At the outset I have to confess, I'm not a fan of all the movies that have come out of Dharma Productions. I don't like to be treated like someone whose brain is in a deep freezer. I also have to confess that I went to watch "Kurbaan" with a lot of contempt, I even argued with a friend about the quality of content that could be on screen. I'm glad I was proven wrong, the movie turned out to be a surprise, a rather pleasant one at that.
Rensil D'Silva's directorial debut turned out to be an engaging thriller worth the money you pay to gain admission into the theaters. Previously credited for the screenplay of "Rang De Basanti" along with Rakesh Mehra, Rensil writes Karan Johar's story for the screen and does it respectably. Here's a movie Bollywood can be proud off, here's an effort from Karan Johar's production house that'll partly answer all the criticism he's been getting from many sources, the harshest being the folks at PFC.
I don't want to spell out the story, it's about a Muslim man and Hindu woman falling in love, both are professors in a college in Delhi. They move to the US, the man going abroad to get the woman to return back to her US university job. A murder in the asian neighbourhood they live in and suspicious characters of a particular religion get's the movie to speed up. There are moments when you lose a heart beat following on-screen action, there is a lot of suspense and all's well does not end well.
Saif Ali Khan plays the role of Ehsaan, he almost underplays his character to terrific effort. He looks slightly older than the age he portrays on screen though. Kareena plays her role of Avantika to perfection, from being subtle she moves to forceful in a sublime sort of a way towards the end. Vivek Oberoi excels in the role of Riyaz, a journalist with a news channel despite intermittently botching up the accent when he has to speak like an American citizen. Diya Mirza plays Rehana and sticks out like a sore thumb amidst these acting talents, she's wooden to say the least.
Salim - Sulaiman have delivered a rousing background score to the movie with loads of silence interspersed. There's a lovely piano that's played to highlight certain emotions and a very country-sounding guitar is employed for the lighter scenes. I liked the background score more than the soundtrack which is good despite having the characteristic KJo rhythm patterns. I'd like to call the editing lazy, despite being a thriller the transitions between scenes aren't abrupt, they are gradual, works in a very nice way.
Of course parallels might be drawn by some to "Fanaa", "New York", "Khuda Ke Liye" however the similarity would just be the backdrop of terrorism that these movies are set to. "Kurbaan" refreshingly avoids taking an over-simplistic view of the subject, it doesn't give you a long sermon in the end about good and bad, it doesn't take sides, I loved this aspect of the movie the most. Another aspect is the lack of dumbing down the film and the absence of flashbacks for every single plot point.
There's a scene in the movie where the camera focuses to Kiron Kher's (A regular in Dharma Productions) face while she speaks about incidents in her life and in that one minute, you paint a picture of what she's talking about in your mind to such dramatic effect that introducing a flashback scene there cannot match what your mind portrays to you in response to the acting on screen. Kiron Kher and Om Puri excel in the roles they have been assigned.
Nakul Kamte's sound design is minimalistic, I can say this simply because in the South we are used to turning once in a while to check what's going on because of the sound that emanates from the surround speakers. When Saif and Kareena are having a dialogue on the roof top of a building about moving to the US there is silence in the soundtrack, clear dialogues, birds chirping, a hint of a breeze and many such atmospheric elements, nice work.
Despite the lack of a water tight plot, despite not being an overtly intelligent movie, despite being able to guess the twists beforehand, "Kurbaan" is a must watch for it's content, top class acting (the best this year) and a decent screenplay.
