Apropos Kambakkht Ishq

July 3, 2009

Apropos Kambakkht Ishq

No, I haven’t seen it. And no, I don’t have a burning desire to see it either.

What I was wondering about was this. The reviews (1, 2) of Kambakkht Ishq on rediff mention that the movie involves a bickering couple — a stuntman and a doctor. So does it borrow, by any chance, a reel or two for Pammal K Sambandham, that Kamalhassan starrer where he plays a stuntman and Simran plays a doc?If anyone who has seen PKS happens to see this one, please do let me know. I’ll even pay for your therapy sessions.

While on the top of not-so-promising Akshay Kumar movies, I happened to watch Chandni Chowk to China recently on TV. Aside from the fact that it mixes Manmohan Desai, Kung Fu movies, The Three Amigos and a few fish-out-of-water movies into some sort of diabolical chow mein, what struck me the most was how easily this could’ve been a good movie.

There are around 20 minutes in the middle when Akshay is going through the manddatory training sequence at the hands of a Chinese ex-cop who happens to be Deepika’s dad. It is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, and Akshay’s comic timing is just spot on. Why the hell couldn’t the rest of the movie maintain that standard? <Sigh>

Ramsu

Hindi movies, Venus flytrap

8 responses to “Apropos Kambakkht Ishq”

Gradwolf

July 3, 2009

I got the same doubts when I read the Rediff reviews. In fact Raja Sen mentions, “a stuntman who doesn’t need anaesthesia”. If you remember, there was a scene in PKS just before Kamal is operated for his stomach pain when he remains conscious despite having given some anaesthesia.

I am not going to help you, though! Even if you promise therapy sessions. But I admit, I immensely enjoyed PKS except for some melodramatic parts in between.

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memsaab

July 3, 2009

I generally trust Raja Sen’s views. Sigh.

This is why I mainly stick to old ones. At least even if they suck you don’t have that sense that you could have fed a third world nation on what the garbage you just saw cost to make…

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veracious

July 5, 2009

I had similar thoughts on CC2C, which I watched on the plane (and felt bad for anybody who had also chosen it as their in-flight entertainment). I kept hoping they’d get to the good stuff, but when they finally did, it felt so redundant.

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Ranya

July 6, 2009

i’ve not seen either of the movies, but a lot of other reviewers have mentioned the similarities between Kambakkht Ishq & Pammal K Sambandham. The producers of KI has apparently bought the rights of PKS to avoid any controversies. People who have seen both are saying though, that KI is essentially a trashy version of PKS 😉

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S

November 2, 2016

What you said in the first paragraph.

PKS, I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen.

CC2C, I have yet to see but probably will if an opportunity presents itself. I absolutely LOVE this song though and check it out time and again. I find its surreal setting delightful (couple soaring over Shanghai(?) on the strength of a pink parasol). Deepika is holding the umbrella, then pulls up Akshay, who clasps her waist, and then the umbrella changes hands seamlessly, even as she slides out of his clasp momentarily, and Akshay tightens his grip on both the umbrella and the girl even as he smiles sheepishly at having nearly let the latter slip thru his hands. That look on his face at 0:35? Priceless!

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1. Ramsu
  
  November 5, 2016
  
  I am not a big fan of PKS. It’s not that it isn’t funny, but the scenes where Kamal tells his family that he rejected Simran and not the other way around, and the consequences of that lie, are melodramatic beyond my tolerance level. They make no sense at all, given the tone of the film until then. That single choice torpedoes the film for me.
  
  Reply
  1. S
    
    November 8, 2016
    
    Well, yeah, I didn’t much care for the maudlin touches either, thanks to that misplaced lie, but they didn’t throw me out (of the movie). I saw the film, from start to finish, as a comedy of errors, with an extremely sound emotional logic (not to be confused with the “sound” of time ticking). It didn’t seem to matter to me who lied, when or why. All that mattered was in the end Kamal finds himself holding the thaali and just one minute to spare in which to tie it to Simran and what does he do? Sammandham ey illaama he ties it around Neelu’s neck. And when he realizes he can’t get it off (aiaiyo mani mudichu potuten), he slides it right off the aghast policeman’s head and glides it right over an equally aghast Simran’s in the 2 secs he has left. Done and dusted. The coveted inheritance is all his. We hear the orphans go “Hallelujah.” Hardly melodrama.
  2. S
    
    November 9, 2016
    
    PS. At the risk of reading too much into your comment, I can sort of see your problem with the “Mellow Dr Amma” in the latter portions of the film. Simran’s fiesty doctor Amma in the first half is definitely the more fascinating/entertaining creature.