I don’t think this movie was made for a US audience either – it is too silly for any thinking audience.
cheers.
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