Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (कभी अलविदा ना कहना)(Hindi, 2006)

After a long time, a Karan Johar movie. With Shahrukh and Rani. A supporting cast of Preity, Abhishek, Amitabh and Kiron Kher. The trailers showed a story around love and triangles, Karan Johar's speciality. Expectations all around were for a reasonably good movie, at least worth a dekho. And then came the first surprise. The day before I went to see the movie, I go to a party and all the talk there is about how bad the movie is. Big disappointment. Not having a high opinion of either Karan Johar (let's admit it, I was going only because of my wife) or of these critics' movie acumen, I did not worry too much about it. I went into the movie primarily to see good sets, beautiful actresses and colourful dresses. Then came the real surprise. What I saw was neither some syrupy love story about love at first sight, nor the nautanki of Ekta-Kapoor-serial-type extramarital affairs. What I saw was a very mature narration of the story of two people in uncomfortable relationships falling for each other and how the relationships progress. It was not half-bad! Not bad at all.

Dev (Shahrukh Khan) plays an ex-footballer who is bitter with life because he has injured his leg in an accident and can't play any longer. He is married to Rhea (Preity Zinta), who is a high-flyer at a fashion magazine. Dev is absolutely uncomfortable with Rhea's success and his own failures, and has become a very negative person. Maya (Rani Mukherjee) is a school teacher and is married to her childhood friend, Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan), who loves her madly. Maya's feelings towards Rishi, however, are that of a friend rather than a lover. Rishi is an events organiser and hence is into a party-every-evening kind of lifestyle, and Maya is a very reserved kind of a person, hating these parties. Their relationship is summed up by a statement from Rishi - गलती मैं भी करता हूँ, गलती तुम भी करती हो; फ़र्क ये है कि मैं हमेशा रिश्ता बनाने की बात करता हूँ और तुम हमेशा रिश्ता तोडने की (Both of us commit mistakes, but I always talk about making relationships, while you talk about breaking them).

The movie is about these two quite negative people (negative not as in villian, negative as in negative-frame-of-mind), how they find an immediate attraction to each other, how they decide to help each other save their existing relationships but instead find themselves coming closer. Even though Rishi and Rhea very much want to save the relationships, the inherent negativity in Dev and Maya leads to those relationships ending. The extent of negativity is such that these two individuals, inspite of loving each other, don't tell each other of these break-ups and drift apart. They meet in the end, of course, its a Hindi movie after all, perhaps that is the only discordant note in the movie.

I can understand why many people do not like the movie. For one, most people cannot/ don't-want-to identify with either Dev or Maya. Second, it goes absolutely against all the family values that most Indians hold dear. Third and perhaps more important, most Indians go to a movie to have fun, not to see a serious movie about how personalities affect relationships. I can understand all that. But that does not make it a bad movie in my view. These things happen, people do develop negativities in them which affect their relationships, and people do get attracted to each other inspite of everything.

It is a very mature plot, with very mature performances by all the actors concerned. I don't see myself ever in Dev's shoes, but that does not stop me from admiring Shahrukh's portrayal of the character. (For that matter, I can't see myself in Superman's shoes, does that mean I can't like Superman?). Good acting, good direction, nice costumes, nice cinematography.

Recommendation - A very heavy-going movie. Go see it, but be prepared for serious stuff.
Rating - ✔✔✔