Kurbaan

Only if someone other than Karan Johar had written the story of Kurbaan, it may have been a better story… Or maybe I want to tell Karan Johar to stick to his ‘Its all about loving… whoever’ formula. The biggest flaw in the story – why doesn’t Vivek Oberoi go to the cops from the word go?? That would have saved the lives of hundreds of people!!! But then there would be no Kurbaan!

Since I found the story flawed, I cannot rate this movie anything above 3/5. But I will give my due to Rensil D’silva (I had expectations from him since he wrote the screenplay for Rang De) for some good direction, especially in the first half of the movie. The first quarter of the movie is slick, progressing quickly and showcasing the bare minimum – the few months of romance, a quick song in the background, Saif meeting Kareena’s father and in the next shot, the plane landing in New York! Again, the neighbors inviting Saif and Kareena for dinner and the next shot, they are already there! Also, I will give it to Saif and the director that until the scene with Kareena, you would never guess that he is a terrorist. I found Saif’s character mysterious but did not expect him to be one of them… Maybe the first half was so engrossing that it didn’t give me a lot of time to think.

But the second half started going down the drain, right from the time Vivek decided to take things in his own hands!!! Saif, supposed to be one of the most sought after terrorist, believing in Vivek based on two speeches made by him, the terrorist group doing NO background check on Vivek, all seemed like flaws in the story and screenplay. Similarly, I was amazed by the fact that all the terrorists live in the same neighborhood, travel together in the same car when they are going to bomb subways in New York, I mean come’on – kache khiladi lag rahe the. You cannot just bring together four Muslim looking men with beards and throw them at the audience – these are terrorists!!! The bunch of terrorists in the movie New York seemed much more dangerous and convincing. Similarly, the FBI had only one agent Collins who had to be at the Church to meet Vivek and then drive all the way across town to save all the subway stations. Agent Hayes evacuates the subway station and instead of running for his life decides to cut the red wire on the bomb… I guess enough of movie bashing…

Now for the good parts other than the direction in the first half. Most of the supporting actors have done a good job, be it Diya Mirza in a three screen cameo or Hakeel or the experienced actors like Kulbushan and Kiron Kher. Since I don’t consider Vivek Oberoi an actor, I would give him credit for his role and his part. Though, towards the end he got so comfortable in the role that he started to overact. There is nothing to write home about Saif but he is surely becoming a versatile actor – be it a lover boy in Love Aaj Kal or a terrorist in love in Kurbaan. But I was the most impressed with Kareena – although not the main protagonist of the movie, she delivered every scene very well – right from the romance with Saif, the excited new bride, the terrified mother and the last scene of the movie. I have always struggled with calling her a good actor, but every now and then she delivers good performances and this one is surely one of her better one’s.

I have been hearing that everyone is loving the movie - rediff.com actually titled the review as a ‘bloody smart movie’ – not sure if I would go that far! As far as I am concerned, with no expectations about the movie I did not dislike the movie – but then my tolerance for movies is much higher and I would not call any movie out right bad! So, if you have nothing better to do and like trying new movies and new directors, give this a watch!