Kurbaan

Concise version:

With the promotional team spilling us everything about the movie, there is no surprise when Eshaan locks Avantika after she finds out about the true colours of her neighbours. Instead we were waiting for the clichéd cupid love to get over and the movie to really begin. With on you face hints like when Avantika writes her address and the number of the flight in question, we were hoping for something gripping, but what we end up seeing are the ever lasting scenes just because the director had the vision that lingering the moment in the audience’s mind (not caring to convey what should be conveyed) is classy, thanks to the poor or absence of words when you need them. Ignoring the mediocrities that unfold, be it the operative nature of the FBI or the terrorists or for that matter an over indulgent reporter who becomes plain stupid to avenge for his fiancé death by infiltrating them, and if you try to look into the movie as an emotional tangle the director doesn’t let us do that too as he pushes Avantika out of the picture making this movie into a glossy non-detailed rambling of a pre-terrorist attack. If the director had wanted to use the star value to create an uncompromisable tale of love and jihad, he ends up making a mess wasting a lot of well written sequences which could have become classic had the things associated to it helped. Even with all the loose ends its Vivek and Kareena’s ernest efforts that stays in our mind long after the movie is over, overcoming the artificial seriousness that becomes so self indulging to a point that we don’t care if a character dies or cries. Yet we feel for Avantika when she pleads Eshaan to reveal his real name as he is dying. Wish there were more of such moments in this long drawn out film.

Detailed version:

There is a scene in the movie where Avantika runs home on finding about the true colour of her neighbours who are chasing her. They break in eventually and as the tension built up, Eshaan (with whom she had entered this world after the heavily sugar coated (s)cupid love seasoned with all the cliches) turns up ushering her in, from the balcony, into a twist in the tale. But we don’t feel it as the marketing team had already told us Eshaan is a terrorist. As the film nears end, we start to think where is that “controversial love making scene” hoping at least that part of the movie will be something to remember. When Reyaz requests Avantika to somehow get a document from Eshaan: cut; as anyone can guess, the oldest cliché of seducing a terrorist to peak into the document unfolds with Kareena doing a “yeh mera dil” act instead of being an emotional Avantika.

With marketing doing the needed damage before entering the hall, the direction does the rest with a tad too long lingering moments with minimal dialogue for each everlasting scene, assuming that is all is needed to make a classy scene ending up making us think about the stupidity that is unfolding. Stupidity because, what else can you call when the FBI which has a clear picture of a treacherous terrorist well knowing that he has entered their country recently, doesn’t run a search in the recent immigrant list, for Eshaan according to his “so called” plan enters the country as a civilian without any disguise; instead when caught hold of a female corpse whose left side face is damaged beyond recognition, rather than simulating the left side using the clear right side, magically creates a crystal clear photograph of her (maybe FBI did have the technology to travel back in time to take a snap of the female even before her death). Or for that matter, a reporter who when handed over the address of terrorist, instead of nailing down the people, stays up night after night watching them and when opportunity dawns he literally follows Eshaan in a queue to infiltrate the organization manipulating them, but for what? To cover a story on how terrorists eat and sleep like civilians we might wonder, No… to know what their next plan is and stop them, as we are told by the FBI in a different investigation. From what he knew from the message, they could be escaping to some third world nation as he owes to take revenge for his fiancé’s death. The terrorists aren’t far behind in the stupidity line up either. These trained people can’t even realize that a person is stationed every night at their doors watching over them. Well … what can you expect of people, who just out of anger shoots police officers at random on losing the cool, when they are supposed to lay low. It’s even strange that when there is a shoot out in a train no authority is shown to take any sort of action.

Having gotten used to glitches, we as an audience respect a film if the characters are drawn out well with their actions meant only to be reaction to a situation. Instead we get a feeling that situations were created only for us to see their reactions. Or else why else should Eshaan take a bullet near his heart during the most idiotic scene of the film and ask Avantika to meddle his heart as blood oozes out artificially. Though this might sound like a well written scene, when you see it on screen what registers is completely different thanks to the lingering of moment concept as Mr. Eshaan “am stone hearted” Khan tries so hard artificially to stand the pain while Avantika genuinely scared of the situation tries her best in her perplexed state. The same goes for another well written scene too. When Eshaan aims at Reyaz point black, he prays after asserting him their jihad is only against the innocent people; but what we see is Eshaan like a smart dude repeats his punch line and points the gun on his head and Reyaz rambles on some innocent people affecting thing and then as an afterneath thought says a prayer. This moves Eshaan and he reveals the location of the bombs (which aren’t that effective btw – the FBI officer standing just few feet near it was all alive and in action after it exploded in another location). Had the dialogues in these situations been very brisk and witty instead of the old fashioned all “this is for a girl” – be it Eshaan and Reyaz, with a better command over the scenes instead of trying to be clever in the wrong way by not conveying what should be conveyed, we wouldn’t have thought of these mediocrities created by the contrived characters.