Movie Review - Kurbaan

KURBAAN is NEW YORK. But with a different set of actors. KURBAAN is also SHOOT ON SIGHT, again with different actors. The plot remains the same, the twists and turns fails to surprise you and the end is inevitable. However, here.

The love story has been hyped, thanks to Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor having an off-screen romance as well. But the intensity and the love undercurrents between Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh, and the romance between Kaif and John Abraham that was visible in NEW YORK is missing in KURBAAN.

Technically the movie is sound; acting wise, everyone chips in with a fine performance. The look, feel and action sequences are top class, but then you are not seeing anything new that has not been shown in the recent past. The above-mentioned films are just the recent references.

Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan) falls in love with Avantika (Kareena Kapoor). Both teach in the same college in New Delhi. Avantika is back from the US, as she had to tend to her ailing father. Six month later, she gets a call from her University to come back. Ehsaan says he does not mind sacrificing his career to join her. He is traditional he says, not selfish. So off they go to the US and manage to find a home in an Indian neighbourhood. She also manages to find him a job in her college. Their neighbours befriend the new couple and that's when things spiral out of control.

There are many loose ends. The US knows Ehsaan as Khalid the dreaded terrorist. They have his photograph. When he comes back to the US with Avantika as Ehsaan, he has just trimmed his beard to a French cut. He still looks the same, yet they cannot detect him entering Kennedy Airport! In one scene, where Saif and his fundamentalist pal are going off to dispose a dead body, they are trapped in a routine road check. Bullets are exchanged and there is a chase. It is hard to digest the fact that these cops in the US would not have called for a back up. They all get killed and Saif escapes with a bullet wound. He gets it treated at home and a few minutes later, he is in the shower. The wound is still fresh.

There are a few more loose ends but the biggest joke is the character (a television journalist) played by Vivek Oberoi. An aircraft carrying a delegation of US officials along with hordes of journalists has been blown up mid air. He loses his girlfriend Dia Mirza in that blast. In his office, he hears Avantika's frantic message asking Dia not to board the flight as there is a bomb on board and her husband too is involved. Armed with the most vital clue, Vivek decides to investigate the bombing himself! He joins their network to learn more and no one misses him at his work place. All he had to do was give the FBI a tip-off after learning of their activities in the first two meetings, if not at the first instance. I mean, c'mon, this here is a big bombing, and you are sitting on the most telling lead!

Nothing adds up but for the hyped romance between Saif and Kareena. Both are in terrific form.