Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (DVD))

Member Name: BabyGirl*

Product:	Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (DVD)
Date:	05/10/02 (1521 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Colourful Movie, The Music and Choreography Was Really Colorful And Invigorating, The Characters Are Very Likeable

Disadvantages: The Movie Doesn't Seem Too Real, It Can Drag On A Bit

Well it was my good friend Natasha’s birthday and we weren’t sure what to do for the first half of the day, course we were planning to get tanked at the end of the day but what to do with the afternoon?! We decided to catch a movie at our local cinema and the choices were lord of the rings, princess diaries and some other crap looking films, which we had all seen between us. So what could we see? Well one thing we all knew was that Nat loves Bollywood! So since it was her birthday of course we were going to let her see the latest Bollywood Smash that I can’t really pronounce… Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham which means sometimes happy sometimes sad!

My friends weren’t really bothered but I was, I’d never ever seen a Bollywood movie before! This was a big deal for me! Nat assured me I would enjoy it, because I’m a bit of a romance movie freak! Anyway we bought our tickets and sat down, the movie started at 2:50 so I thought we’d be done by say 5:00. Hell no this film is three and a half hours long!

Basically the movie starts out with a guy at a cricket match. The game rests on his hands, he then thinks about something his older brother told him which is if you feel you can’t win in life think of your parents and everything will become easy...or something along those lines. Pure Bollywood eh?

Anyway the guy turns out to be Rohan, and after the match he emails his parents to announce he is coming home after staying at a boarding school but first he is going to see his two grandmothers.

One of his grandmothers won’t stop crying and he asks why but the other grandmother won’t say anything. Whilst Rohan is not in the room the other grandmother tells her she must stop crying, as he will start asking questions, and the answers they won’t have. Anyway she begins to cry and says its been so long since she has seen her other grandson Rahul as he left home, they both let it sli
p that Rahul was adopted and isn’t really Rohan’s brother. And guess who happens to be standing right in the doorway.

Rohan wants to know the truth and what’s happening so his grandmother tells him the story. Time for a flashback.

Rahul is the oldest son in a very rich family. His parents Yash and Nandini Raichand adopted him and told him when he was eight years old but decided never to talk about it again as it was too upsetting. Anyway the mother of the family loved Rahul to bits and could even sense his presence when he’s not even in the room. How sweet! Anyway they are a really happy family and everything is complete.

Rahul and Rohan have a nanny who lives in a typical Indian village, they go to drop off some medicine for her and as Rahul is about to leave he spots an attractive girl called Anjali dancing in the street and straight away you can tell he has a thing for her. There are a whole load of comedic scenes between these two!

Anyway as Rahul and Anjali’s relationship grows Rahul’s father has already arranged his marriage to the very attractive high-class girl Naina. Even though Rahul really likes her he loves Anjali. Anyway Naina realises there’s someone else and begs him to complete his love story and not ruin his life. Anyway as Rahul goes to tell his father, his father is absolutely ashamed and cannot believe he wants to marry some middle class woman. Rahul can’t believe he has angered his father and agrees he will do whatever it takes to make him happy.

Anyway as Rahul is walking through the village to tell Anjali they can’t really see each other anymore he realises its Anjali’s father’s funeral. Anjali didn’t have a mother and was so close to her father so she doesn’t take it well. Rahul then realises he cant do that to the love of his life so he marries her.

When he takes her home his father is ashamed and tells him to
leave. So he does. It’s hard for him to leave his mother but he goes. Rohan has had no idea about this as he went to a boarding school just before this all happened so he never got to say goodbye to his brother properly.

Back to the present then, Rohan is disgusted that his father made him leave like that so he agrees he has to bring his family back together. But will he be successful?

The story is quite unrealistic as a lot of things occur in the movie. More than one story is told which may get confusing at times. Also at some times the movie can drag on and be really slow. I did get quite bored in the emotional scenes as they did seem to last an eternity but the upbeat music and comedy made up for that, but some scenes I felt were a bit unnecessary.

Yash is the father of the two sons and believes respect is the most important thing. He refuses to let his son marry a low class girl, as it will be embarrassing for his family’s name. That’s the most important thing to him, traditions. He wants to remain as a high class man and doesn’t want anything to degrade him. He is easily displeased as he has such high standards.

