Movie Review: Kambakkht Ishq

Kambakkht Ishq: Falls short of expectations, Rating: 2 out of 5*, Starring: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora, Kirron Kher and in Sp. App Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh and Holly Valance, Director: Sabbir Khan

Viraj (Akshay) is a Hollywood stunt man who doesn’t believe in marriage and lives by the belief that women are good for only two things. When he comes to know that his younger brother Lucky (Aftab) is getting married, he rushes to break it off. At the same time the bride, Kamini’s (Amrita) best friend Simrita (Kareena) too rushes in dissuading her from getting married to a ‘second hand’ person aka a stuntman. But it is too late as the couple has already made up their mind. But not before a war of words ensues between the chauvinist Viraj and snooty Simrita. The reason why Simrita (who by the way is a medical student cum part time model) hates men is the examples she has seen in her own family. She therefore believes men are only interested in taking women into their beds and nothing else. But then fate keeps Viraj and Simrita bumping more into each other and their each meeting only doubling up their hate for each other. Meanwhile, Simrita’s stubbornness leads Lucky and Kamini to the brink of divorce. While Viraj tries to stop this divorce from taking place Simrita tries her best to ensure it takes place. Things get more complicated when during Viraj’s operation, Simrita accidentally leaves her watch inside his stomach. What it all leads to forms the rest of the plot.

Kambakkht Ishq is one of the most lavish productions to come out of Bollywood no doubts about it. But despite involving four scriptwriters the film still falls short of the expectations where the promised wholesome entertainment is concerned. The main problem being the wafer thin plot, then again some really bad jokes that fall flat and finally the second half. Also many a times the thin line of acceptance has been crossed in the name of humour which makes it a difficult watch for the family audience. The first half breezes quickly but the second half slows down considerably. The serious turn taken though comes in with the flow of the film, it gets boring as you know it very well where it is all going to lead to. Though it is applause worthy job by debutante director Sabbir Khan to helm a film as huge, you sorely miss a David Dhawan who would have controlled the lunatic moments more effeciently. To give due credit, ‘Hollywood’ has been well incorporated by Sabbir in the film. Though Taurus awards sequence has been superbly picturised, the makers seem to be under the impression that award winners arrive first on stage followed by announcement of arrival of award presenters at prestigious international awards.

The film scores high in the technical department with cinematographer Vikas Sivaraman coming on tops. He has succeeded in imparting the film an international look. However, barring the Mangalam number the music of the film is not worth a mention.

Akshay Kumar is back in terrific form as a performer. He is simply superb in his award acceptance speech. Kareena has never looked so hot before. She manages to put up her own against Akshay but is saddled by poor characterization, especially in the second half. Almost 80% of the time her character has been burdened with a permanent growl on the face. Amrita Arora is cute as her dim wit friend. Aftab is passable. Kirron Kher is getting irritatingly repetitive. Boman Irani in a single scene appearance is hilarious but Javed Jaffrey grates on your nerves and its high time he realises that his ‘punny’ jokes don’t work every time. Vindoo Dara Singh as the dumb assist of Akshay is mirthful. Amongst the Hollywood stars, Sylvester Stallone commands great screen presence but Denise Richards looks too old but she does enact her part well.

Watching the promos and the huge hype the makers have managed to create about their film, your expectation levels are high when you enter but as you come out you do feel that it is nothing more than a dumb entertainer that tries to take you too much for granted. It may take a great start at the box office but the crowds will vanish from Monday once the hype begins to settles down.

--SAMPURN