"Kurbaan" Hue Mere Paise
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Om Puri, Kirron Kher, Dia Mirza (Special Appearance)
Director: Rensil D'Silva
Music: Salim-Sulaiman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Bollywood doesn’t seem to get out of its "bad days" mode. After a poor reception of the high profile Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani, Kurbaan also seems to go in the same direction. I wish I can catch hold of Karan Johar and get a refund. What a kurbaani I made!
Forgive me for breaking the story line to you, but I think the Indian audience is done with the regular fundamentalist view of "Moslems" and Islamic terrorism because an innocent Afghani/Pakistani/Iraqi was killed. There is nothing catching in the entire movie, and believe me, even the highly talked about Saif-Kareena love making scene is a turn off (yes, it was necessary for the flow). I'm really wondering what Karan wanted to show from this movie.
The couple does a decent job with their characters. Kareena is able to maintain the girl next door look throughout the film. Kirron Kher pulls off a good Kabul accent. But the typical get up of pathaani kurtas and pardah seemed too unprofessional for a terrorist group executing a follow up to 9/11. Isn't that too obvious an identification and hence making them stand out in the crowd? Vivek Oberoi was a refreshing change in the lineup. Liked his work after his roles in Company and Saathiya.
Meeta Kabra of wogma.com, who has stayed in the States, was kind enough to point out that one of the target areas, Jackson Heights, has a high Desi residency. Karan, did you seriously do any research while writing the script? Or did you think we can be fooled this easily?
Many more glitches like these are doused throughout the 2.5 hours film, it got on the nerves. The only moment when I got excited was when I saw the initial closing sequence. Reminded me of well executed bombing attack movies. But later, it was sadness galore.
The involvement of just Muslims in the attack is adding fuel to the already done stereotyping by the non-Muslims, especially the West. And a star cast hired to film this? What a waste of talent. Real life incidents have shown that Americans have been very much involved in such activities, but Karan conveniently forgets that.
The soundtrack has had some good response and I personally like Kurbaan Hua and Shukran Allah. But once again, the tracks, like the actors, have not been utilized to the their full potential.
The only idea I can get at the end is that maybe Karan is trying to portray how a common man can get pulled into this unknowingly, but it’s still very vague.
TTS Verdict: DO NOT waste your money unnecessarily, unless you really don’t have anything to. Like someone on twitter said “You’d rather go pull that New York DVD out and watch it over again”.
Rating: 2/5
Sahil Khan
[ratings]
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