We Are Family

When we hear about a Karan Johar production, we are conditioned to imagine immaculate households, perfect looks and very superficial emotions. A kind of goody-goody world which started off in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - where no one is really evil, and everyone wishes the best for everyone else. For better or for worse, we automatically discount all his movies as being far removed from reality - we don’t really go looking for real-life cinema – we look elsewhere for that.

And I know that is a big assumption to make in the first place, but that’s how it is for me and Karan Johar / Yash Raj movies. And seen from this prism, We Are Family is not a bad movie at all. I mean ofcourse, the setting is completely unrealistic and everyone is too saccharine sweet and all that – but if you are in a similar mindframe as me, then it is hard to find anything wrong in the movie. Don’t get me wrong, ‘nothing wrong in a movie’ doesn’t mean it is a great movie – far from it. But unlike, say My Name is Khan, nothing is mindboggingly stupid.

The scriptwriters have remained faithful to most of the original story of Stepmom – some of the dialogues etc are carried over word-by-word - and exploited its tear jerking parts to the full. Anyone who has seen the original movie knows that this is hardly a fun movie – it was made to wrench out a tear or two from the hardiest of men. Those who have not seen the original, this movie is about a divorced mother, who is dying from cancer and decides to ‘handover’ her children to her ex-husband and his partner. The original had Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts – we get Kajol and Kareena Kapoor.

On paper they are a formidable team – but with the script being so overbearing, with each frame designed to elicit tears, neither actress gets to display their acting prowess. Surprisingly, Arjun Rampal gets more opportunity to show his acting – his role calling for a restrained subtle performance – and Arjun puts his Rock On experience to good use. The kids are good too – especially the youngest one - she is adorable with a capital A.

So what is the final call ? The movie is your typical Karan Johar – picture perfect frames, nary a crease on the clothes or curtains. The story is a tear-jerker, every other sequence orchestrated to make you reach for tissues. You already know what happens in the end – the only curiosity is what route the director takes to get there. There is nothing really wrong in the movie – but nothing exciting either. So this is nothing that you cant miss, especially if you don’t have a wife/girlfriend forcing you to watch it.