When ''Yaadein'' was released close to four years ago, it had become quite apparent that Subhash Ghai had let his desperation to please crowds cloud his better judgment as a filmmaker.
In what is a clear take-off of James Cameron´s ''Titanic,'' Ghai´s ''Kisna'' begins in the present day, with an old, wealthy British woman visiting India. She´s visiting to donate millions of dollars towards the establishment of a school in small town called Devprayag.
An understated attraction between a young Indian man, Kisna (Vivek Oberoi), and a young British woman, Catherine (Antonia Bernath), becomes problematic when the young man is engaged to a village belle, Lakshmi (Isha Sharvani). Shortly after the engagement, a mob of anti-British Indian nationalists storm Catherine´s house.
Kisna saves her, and takes on the responsibility of transporting her safely to the British High Commission in Delhi. Along the way, a villainous prince and Kisna´s own uncle and brother attempt to murder Catherine.
Sequences lifted from a number of cinematic (Sanjay Leela Bhansali´s ''Devdas'') and literary sources (''The Mahabharat,'' ''Bhagavad Puran'') continue to unfold until a climax reminiscent of Martin Scorsese´s ''Gangs of New York'' brings the film to an end.
''Kisna'' represents yet another thoroughly unoriginal, uninspired effort from Subhash Ghai. Instead of borrowing elements from safe commercial successes (college romance, family films) “showman” Ghai opts to lift scene after scene from more ambitious, risky productions (''Lagaan,'' ''Devdas,'' etc).
What Ghai fails to realize is that copying from a good source won´t make his own film any better. ''Kisna'' plays like disorganized, incoherent jumble of scenes from different films that don´t quite belong together.
The elements that actually are original are ridiculous and insult audience intelligence (Kisna disguised as a wealthy Arab, concealing his identity with sunglasses). The film has no discernable central theme, no defined protagonist or antagonist, and no real sense of danger since we know that Catherine survives to retell her story.
Ghai claimed that this was a story deeply rooted in Indian philosophy and religion. Having seen the film, this reference falls just short of insulting.
There are few parallels between the real story of Krishna and the story presented here. Sprinkling poorly written dialog with words like ''dharma'' and ''karma'' doesn´t make a film deep or philosophically significant, Mr. Ghai.
''The Warrior Poet,'' is an apt, contradictory tagline for the film, as the writers cannot seem to decide whether the film is an action epic or love story. The film´s tone and approach shifts drastically time and time again as the narrative unfolds and, in the end, we are left with neither a satisfying action film nor a compelling romance.
Is Kisna, who is never really shown as any sort of legitimate ''warrior,'' supposed to become one at the end of the film? If that was Ghai´s intention, it’s shortchanged by the fact that Kisna hardly fights any battles throughout the film.
Even in the climax, he and Catherine are saved more by external forces than by Kisna´s own heroism. Or was the point the love story? Once again, lack of development renders this track uninvolving and an inexplicably self-sacrificial conclusion to the love story undermines what little build-up the film managed in the first place.
Poor character development plagues the film. The title character is not shown as either a warrior or a poet and is, for the most part, relegated to the background as the film proceeds.
He is never developed or compelling enough to serve as a real protagonist. There are times, however, where Kisna looses track of Catherine, and then the audience knows only as much as he knows.
This is an awkward choice since Catherine is the one recalling the story, and she could not have possibly known certain details. Another extremely awkward decision is to have a news-reporter narrate the story for Catherine.
Who is this reporter? She is portrayed in a somewhat negative light at the beginning of the film, so why are the flashbacks being framed by her? The film abounds with many such inexplicable directorial decisions.
In any case, Catherine´s character is a little more developed than Kisna´s, but her attraction to him is inexplicable. Why the two central characters are in love remains a mystery throughout the film and, as such, we never quite care if they end up together or not.
Lakshmi, as the third wheel, is the worst written character of the film. The manner in which she helplessly loves Kisna when he treats her like rubbish borders on absurd.
Performances fall short of expectations. Antonia Bernath is charming and brings a certain depth to her character, but her opportunities to showcase talent are severely limited by the script. Her opportunities for skin-show, however, are maximized.
Ghai, in a superbly hypocritical move, has her expose her entire backside in a completely gratuitous rape scene. Shame on you, Subhash Ghai – we expect this sort of exploitation from sleazy films like ''Murder,'' not films masquerading as religious allegory.
Isha Sharvani is given very little to do except contort her body in the dance numbers, and even this serves no real purpose in the film.
Her skills are initially impressive but by the umpteenth time Ghai has her drop into a frame on a rope, her presence in the film is exposed for what it really is - just a novel gimmick posing as abstract art.
Supporting performances range from adequate to interesting, but nothing more. Amrish Puri is sadly wasted in his final villainous role, as is Om Puri who serves as comic relief.
Vivek Mushran and Hrishita Bhatt manage to be quite endearing in their short roles. Rajat Kapoor overacts like mad and ruins significant portions of the film with his hamming.
Subhash K. Jha describes Vivek Oberoi´s performance in the film as ''...mellow and deep, filled with gestures and nuances that need careful viewing.'' Ghai made a big deal about signing Oberoi over more established stars like Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan but, having watched the film.
Ashok Mehta´s cinematography, which is consistently breathtaking is another plus point in the film. This film doesn´t deserve such a forceful visual impact - the composition of nearly each shot is so compelling that one wishes there were some meaning to read into them.
Even more disappointing is that the film wastes some of the finest music Bollywood has heard in years. A.R. Rahman and Ismail Darbar´s inspired and intricately crafted music is criminally wasted throughout the film.
The girls and the villains wear pounds and pounds of make-up that are overly visible on their faces, once again, rendering the film more laughable than convincing.
“Kisna” is a pretentious film in the truest sense of the word; it’s a film camouflaged as art that is actually another business venture by Subhash Ghai. The film pretends to care about its characters, pretends to have some significance, and pretends to be intended to make some sort of statement.
Some inner conflict as to what to do, so utterly lacking in Kisna’s characterization, would do Ghai well - as he clearly hasn’t learned much from the “memories” of his last disastrous endeavor.
