When the producers of Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, the costume designer of Bunty Aur Babli and the stars of Jab We Met and Love, Aaj Kal decide to make a baby with noir writing talent like Rensil Dsilva (who also directs this film) & Anurag Kashyap (Dialogue), the result is a curious hybrid of a terrorist thriller that tickles the funny bone more than it thrills.
Kurbaan scores with an excellent soundtrack, some neat production design and some exquisite camerawork but refuses to rise above a potentially interesting storyline that scratches only the surface of the volatile Islamic fundamentalist climate of today’s world. The film is riddled with hackneyed stock dialogues that were oft repeated in post 9/11 films like Khuda Ke Liye & New York and offers no insights into the world of terrorism.
Ehsaan Khan (Sail Ali Khan) woos Avantika (Kareena Kapoor), a fellow college professor in Delhi. Two coffees and one song later, they are in love. When Avantika learns that she must move back to New York to pursue her teaching career, Ehsaan whines about how doomed long distance relationships are and to her surprise offers to move with her to the Big Apple. Before you can say ‘Waiter where’s my Coffee?’ Ehsaan asks for Avantika’s hand from her worried looking father who 'naturally' opposes the Hindu-Muslim union. But a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le jayenge like line from the goateed professor Ehsaan wins him his bride and the instant coffee couple soon find themselves shopping for a house in New York. Without much effort, Ehsaan bags a job to teach (lo & behold) a volatile subject like Islam in the Western world at the same college that Avantika teaches.
If only the rest of the film unfolded this quickly.
The Asian neighborhood that the caffeine couple moves into has a strange and conservative Muslim family that makes a beeline to befriend the duo. Three young men have ‘terrorist’ written all over their costume & make-up design & take orders from Bhai sahab (Om Puri looking like a tired bull frog) and his wife- the matriarchal Aapa (Kirron Kher in an erratic Afghani accent that sounds suspiciously Punjabi). Three hijab clad daughters in law also hang around the place, occasionally serving dinner. But Avantika is oblivious to anything being amiss. Only when the panic stricken daughter in law played by the animated Nauheed Cyrusi lands up at Avantika’s doorstep, claiming that she may be killed and needs help, does Avantika begin to suspect foul play in theneighborhood. Her dead pan husband tells her not to get involved in other peoples affairs but surely, in true thriller fashion, Avantika decides to investigate the sudden disappearance of the panicky daughter in law all by herself.
One cold, scary night, she sneaks in alone into the house of the strange neighbors and overhears (conveniently) that they are dreaded terrorists plotting a massive 9/11 type of attack. If this shocker were not enough for one night, she also stumbles upon a not so subtle clue, the body of the missing, panic stricken daughter in law, wrapped in some bin liners. Of course, as in most such scenes the heroine is sure to scream and Avantika does just that. What follows is an uneven paced mayhem that sometimes defies logic and often induces boredom but always wishes that the makers had thought harder on how to make the screenplay less simplistic.
Sample this: A terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list who looks identical to his pictures in their possession does a day job teaching Islamic studies in a prominent university and draws no attention. An FBI sleuth rises from the debris of a bombed-to-smithereens railway station and walks his way out to prove the invincibility of the Hollywood actor. Terrorists planning a covert train bombing suddenly begin shooting at a traitor team member in the middle of a crowded train without anyone raising an alarm. One of them even alights at the next station and not a single policeman makes an appearance letting the train loaded with Bollywood terrorists continue its journey. Nevertheless, the editor courageously drags this ‘terror attack’ movie for close to three hours of screen time, often making the viewer wonder if it was worth the Kurbaani of a 250 rupee multiplex ticket.
Kareena Kapoor is the strongest player in the film. Even though she has moments of multiple reactions & over acting, she proves her mettle as an expressive character actor and comes across as a sincere performer. Saif Ali Khan plays the part in a somewhat understated manner. His muted performance seems limited by the writing, where his motives are kept hidden from the audience through most of the film. Even though he and Kareena clearly share good chemistry, it is uncertain till the very end what he feels for her and this may prove to be the greatest undoing of the film. Vivek Oberoi hams his way right to the end. He walks in & out of each frame like he is in a James Bond movie spoof, over stating everything, drawing attention to himself without a shred of subtlety. It would be safe to attribute a great chunk of our involuntary laughs to Oberoi’s two dimensional portrayal.
Even though there are emotional odes to the plight of the Afghani people and sermons about the cruelty of the oppressing white man, the story fails to touch the heart. One feels little sympathy for the victims or for the terrorists. Weak American actors play the cops investigating the terror attacks, leaving the story telling sadly one sided.
Kurbaan has traces of brilliance especially in its camerawork by Hemant Chaturvedi and music score by Salim Suleiman . ‘Shukhran Allah’ used cleverly in the background and performed passionately by Salim Merchant & Sonu Nigam is superb. Besides a few well performed scenes by Kirron Kher & Kareena Kapoor there is not much to hold you to your seats. So weak is the screenplay of Kurbaan that we thought the interval scene of the film (at around 90 minutes) was the climax scene. Alas it was not- we impatiently sat through a second half of gunshots, diffused bombs, gory flesh wounds and cinematic idiosyncrasies that stirred no emotion.
Kurbaan has its heart in the right place, but required more sacrifices in the research & development department. If you are planning to watch it do manage your expectations.
