Nov 23, 2009 01:59 PM
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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.
Set in post-9/11 America, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan star as Avantika and Ehsaan, professors at a Delhi campus who move to New York after a whirlwind romance, that involves making out in the college staff room, and a prompt marriage. Avantika, who was teaching in the States prior to her stint in India, returns to her original job, and Ehsaan accompanies her, hoping to find a position for himself too. The couple moves into an Indian neighborhood in suburban New York, where Avantika stumbles upon the shocking secret that her husband is part of a sleeper cell of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists that's hatching a plot to bomb the New York subway. She enlists the help of a news channel cameraman Riyaaz Masood (played by Vivek Oberoi), who infiltrates the gang to foil their attack.
More compelling than the similarly themed New York, Kurbaan scores for its brisk pacing, and for the fact that it doesn't offer an over-simplistic view of the terrorism issue. The film allows enough room for all perspectives and avoids romanticizing the terrorist as a victim seeking revenge, even if characters like Bhaijaan (played by Om Puri) and Aapa (played by Kirron Kher) make the same point repeatedly. It's in a dramatic classroom scene in which Vivek Oberoi's character Riyaaz confronts white students and their predictable logic, that the film reveals its neutral stance.
The key problem with Kurbaan, however, is that it can't decide if it wants to be a serious film addressing a burning issue, or a commercial potboiler set against the backdrop of terrorism. How else do you explain such lapses in logic as Riyaaz's needlessly heroic decision to explore a possible terrorist situation himself, instead of alerting the cops right away? Or the terrorist group's decision to include Riyaaz in their mission without as much as a thorough background check. Even the love scene between Saif and Kareena, although aesthetically shot, has a distinctly 'filmi' logic - Avantika's seducing Ehsaan to get her hands on vital information that could prevent the attacks.
Funny Insights:Saif , managed to run away from the FBI which is quite suprising. when the bomb exploded the fBI was unhurt which shows that it is an indian movie. Again the bomb need not to be reworked to default it. they could have easily ran out or when the FBI knows that it is a bomb scare the bomb squad is always prresent.
