Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee is a youth centric film with a social message that success, power, fame or money doesn’t always equate with happiness. The film explores parallel tracks such as a gold digger looking for a rich husband, a middle class girl using her body as a means to make it in the film world, a young boy who takes to politics and then has to adopt the underhand policies to stay in the game, a young lad who has no way but to dole out bribes and cheat his own family member to become a success etc. The subject is interesting and the message that the film delivers is also worthy although similar tracks have been explored in bollywood films. The script is quite interesting as it begins with a simple but attention catching bet about which of the four friends will be the happiest in five years. However the screenplay is average and Vikram Bhatt’s execution is simple and basic which makes the film an average one in bollywood. Performances by the young cast depict effort but nonetheless are just about average. On the whole the film is simple and mediocre.
The film has been directed by Vikram Bhatt and stars Dino Morea as Rajeev, Sammir Dattani as Jai, Aftab Shivdasani as Manish, Nauheed Cyrusi as Monica and Anjori Alagh as Ishita. The music has been done by Lalit Pandit and the screenplay and story has been written by Manoj Tyagi. The film revolves around the pursuit of happiness.
Five friends Rajeev, Jai, Monica, Ishita and Manish are good pals in college but each one has their own idea of happiness. On a night out they all decide to play a bet about which one of them would be the happiest after five years. They place a Rs.200 bet and each one moves towards their idea of what happiness is and Manish, the simpleton is made the judge who will decide who the winner is amongst them. Rajeev feels that to be happy one should be successful and hence he begins his journey to become a successful entrepreneur. Rajeev faces many obstacles in his part up the ladder of success; his own brother becomes his rival competition. But Rajeev does not let anything or anyone come in the way of his success. He even cons his brother in a deal. Rajeev has got success but the path that he adopted has left him feeling guilty.
Jai equates power with happiness and hence he joins politics. Gradually with time he learns that to survive in the political arena one has to adopt the corrupt practices of politics. So he adopts them and removes anyone in his path to power. He becomes an MP but he will never forget the fact that he is even responsible for the murder of another politician. Monica felt that fame would bring her happiness and hence she joined the cutthroat and ruthless film world. But she had to compromise herself several times to become one of the top actress and in the end she lost the one person who had supported her right through, the love of her life. Ishita felt that money would give her happiness and hence she was on the lookout for a rich millionaire husband. In the end she married a rich man but instead of getting a loving devoted husband she got a Casanova who played around with other women. Manish was the simple guy from his group, for him happiness was just the absence of sadness and he was living a quite peaceful life with a simple loving girl whom he married.
The film has a young cast which lends it plenty of spontaneity and enthusiasm but at the same time it lacks the star appeal of big stars. The script is simple but yet solid, but the screenplay is too plain and mediocre. The film just moves forth with all the parallel tracks and although the social message does come across, there is a lack of drama or excitement in the film. The characters of a gold digger, a rising politician, a wannabe starlet and rich businessman are not explored in depth and are one dimensional. The film’s ultimate aim of trying to explain that power, money, success etc does not necessarily mean happiness and that the means through which one achieves their goals in life is also important are noteworthy but the manner in which the film goes about depicting this is weak due to its extremely basic style. Vikram Bhatt’s execution is fare but not very inspiring or different. The screenplay is just average and does nothing to take the film higher. On the whole LMKK turns out to be fairly average.
Music is not catchy but has fairly average tunes. Cinematography by Pravin Bhatt is fine and dialogues are average. However the length of the film is dragged along endlessly and the editing could have been much crisper. Pace too drags towards the second half. Some scenes lack a well thought co-ordination and seem to be just thrown in to make a plot. The film also tends to get preachy at times. Performances by the young cast are spontaneous but unfortunately they lack conviction in their one dimensional characters. Dino Morea delivers and average performance, Sammir Dattani is fare, Nauheed Cyrusi does not manage to make one feel for her character, Anjori Alagh has limited scope and Aftab is average in his performance. The rest of the cast does manage a fare job.
On the whole LMKK has an interesting script, but the uneventful screenplay and the basic execution make the film average fare. LMKK also is a niche film which caters to only a niche small segment of audiences. But the lack of hype and publicity for LMKK will perhaps give it only an average run at the box-office.
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| Reviewed By: Rachel Fernandes |
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