Film: Kurbaan
Rating: 3.5/5
Banners: Dharma Productions, UTV Motion Pictures
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Dia Mirza, Kirron Kher, Om Puri, Akash Khurana, Nauheed Cyrusi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda etc
Music: Sulaiman Merchant- Salim Merchant
Dialogues: Anurag Kashyap, Niranjan Iyengar
Editor: Asif Ali Shaikh
Cinematography: Hemant Chaturvedi
Director: Rensil D'Silva
Producers: Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar
Release Date: November 20, 2009
For the first time, the off screen love birds Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor are pairing up and the expectations are high since it is also coming from Karan Johar. While the posters created a bit of controversy, here is a look at whether the film is worth or not.
Story:
A love tale ridden with terror, the story begins on the backdrop of a university in Delhi and here is Avantika (Kareena), a professor who returns from New York to see her ailing father and joins the university. Her life takes a turn with the joining of the new professor Ehsaan Khan (Saif) and in no time, he manages to woo her and win her heart as well. Soon, Avantika gets a call to return to New York and Ehsaan offers to join her. They get married, take a home, find new Muslim neighbors and even visit their place for dinner. One day, Salma (Nauheed) comes to Avantika and asks for help as her life is in danger. Soon, Avantika is exposed to a vicious layer of plots and realizes that she was just a part of it. What happens from there forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Saif Ali Khan:
He has come up with a decent performance and looked apt with the icy look. Unlike his energy driven performances, this was rather calm and suited the character.
Kareena Kapoor:
She looks beautiful and has enacted the emotional scenes very well. However, she needs to put an extra ounce of flesh on her body, that would make her look even more charming. She looks trendy.
Vivek Oberoi:
His character had depth and intensity and Vivek carried his role with élan, his expressions during the serious scenes were impact creating.
Om Puri:
He is the best bet for such a role and though he looks too elegant for a fundamentalist, his cold stare and heavy dialogue delivery sure makes him look like the perfect mastermind.
Kirron Kher:
She carries her role with elegance and her presence was felt strongly on the screen. There is maturity in her performance and her screen chemistry is effective.
Dia Mirza
Her role was brief but she looks pretty though she doesn’t have that Muslim girl look.
Others:
Nauheed looks sweet but scary after she is dead, the American actors were good, Akash Khurana just came and went, Kulbushan Kharbanda shines for few seconds.
Highlights:
Dialogues
Background Score
Cinematography
Limitations:
Predictable Screenplay
Slow narration
Directorial flaws (how the trains move away without stopping when a mission against international terrorism is going on?? Watch the film to know about this in detail)
Analysis:
This is like any other film on terrorism but with US backdrop. The movie Newyork, The Wednesday, Mani Rathnam’s Roja etc fall in this genre but every thing has its own convincing line of narration with set-characters. Kurbaan is one such film.
The main drawback in this film is it has got no much energy in narration and less thrilling moments as it’s quite predictable for audiences those who have used to this kind of films. The plus side in this film is that t has got horripilate background score that pulls audiences to screens with pin drop silence.
There is a message in this film for girls especially- ‘Don’t blindly allow your new found lovers to fly along with you to any country as dependant. Your life may get screwed!!!”
On a whole, the commercial quotient in this film is meager although it has got a hot nude song, that pulls a set of crowds. Otherwise, it is a good film with no great features.
Bottom Line: Nothing bad that irks audiences. It's good.
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
