Om bungalum bungalum

Kambakkht Ishq
Cast:  Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora
Director: Sabbir Khan
Rating: «

I feel exhausted. This film has drained me of my time, tolerance and energy.

So here you have Akshay Kumar playing a character he has now begun to sleepwalk through. He is Viraj, a stuntman in Hollywood who is surrounded by ‘hot’ (the writer’s love this word which appears at least 10 times in the film) women until he meets the constantly angry, man-hating Sim (Kareena Kapoor). They engage in a battle of one-upmanship at the cost of the marriage of their best-friends (Aftab Shivdasani and Amrita Arora in completely shallow parts delivering performances that match).

It’s all pretty standard ‘you dog-you bitch-you have no IQ’ type nonsense till we learn that Sim is a trainee surgeon who funds her medical degree by modelling and then spends most of her earnings at designer boutiques. When she sews in her ‘Oh Mangalam Mangalam’ singing watch into an injured Viraj, it’s time to sue her and cancel her medical degree. But Viraj is oblivious and thinks he’s hearing the mantra in his head. Realising her gross negligence, Sim embarks on a convoluted plan to get him back on the operating table. By the end, she retrieves her watch but loses her heart to Viraj who is suddenly noble because he doesn’t have sex with her even when she has thrown herself at him!

 It was a relief when this ordeal ended. A script ought to have some originality. But forget the unoriginal, borrowed, juvenile jokes — this film doesn’t have a script at all (though four writers are credited Kiran Kotrial, Anvita Dutt Guptan, Ishita Mohitra, Sabbir Khan with this hash). I was rather offended by the sexist and misogynistic ‘jokes’.

Adding to the pain were the songs, lyrics, choreography (what happened to Vaibhavi Merchant). The only highlight was Kareena’s styling (Aki Narula). She looks terrific, though the pouting was a bit excessive. As for the Hollywood cameos, the gimmick works but only for about 10 minutes. Besides that, this film is a kambakkht risk.