BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi and Om Puri; Director: Rensil D’Silva

Karan Johar sure has come a long way from his K brand of cinema where everyone lives happily ever after. Dharma Productions is exploring new territories with a coming of age movie like Wake up Sid and Kurbaan, an intense love story with a backdrop of terrorism. With story idea from Karan Johar and screenplay by Rensil D'Silva the debutant director, Kurbaan attempts to dig deep into the mind of Islamic fundamentalists and moderate Muslims while being careful never to take sides or get preachy in the process of the narrative. However a few glaring oversights by the director get in the way of taking the movie to the heights it was intended to reach.

The movie begins with Avantika (Kareena Kapoor), a professor returning to Delhi University from New York to take care of her sick father. Ehsaan Khan (Saif Ali Khan) who also teaches there asks her for coffee and in a rushed 15 minutes proposes to marry her when she gets an offer to return to New York. So the couple land in New York and Avantika soon realizes in a well made, gripping scene that Ehsaan is not who he claims to be and that he is part of a terrorist group. In fact he is not Ehsaan at all, but Khalid Anwar, a wanted man by the FBI.

Ehsaan cannot allow for his wife to be killed even though she has discovered their plot because she is pregnant with his child and somewhere in the process of scheming to penetrate into the US legally he fell in love with his pawn, his wife. A prisoner in her home, Avantika finds help in the form of an undercover journalist, Riyaaz (Vivek Oberoi), who infiltrates into the group under the pretext of being an extremist Muslim. He lost his girlfriend to terrorism and wants to take matter in his own hands as he puts it. 

The much talked about passionate scene between Avantika and Ehsaan is bold by Indian standards, yet aesthetically shot. And the reason for the scene is for Avantika to get the names of the stations that are supposed to be blown up by Ehsaan’s group. Rensil D'Silva puts in his effort to create scenes that make sense and add to the story line such as the classroom scene where the students discuss about Muslim fundamentalists and America’s role in the rise of terrorism. 

Kareena Kapoor as Avantika impeccably portrays a wife oscillating between love for her husband and her stand against violence that is part of her husband. Saif Khan as the charismatic and suave Ehsaan reminds us that he can carry off a negative role, be it a terrorist in Kurbaan, or Langa Tyagi in Omkaara with equal ease as he does cool dude Jai in Love Aaj Kal. Vivek Oberoi as Riyaaz potrays his part with ease. Om Puri and Kiron Kher fit in well. Dia Mirza and Kulbhushan Kharbanda add life to their brief roles. The climax though kind of predictable is built up well. 

The story is however is not without faults. In dealing with a sensitive subject matter, attention to detail is the key force to drive the movie. Unfortunately for Kurbaan, the various glitches are too blatant to be overlooked. For example, when Riyaaz enters into the terrorist group, no one bothers to check his background and just take his word. And when Avantika is told by her neighbor about some terrorist activity she tries to peek into her neighbor’s house instead of informing the police, same logic applies to Riyaaz who takes it upon himself to deal with terrorists instead of alerting the authorities. And when Avantika asks to spend the night with Ehsaan whose beliefs she openly disagrees with and is house – arrested, Ehsaan willingly agrees without any hesitation. And you wonder why the Police don’t paste Khalid Anwar’s (Ehsaan’s) posters all over New York if they already have his picture and how is it that he freely gets around New York?

Kurbaan’s strong point is the music from Salim-Suleiman. Title track, ‘Kurbaan Hua’, ‘Shukran Allah’ and 'Ali Maula’ blend well with the theme of the movie. Dialogue by Anurag Kashyap and Niranjan Iyengar are well written. Technically, Hemant Chaturvedi’s cinematography be it Delhi or New York, especially the underground stations is captivating. 

With all its flaws, Kurbaan is a well intentioned movie with exceptional performances by the actors. There is a sincere effort to strike balance between extremist and moderate Muslim view points about terrorism and its origins. This K-brand cinema surely is different from the otherwise candy flossed movies from this banner, so venture out only if you not in the mood for fairy tale endings.