Kurbaan

One of the slickest looking movies to come out of Bollywood this year, Kurbaan is worth a watch just for its high quality visuals. Rensil D’Silva and his team will wow you by their sheer technical brilliance - I cant remember the last time frames of any movie looked so good. And designer Aki Narula’s wardrobe and overall look for Kareena adds a lot to the beauty of the movie – deep kohl lined eyes and rich Indian clothes (without a single hot pants or low-cut top).

Kareena gives one of her better performances as Avantika, even though she has very limited dialogues and screentime. Her eyes speak for her as she goes through emotions from amusement to happiness to despair and sorrow. She reminds us why she is one of the best actresses around today. And she completely outshines Saif in the second half, where he appears to be rolling through the scenes without much effort. However Saif is in his own territory in the first half, where he is the suave, confident dude who is trying to sweep Avantika off her feet. Their chemistry is sparkling and it is not very difficult to guess that they are a real-life couple.

Kurbaan is a love story of Ehsaan (Saif) and Avantika (Kareena) set in a background of muslim terrorism. Avantika is a professor of psychology in NY university, but she is teaching in Delhi university for a semester because her dad is recovering from a stroke in Delhi. There she bumps into Ehsaan Khan, a new professor at the college and soon they fall in love. However, she gets an ultimatum to return to NY for the next semester and Ehsaan agrees to go with her to the US – after marriage. And so they land up in New York.

And all this happens in the first 15 min of the movie!

The Good
Throughout the first half of the movie, pace is quick – almost frenetic. You get the feeling you are watching a thriller rather than a love story. The background score of the movie enhances that edgy feeling. And most importantly, logic is not sacrificed as most of the characters in the movie are more realistic – and not caricaturish. What they say or do makes sense – like the FBI is not just composed of muslim-hating officers.

Acting was a positive surprise – especially from Vivek Oberoi. He was much better than I remembered, and Kiron Kher does the Afghani accent exceedingly well.
And a trivial positive - when the police try to defuse a bomb, the wrong wire is cut and things go kaboom. Not like other movies where invariably, the correct wire is cut.

The Bad
Post-intermission, the movie slows down quite a bit, but the biggest failure of the movie is its climax. The screenplay abandons all pretence of logic or reason and its all senti-drama. Kareena does very well in the acting department, but Saif just sleepwalks through the role here. Given that there were lot of expectations from his negative or ‘grey’ character’, Saif fails to get you to sympathize in Ehsaan.

Kurbaan is a more realistic movie that New York or Fanaa – but its not a Khuda Kay Liye either. What works for it is superb production values and the chemistry between its lead-actors – the spark between them is quite visible. But it is let down by the Bollywood philosophy of love above everything else. It would easily qualify for 4 stars, were I to consider only the first half. However, it loses its way significantly in the second half and the stretched climax leaves a bad taste in your mouth.