But like in all marriages, problems crop up, and that’s when Dev and Maya begin a tentative friendship, only to realise they may actually be made for each other. It’s quite the opposite, really – Ria loves Dev, and Rishi loves Maya. The messiness is due to the fact that Dev and Maya are both married – to fashion-magazine-editor Ria (Preity Zinta) and PR guy Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan) respectively – and the maturity is because their spouses aren’t Ranjeet and Bindu clones who drink and smoke and sleep around. I expected a few surprises, sure, for Johar is nothing if not an expert at spinning fresh variations on familiar clichés – that’s why those who don’t care for clichés don’t care for Johar’s cinema – but what I didn’t expect is Bollywood’s most mature, most messy romance since the younger Sridevi set eyes on father-figure Anil Kapoor in Lamhe.
– KARAN JOHAR’S plots can typically be summed up with a one-liner question: Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with X? Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with Kajol (in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai)? Will Shah Rukh Khan get together with his estranged family (in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham)? And so, as Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna – or KANK, as it’s come to be known – began to unfold, and I saw that its one-line plot is whether Shah Rukh Khan (playing Dev) will get together with Rani Mukerji (as Maya), I thought this was going to be just another milking of the same, old formula. Karan Johar’s latest is too long, too weepy, but it’s nonetheless the meatiest romantic melodrama in a while.
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