Koi Aap Sa

Happened to catch this movie on TV today. Had never heard of it and hence was not surprised to read later that it was a flop. And was shocked to see that the story was from Ekta Kapoor, because, well – I liked the story!

Of course, its such an old movie that the reviews abound. Some outrightly dismiss the story as it comes from Ekta Kapoor. Others blame the screenplay, while accepting that the story was strong. I had casually started watching the movie. So, did not pay much attention to technicalities. I anyway don’t notice until something is very obviously wrong with the technicalities or acting.

In the various reviews the similarity of the first half of the movie with “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” and that of the second half with “Kya Kahna” has been mentioned. (Wow! There is a “K” factor here too…). Yes – there is a similarity, yet I liked the story of this one better than either KKHH or Kya Kahna. Reason? Well – the biggest reason KKHH had irritated me was that it was an extremely sexist story. It required a complete feminine transformation in the heroine for the hero to fall in love. Everybody had to conform to their stereotyped roles. The girl had to don a Saree and lose a football game for the romance to happen. Kya Kahna was the story of immature people. It was difficult to sympathize with the characters there. You could only pity their stupidity. In this movie, on the other hand, there is a rape victim and an innocent suspect. They are mature. Sympathy comes more naturally.

Finally the point of the story. Friendship, love etc. KKHH had a very good statement thrown in, in a most useless and meaningless manner “Pyaar Dosti hai” (Love is Friendship). But there is more to this statement which has been depicted in this movie. Friendship is about acceptance. Love and relationship bring with them expectations. Nothing wrong in that. But love flourishes best on the foundation of friendship, where there is an acceptance at some fundamental level. And the way the love evolves between the friends, when they are thrown together by circumstances, is beautiful. It has also shown the defeat of a love based on infatuation and tricks to impress each other. The right dress, the right amount of perfume and the right gift [all stereotyped] may mean a successful date, but not necessarily a deeply founded love.

On second thoughts, some of the Ekta-Kapoor-melodrama is very obvious. I should have guessed it was her 🙂 All the confusion that arises from seeing others at just the wrong moment, mom opening the door just when hero is about to confess his love, the hero seeing the letters and ring of ex-fiancee of the heroine when she was actually thanking the ex for leaving her as otherwise she would not have found the hero – too much of Ekta Kapoor 🙂 But some melodrama is fine. After all, you are there for entertainment.

But after seeing this, I think Ekta Kapoor could become tolerable or even good if she made her serials the old 13-episode style instead of running them for decades. If some of her serials had ended earlier instead of running into ridiculous lengths of time, where they forget all the age calculation of the characters and where the stories are written depending on when the actors decide to leave the serial, they would have left a better impression. May be!

Technorati : Bollywood, Hindi Movie, Movie Review