Nandini is the mother who loves her son very much and wants him to be happy. She believes he is in the right that he followed his heart and married the girl that he truly loved. After her son moves away she doesn’t really respect her husband that much anymore. I think she is so sweet the way she cares about her son so much, he might have been adopted but her love for him is still real.

Rahul is the adopted son. He is a very charming and likeable character. Why do i say that then! Yes I think he's very nice! LOL! His character was just lovely! ;) He does everything his dad says but he falls in love with the wrong girl and his dads not happy with him marrying a lower class girl. I really liked his character because he didn’t judge the girl on her background and just fel
l in love with her. After his father told him to leave he feels he wasn’t apart of their family to begin with anyway.

Anjali was the girl who was just plain crazy. She said the wrong things and pretty much has a big gob, which is unstoppable. When she moves to England with her husband and family she doesn’t want her son to forget about his roots so she’s pretty busy trying to teach him. She made me laugh out loud when she was cussing her white neighbour in Hindi. Those scenes were hilarious.

Rohan was the little fat kid in the first half who could do nothing but eat. He made good friends with Anjali’s little sister Pooja. The poor fat kid was sent to boarding school to spend the next ten years of his life there just like his father and big brother did. In the second half he was the tall, not over weight guy. Total change but apart of the plot too. His character was really sweet the way he wanted to bring his broken family back together again. I liked the way the character was portrayed. Oh and he’s kind of cute to!

Little Pooja was the girl who acted all big in front of everyone back home, that’s what her big sister Anjali said anyway. She started out quite simple but as soon as she moved to England with her sister things changed. She became a total fashion freak and wore very revealing clothes to college(?) her character was totally big headed and quite bitchy but very funny at times. She had a crush on Rohan when she saw him in college but when she worked out who he was she couldn’t believe it. She also agreed to help him bring his family back together. Even though her character was big headed and snooty, her heart was in the right place.

From the two main girls Pooja and Anjali it was obvious that Anjali caught your eye. Pooja was quite irritating at times due to her ‘English’ personality but Anjali refused to let go of her heritage and this just caused loads of laughs as
these two did nothing but clash. Even though Pooja was the better looking sister Anjali was the better character which got her the most attention. There wasn’t much realism in Pooja’s character but I loved the way Anjali was portrayed.

The story in a way was far from reality. I’ve been told that this isn’t really how people live in India. It is quite different, but it was still nice to see a movie like this as it was so different. In comparison to a Hollywood movie, Bollywood movies are much more colourful, bright and I guess unrealistic, but still I guess that’s the fun of it all. Also I could not stop looking at all the beautiful clothing, Bollywood style is so in right now so I’ll be watching a lot of Bollywood movies in the future to get more fashion styles.

Ok I couldn’t make out what the songs were about but I have to say they were pretty catchy tunes. Plus the choreography in the songs was just excellent. Quite fun to watch I have to say. One of the nicest songs was set in Egypt and it was really nice to watch with really pretty scenery. I have never really seen Bollywood videos before but they are extremely colourful and addictive to watch. The dancing is almost always exciting too. Apparently every single Bollywood film has music in it too which is something I didn’t know.

Overall this film is pure Bollywood, as my friend would say. It was a sweet movie that had a nice story but I don’t think it’s realistic though. Its still a nice escape from reality though. This was my first Bollywood movie and it wasn’t my last, I’ve seen quite a few now and I have to say I really enjoy them! This movie was really nice and I’m glad I got to see it! Thankfully it was subtitled though! Or I wouldn’t have understood anything! Oh and I was shocked at how much English they speak in Bollywood movies anyway! I thought this film dragged on a bit as some scenes were f
ar too long but still a very nice film. I can honestly say this movie is a concoction of colour, emotion, music and family. In a good way of course. Be warned though; make sure you have a pack of Kleenex tissues! You will cry at one point or another! I hope I didn’t confuse anyone! It’s my first Bollywood opinion! Be gentle with me!

Btw. If anyone saw Ruby wax when she went to Bollywood she met the stars of this movie on the set of this movie

CAST~~

Amitabh Bachchan – Yash Raichand
Jaya Bachchan – Nandini Raichand
Shah Rukh Khan – Rahul Raichand
Kajol – Anjali Sharma
Hrithik Roshan – Rohan Raichand
Kareena Kapoor – Pooja Sharma

DIRECTOR~~

Karan Johar

CERTIFICATE~~

PG

RUNTIME~~

210 min

SITES~~

OFFICIAL SITE - http://www.k3gthefilm.com/

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