A story about unrequited love is fascinating and worthy of awe and thrills only when you know that the separation is involuntary and perhaps even imposed upon them. But it doesn’t work when there is no compulsion upon the couple to be separated. It looks simply ridiculous, almost bordering on stupidity. Well, that’s only one large gaping hole in this movie; the others, were I to count them all, would rival the cheesecloth in my kitchen drawer.
What we have here is a poorly written story and screenplay that is a poor replica of many of Mr. Yash Chopra’s creations, only this time, all semblance of anything identifiable to the viewer has been circumspectly removed. This is a most improbable, implausible, and unrealistic story. Not that there is much realism that is expected, but hey, if you’re going to try to portray a “love that cannot die” could you perhaps show a little more passion in a kiss?
Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif cannot kiss to save their lives, and the lovely and talented Anushka Sharma is plain annoying with her “soldier-this, soldier-that” refrain throughout. There is absolutely no chemistry between the two, and Ms. Kaif’s smile and tone are as passionless as her kiss. Seriously, if you’re going to show this kind of intimacy on screen, do it right, or don’t do it at all! And what’s with your ultra-botoxed mouth, Ms. Kaif? Hasn’t someone said anything to you about it already?
Self-inflicted vows of denial are hailed as the ultimate test of true love and juxtaposed alongside the supposed modernistic young sexuality as portrayed by Ms. Sharma who openly claims she wishes to sleep with lots of men with different accents. If these are the only two extremes of love, I want none of it, and find it to be hilarious at best. By the way, the whole concept of having her embedded in an army base camp as a journalist is not a new one, but having her openly swoon over Mr. Khan who turns her down with a chaste kiss on her forehead gets high marks for more ridiculousness.
By the way, Ms. Sharma’s claim to fame to this movie has to be her skimpy bikini shot into the frigid lake in Ladakh, which wasn’t bad at all, but entirely pointless. And speaking of pointless, the initiation of Ms. Kaif into London’s club scene was just that– quite pointless, because she appeared to be fully in control of every dance move and needed no one to show her the ropes on how to have a good time.
Oh, and did I mention that the music was most forgettable? I couldn’t hum a single tune after having stepped outside the theatre. The cinematography is the only thing that is worthy of mention about this movie, although, I dare say that Londoners must not be too thrilled to have their city portrayed as a most dangerous place for having frequent traffic accidents right in the heart of the city!
I thought the only acceptable performance in the entire movie was presented by the real-life duo Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh who come off as quite genuine in the role of older maverick couple living and loving each other in the countryside.
