Review: 'Kurbaan' is 'Arlington Road' meets 'Fanaa'

Film: Kurbaan (A)
Director: Rensil D’silva
Actor: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi and others
Rating: **

ALERT: Some parts of this review may reveal plot points of the film. 

You are not quite sure after watching Kurbaan what exactly the motive behind making the film is. Was it designed to be a thriller? Then, in the almost 2hrs and 40minutes of its running time, it’s too long and dips at various points to be able to thrill you enough.

Was it supposed to be a love story? Then it fails on that count because the ‘lovers’ in the film come across as shallow. Was the film supposed to be a comment on global terrorism? Then it’s a haphazard one, raising questions (old ones at that) and not bothering to give any answers.

Actually, Kurbaan is a mish-mash of all of the above, and with a seduction scene and ‘main badla loonga’ angle thrown in, reminds one of the formulaic films made in the 80s.  

Ehsaan Khan (Saif) teaches in a Delhi college, where Avantika (Kareena) is the psychology professor. Khan pursues Avantika like a lovelorn schoolboy – you have Saif mouthing some of the cheesiest dialogues and Kareena preening and pouting to them – and the two even make-out in the staffroom. Talk about setting a bad example.

Cheesy Khan impresses Psycho professor over cups of coffee and when she gets an offer to teach in a university in the US, he proposes marriage. He’s ready to ‘sacrifice’ his life in India so she can go to the US with him.

“But what will I do there?” asks Ehsaan. “You can do what you do here – teach!” exclaims Avantika. And it all happens that easily. The two go to America and Ehsaan lands a job in a university where he proposes to conduct a course in Islam. “Avantika sure knows how to choose his men,” says the dean of the university, making you chuckle at the double entrende.

Funnily, Avantika who had got a job in the first place, is never shown to go to work. In stead, she sits at home and uncovers a terrorist plot in her neighbour’s (Puri) house. Only problem - hubby Ehsaan is the mastermind behind it all (remember the recent New York?).

Avantika realises that she’s just a pawn used by Ehsaan to enter America. “Par yahaan ghusne ke aur bhi tareeke hain,” tells Ehsaan’s senior to him at one point. You couldn’t agree more. But then there would be no story, no convoluted screenplay and definitely no film.

At this point, the character of Riyaz (Oberoi) enters the film. He is the guy whose girlfriend died in a plane crash masterminded by this group of terrorists and is out for revenge.

A war reporter, Riyaz refuses to inform the FBI about the information he has about Ehsaan and his group because “I will deal with them myself,” he says in his American accent. You can’t but be amazed at the stupidity of the character, well though it’s been performed by Oberoi. Riyaz infiltrates the gang in true filmy style and, along with Avantika, brings them down.

It’s hard to believe that Karan Johar (story), Rensil D’Silva (screenplay, director) and Anurag Kashyap (dialogues) have collaborated on the film. The story, for starters, draws inspiration in huge chunks from Arlington Road, and also reminds you of Fanaa at a lot of places.

In spite of having Arlington Road, which was a thrill-a-minute, as its starting point, this film borrows none of the American film’s good points. A whole lot of time is dedicated to the love story between Ehsaan and Avantika, absent in the original, which keeps returning to slow things down.

You also can’t understand why both Avantika and Riyaz wait till the last moment to foil the terrorists’ plan. The one call that Avantika gets to make from her pediatrician’s office could easily have been made to higher authorities, but she chooses to go with Riyaz’s plan even if it means putting themselves and a lot of Americans to danger.

Among the strong points of the film is its casting and amazing cinematography. Saif and Kareena make for great eye candy as the couple and Saif puts in a seasoned performance, you have come to associate with the actor now.

Kareena, though, is inconsistent with a performance ranging from shrieky to loud. The neighbours, headed by Om Puri and Kirron Kher, and the rest of the family have been cast well too. Kher, though, with her Afghani accent is more funny than real, especially her gun-toting act in the climax.

The best of the lot, clearly, is Vivek Oberoi. In a role shorter in running time than the others, he manages to make an impact and give competition to Saif, bettering him at times.
Mouthing dialogues with an American accent could have fallen flat if Vivek would have gone overboard, but he gets it just right. As a character, Vivek’s is the strongest, and should have taken a front seat in the penultimate moments of the film, which sadly does not happen.

In stead you get Ehsaan getting shot at by cops and Avantika crying over his body. It’s almost like she’s sorry that her husband – a terrorist who’s a cold-blooded killer and who fooled her into marrying him only so he could enter America – is dying.

Are we supposed to feel sorry too? Sorry boss, we have ourselves to care about after the amount of time we’ve spent sitting in a multiplex, watching this film.