Kal Ho Naa Ho (Hindi Language) > Reviews > Love, dance and sing for tomorrow may never come

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Weak
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Good story, solid performances, excellent soundtrack and well written script
Disadvantages:	Long and too many crying scenes towards the end

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Everyone knows the stereotypical Bollywood movie: glamorous foreign locations, girls in skimpy outfits, cheesy item numbers, and a ridiculous plot that is impossible to take seriously. Happily though, Kal Ho Naa Ho (KHNH) manages to stay faithful to time honored elements of the Bollywood tradition while at the same time achieving funny dialogue, a stellar soundtrack, and overall decent performances. The Bollywood musical has just gotten a makeover, and the results couldn't be more pleasing to the audience.

Cast:
Preity Zinta - Naina Catherine Kapur
Shah Rukh Khan - Aman Mathur
Saif Ali Khan - Rohit Patel
Jaya Bachchan - Jennifer Kapur
Lilette Dubey - Jaswinder "Jazz" Kapoor
Delnaaz Paul - Jasprit "Sweetu" Kapoor
(see imdb.com for more details)
Directed by Nikhil Advani, written by Karan Johar
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Plot:
Naina (Zinta) is a 20something living in New York City who has little joy in her life between her studies and the incessant quarreling in her household between her mother, who is Christian, and her grandmother, who is a Sikh. To add to the problems, her grandmother hates her younger sister, Gia, because she is adopted, money is tight, and everyone misses Naina's father who is dead.

Life does not look happy until one day Aman breezes into the life of the Kapur family, bringing happiness and mirth with him, but he hides a tragic secret from them. Determined to make Naina's life better in any way he can, he tries to set her up with her best friend Rohit, and a complicated love triangle soon emerges that will have an impact on all of their lives...
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Although the plot of KHNH is nothing extraordinary or even inspiring, it still manages to be a crowd-pleaser due to extremely well written dialogue and songs. Karan Johar has eschewed much of the unbearably saccharine dialogue of most Hindi films for snappy, witty dialogue that is often quite funny - this is the only Hindi movie I've ever seen where I genuinely clutched at my sides in laughter. The humor is cheeky, naughty, and very tounge-in-cheek but never crosses the line into vulgarity. There are some slow spots, but on the whole, the script flows quite well and is complemented nicely by brilliant songs written by Javed Akhtar which fit into the script rather than appearing out of the blue as they normally do. That is not to say the movie is free of cheesy moments - the scene where religious harmony is finally achieved in the Kapur household is dreadful, as is the huge revelatory scene. The second part of the movie disintegrates however, into a flood of tears and is not nearly as good as the first part, but still decent.

The performances too, are unusually strong across the board. Jaya Bachchan is excellent as Naina's mother, Jennifer, and Shah Rukh Khan is unusually witty and funny, a trait that saves his character from succumbing to the sometimes unbearable cheesiness. Saif Ali Khan is likeable as Rohit, as is Preity Zinta as Naina - not outstanding characters, but ones that you could well imagine being friends with. The performances by Lilette Dubey and Delnaaz Paul are both hysterical and uncharacteristically naughty for a Hindi movie. The pairing of Khan and Khan for some memorable vignettes is also a huge success.

Despite the sleeker packaging, KHNH is still, at its heart, a true Bollywood flick, replete with corny moments, teary eyes galore, love triangles, and of course, the time-honored dance sequences. The first of the movie, a rocking re-make of the Roy Orbison classic "Pretty Woman" is characteristically over the top, but is one of my favorite songs to listen to on my playlist. "Kuch To Hua Hai" (Something Has Happened) is a delightfully exuberant love song, but any over-sentimentality is immediately offset by the surprise twist at the end of the song about who is really being sung about. Maahi Ve is set during a lavish wedding scene and is wonderful to dance to at a party for something different, as is "It's the Time to Disco." The short number on being Gujrati is priceless (although the humor will sadly be lost on those not familiar to Indian stereotypes), but it is the theme song of the movie, Kal Ho Naa Ho that is my absolute favorite. Akhtar has combined a haunting melody with introspective lyrics that captures the melancholy side of the movie perfectly. The songs fit well with the movie, and run the range from all out exuberance to bittersweet sadness.

Yes, the movie is excessively long, with many parts in the second half that could easily have been cut. Yes, Karan Johar unnecessarily ruined what would have been a fantastic script by inserting sideplots that distract from the simplicity of the main story and add ridiculous amounts of melodrama, but then again, this wouldn't be a Bollywood movie if it didn't have those elements. Still, the movie is a fresh take on a tried and true formula and succeeds with panache. Some may be turned off by aforementioned issues with the movie, but I'm willing to bet that most will love it.

Details:
Language: Hindi
Subtitles: English (if you see this in a theater abroad, or buy a DVD, it should have subtitles)
Running Time: 3 hours approx.