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Tuesday, April 1, 2025
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BOLLYWOOD WE ARE FAMILY
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
Some films are good to look at. Some feel good at heart. Very few mainstream
films manage to look as good on the surface and also capture the heart. "We
Are Family" is equally appealing from the outside and at the heart.
It doesn’t take us long into the narration to realize that the debutant
director has his own ideas on how urban man-woman relationships work. Siddharth
Malhotra brings the traditional compassion and large-heartedness of Sooraj
Barjatya’s films into the same line of vision as the urban fables about the
man-woman relationship of Gulzar’s "Ijaazat" and Govind Nihalani’s
"Drishti". The brew is invigorating and often very very moving in the
way movies stopped moving us a long time ago.
The basic premise and even chunks of sequences and dialogues are taken from
Chris Columbus’ "Stepmom". Are Kajol and Kareena Kapoor as powerful
in portraying the wife and the other woman as Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts
in the original?
What if one says the two divas in the desi "Stepmom" are far more
empathetic in their understanding of the complexities of a marriage that has not
quite terminated and the alternative relationship which doesn’t know where to
go without disrespecting the earlier relationship? Kajol and Kareena share a
compelling partnership in portraying a household that’s run by two women.
The intricacies of the triangle are worked out with heartwarming delicacy, so
much so that you wonder why the director needed to keep any of elements from the
Hollywood film. "We Are Family" takes the "Stepmom" saga to
another level. It’s an urban fable told with subtlety and a softness of touch
which completely avoids excesses of emotions until the last ostensibly
gut-wrenching finale when the narration gets excessively melodramatic.
The rest of the film is remarkably devoid of extravagant emotions even though
the situation described and defined by the plot is susceptible to acute bouts of
overt emotion. Having three actors who know how to play down the pitch without
taking away the edge in the narration surely helps the situation.
Kajol needs absolutely no recommendation. Her transformation from physically
healthy but restless in soul, to a dying but spiritually healed entity happens
right in front of our eyes. The little-little things she does with her eyes and
lips just rips a hole in our soul. Yup, she is one of our all-time greats -
without trying. The moments when she watches Shreya (Kareena) take charge of her
children and husband find Kajol expressing a mixture of envy and resignation the
way only she can.
But it is Kareena Kapoor who is an utter revelation. Never before has she
demonstrated such a complete understanding of her character’s inner life. To
the role of Kajol’s husband’s girlfriend Kareena brings a rare and reined-in
passion. Everything that she has done so far on screen is undone as Kareena
redefines the role of the Other Woman in Hindi cinema.
Admirably the 6(!!) screenplay writers have worked overtime on Kareena’s part.
She could easily have been the bitch who steals Kajol’s husband away. As
written in the script, Kareena comes across as flesh blood tears - and yes, as a
woman of great beauty.
Arjun Rampal has been constantly evolving as an actor. Here he balances out the
powerhouse performers on both his sides with a deeply felt emotional binding
presence. And by the way, he dances better than Kajol and Kareena in the
disappointing ‘Jailhouse Rock’ number.
Sensibly, Siddharth Malhotra has avoided the temptation of too many
confrontational moments between Kajol and Kareena. We wouldn’t have wanted
this tender-sweet look at a shattered family’s attempts to hold the fabric of
their togetherness in place to end up looking like one of those T. Rama Rao
mera-pati-sirf-mera-hai kitsch-kitsch-hota-hai stale-tales from the 1980s.
"We Are Family" takes the story of a broken marriage to an area of
poignancy where the outer edges remain as strong as the inner fabric of the
three characters who find themselves trapped in a tragedy not of their making.
From the opening birthday sequence where Arjun introduces girlfriend Kareena to
his wife and children, with disastrous consequences, the film exercises a high
cool-and-calm quotient in its structuring.
At the end, when Siddharth Malhotra has taken the family fable beyond "Stepmom",
you suddenly realize it’s been a while since we saw a film about Man, Wife and
Other Woman tackle the layers of painful separation and reconciliation with such
fluency and care.
Go for this one.
Karan Johar has never been hesitant about sharing his fall-out with Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan or disclosing his sexuality and in tune with the same the ace director has in his recent biography disclosed his 2002 spat with now best friend Kareena Kapoor KhanRead More
Karan pleased at Shah Rukh's efforts for 'We Are Family' publicityFilmmaker Karan Johar is more than pleased that his superstar friend Shah Rukh Khan is going out of his way to promote his latest production "We Are Family" despite not starring in it.Read More
Maya (Kajol) is the perfect mother. Her life revolves around her three children, Aleya (Aanchal Munjal), Ankush (Nominath Ginsburg), and Anjali (Diya Sonecha), who think nothing less than the world of her. Despite being divorced from her husband, Aman (Arjun Rampal) Maya has ensured that everything runs smoothly in her house, under her watch, and that they continue to remain a happy family unit. However, when Aman introduces his girlfriend, Shreya (Kareena Kapoor) a career oriented woman, who has a lot to learn about children, to the family, the situation immediately takes an unexpected turn. When an incident changes their lives drastically, bringing the two women under the same roof, they find themselves putting to test an unusual situation; can two mothers make a home?
Forced to make some unorthodox choices for her family, Maya must confront her uneasy equation with Shreya and find a way to bring everyone together, despite their differences, to make them a family once again.
Can they make a happy home and proudly say… WE ARE FAMILY!
