Saturday, September 4, 2010

We are Family!!

Breaking news: Karan Johar movie minus SRK!!!

Another outing for Dharma Productions, with yet another newbie for direction, Siddharth P Malhotra (should find out his claim to fame lineage). This time the story is the adaptation of Susan Sarandon-Julia Roberts, soppy sweet story of “Stepmom”, but with a desi touch. I even got reminded of "Raising Helen" (with Kate Hudson, in some pieces)
WAF stars Kajol as Maya – Susan Sarandon, Kareena Kapoor as Shreya – Julia Roberts and Arjun Rampal as Aman. Possibly for the first time in a KJo movie, I didn’t hear anyone’s surname which is usually oh-so- important. Never ever mind…and of course the 3 kids – Aaliya, Ankush and Anjali.
Story starts with a birthday party for Anjali, to which Aman brings Shreya to befriend the children, as it’s been a while since Maya and Aman are divorced and he’s been together with Shreya. As expected, life is not a bed of roses and things get messed up from the word go. Then comes a situation, where Shreya has to watch the kids since both parents are out on their respective priorities. One of the kids go missing and mayhem follows. This leads to Maya not wanting Shreya anywhere near the kids without her permission. Aman really can’t do a thing about it…. He’s actually caught between both women.
One fine day, Maya is told by her doc that she is sick. She takes Aman into confidence and he moves back in and they function as a happy family unit. Shreya is obviously unceremoniously dumped. Poor her, she didn’t even know what was wrong. Complications arise in Maya’s health, and she ultimately turns to Shreya for help.
Then comes the maternal emotional tug-of-war. Each have their own way of bringing up the kids, and the friction irks Aman to no end. Soon Maya has few days to live and she hands over the reins of the children’s lives to Shreya.
What works:
Kajol as always- she does not need to act to be the perfect mom.
The kid Anjali - she thinks everything can be done in this world with her magic wand, hamesha and forever.
What sucks:
Except for the tribute to Elvis (Jailhouse Rock), no songs which are characteristic of Dharma Productions or Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
The 3 kids of ages 4-13, hang out together in the house all the time, don’t have a normal life or friends (except for a brief rebellious situation of Aaliya going out for a party of beer n boys..yawnnnnnn)
Kareena Kapoor – has very little to do, not that I’m complaining.
Arjun Rampal – could not really display his perfect bod, since this is a family movie
Unexplainable and irrational bratty behavior by Aaliya for a 13-yr old
My verdict:Unless you are a hard core Kajol fan like me, you would want to give this movie a miss.

Poor Dharma Productions, they may also be crying equally lots....they may not even recover the flight charges incurred for making this movie in Australia!!