Good, but not excellent!. Review on Kal Ho Naa Ho

So, the much awaited flick,'Kal Ho Na Ho' is out and running.although i'm of the opinion that it is a nice movie I thought it had its not so enjoyable points.Well, here's about the movie......

The CAST(MAIN PEOPLE)

Shahrukh Khan:Plays 'the happy go lucky',considerate Aman Mathur.

Preiti Zinta:Naina, a woman of many traits as we discover during the course of the movie.

Saif Ali Khan:The ever so funny Rohit Patel,Naina's friend.

Jaya Bachchan:Jennifer Kapoor,Naina's mom.

Sonali Bendre:a bit of a controversial character.

The Basic Story

The main story revolves around the life of Naina,a girl who has seen only pain,hatred throughout her life,her father commiting suicide out of cowardice being the main reason behind her sorrows.She and her family live in a quiet neighbourhood in New York. However,everything changes for Naina,with the arrival of Aman ,her new neighbour,who teaches her the meaning of love,the joy one gets out of a smile,out of living for the moment.aman,we learn,is a heart patient.Now,Naina has a Gujarati friend in the form of Rohit ,and basically what we eventually land up with is A LOVE TRIANGLE situation and naturally like all other similar hindi flicks,one of the guys has to make a sacrifice.Who?.....Well,i guess most of you would know it by now,but those of you who don't,surprise is not one of the strengths of the movie.In fact ,Aman makes it very clear in the first halfthat he's the one who is going to make the sacrifice.There was a bit of a suspense factor regarding the true identity of Sonali Bendre,but if you are attentive enough you'll know soon enough that she's not part of the romance bit.Thats what the movie is basically about.

THE GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE MOVIE

Concept:There wasn't much original about the concept,typical hindi love triangle movie,maybe put in a slightly different form,one could say.

Direction:The concept may have been common,but the direction was much better than most such movies for most part of the film.The director has been able to strike great balance between the humorous and sentimental stuff with great success.

The Ending:Deserves a special mention here,i mean it was the only real bad part of the movie.The director overdid the portrayal of the sentimental bit,the tragedical part,things becoming really tense.And he left it at that for too long,so long that,you'll be praying for the movie to finish,which doesn't do justice to the rest of the movie which was really good.It would be easy to to say Shahrukh Khan overacted like he sometimes does,but it was the director's fault here.

Humour:The humorous aspects of the movie were brilliantly presented.Saif with Shahrukh deserve special praise here,with everyone else playing their parts in their funny bits.There wasn't a single character in the movie who didn't have a hilarious part and noone who didn't play it well.There may have been a few pjs from saif but then that guy can make you laugh at those too.

Unfair to Gujaratis:It may all have been pretty humorous,but then what was very noticable was that from the very begining,it seemed that there was a whole hearted attempt to degrade Gujaratis,they being at the receiving end of all cruel aspects of most jokes and pranks.So, it wasn't a movie for sensitive Gujaratis,i guess.

Acting:The overall acting performance by everyone was very good. Sharukh, Saif, Preiti leading the way with some brilliant performances and the pleasant feature of this moviewas that even the not so important characters played their parts well,which was good to see.

The Songs:The good thing about the songs were that they fit into their respective situations perfectly.Songs like 'Mahi Re' , ' It's the time to disco', 'Har ghari badal......' all being very occasion specific.So,all though the songs were not a spectacular lot,the impact on the viewers would be more due to their degree of suitability.I thought ,'Har ghari......Kal Ho Na Ho' was the best song, it's a song in which one'll be able to live through all its emotions and when you've got Sonu Nigam singing it,that was bound to happen.Only disappointing part of the music was that 'Pretty Woman' from the originality point of view.

DHARMA PRODUCTIONS

Directed by:Nikhil Advani

So,that was 'Kal Ho Na Ho',all in all, a good movie definitely worth watching once but by no means a 'greatest flick' or or something like the box office collections would suggest. Anyways, give it a go all the same.