Thoughts on Kambakkhat Ishq

Som |

15 | July 4, 2009 at 7:09 pm | 60 views | NaachGaana Bol| Share

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Came back watching the film. It’s not a review, just a few quick random thoughts.

I went to see Kambakkhat Ishq with little, literally no expectations. I knew the film would be dumb (Judging from the promos and Akshay’s brand of cinema) but never thought the dumb would become dumber as the film progresses and soon after I left the theater I realized I saw the dumbest movie of this year so far. Ok fine. So what if the film is dumb, illogical! Dumb films can be entertaining. Can’t they? But sadly Kambakkhat Ishq did not make me feel to hold that very opinion. Kambakkhat Ishq neither has the “zaniness” nor the “masala” to make it anything but engaging. It is just embarrassingly bad and I mean it. It is made with the sole intention to offend. It is smutty, sassy, uncouth, crude, bland, tasteless and most of the time, the laughs come at someone else’s expense. It is another thing to make a slapstick even illogical comedy, but quite another to keep repeating on sexist, racist and toilet jokes, eventually going down to the level of pedestrian kind of humor. Kambakkhat Ishq is simply a compilation of one stupid vulgarity after another which shamelessly takes audience for granted. Lets put numerous sexual innuendoes, make the lead actors repeatedly referring each other with Bitch, Dog, Bastard or whatever (this would sound “cool” to the Generation Y??), make women roam in bikinis and skimpy clothes, bring some Hollywood stars to give it an “international” feel, make the actors ham like there is no tomorrow and we have our film ready to be lapped by the audience? No?

I wonder about Sabbir Khan’s idea of fun!Tell me Mr Sabbir Khan what is funny in the film? Is Akshay farting in the face of Amrita Arora your idea of fun or Akshay slapping a woman or Akshay taken for an anal probe is funny(that is just ridiculous) or a woman’s skirts flying as a car passes is funny or Kareena showily adjusting her boobs multiple times funny for that matter? You almost see everything in the realm of sex, sex and sex, rather in a cheap way as if the Indian audiences are sex starved who would have orgasms seeing all these events unfold on screen.That does not mean nothing was funny in the film, but I can say that there was very little I found to chuckle at. The basic problem however in I felt you did not know what to make with the virtually non existent script, whether to make a full fledged comedy or a melodramatic rom-com. Instead you find yourself no where, as a result come up with a product that has absolutely no substance to it.

It is an irony that two directors with similar sounding names ( Kabir Khan & Sabbir Khan) have delivered two duds in two weeks , one was pretentiously silly ( New York), another one is offensively unentertaining i.e. Kambakkhat Ishq.

My thoughts on KAMBHAKT ISHQ (Hindi, 2009)

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There Are 15 Responses So Far. »

Som 4 July 2009
07:35:34 am

Rangan talks about Kambakkhat Ishq

Same shtick, different setting – isn’t it time Akshay Kumar moved on to something else?

HOW WOULD YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE among the card-carrying legions of Akshay Kumar fans who transformed the actor from action hero to comedy superstar? (He returns to his roots in this comedy by playing an action hero: a stuntman.) I suppose the indication would come early on in Sabbir Khan’s Kambakkht Ishq (reworked from the okayish Tamil comedy Pammal K Sambandham, with Kamal Hassan), if you find you can survive the wedding of Lucky (Aftab Shivdasani) and Kamini (Amrita Arora), a cuddly-wuddly ceremony accompanied by exchanges of “my wabbit” and “my tweety.” For you, then, is this movie made. As for me, I experienced what I usually do in an Akshay Kumar laughathon: there’s always a of law of inverse proportionality at work, which dictates that the more the public adores it, the more I have to resist the impulse to find a quiet corner and blow my brains out.

Tashan and Chandni Chowk to China were hardly successful films – not (entirely) artistically, and certainly not commercially – but they were at least borne along by minor-league ambition, even if that goal was to simply execute jazzy riffs on once-upon-a-time movies. At their core, there was something beyond just scene after trying scene attempting to up the noise quotient under the guise of humour. But after those flops, Akshay is back to upping the noise quotient. If size matters in the case of Kambakkht Ishq, it isn’t bigger that’s better but louder – not only is every actor instructed to perform as if on stage and playing to an exclusive audience of the hearing-impaired, it’s also the sheer volume of the slapstick, which at times assumes the shape of a bludgeon. Towering over you like a giant bully, the film practically dares the unimpressed not to laugh.

The tragedy of this comedy is that it could have delivered genuine laughs had it merely followed up on its battle-of-the-sexes premise. Viraj (Akshay Kumar) loves women but hates commitment. Simrita (Kareena Kapoor, in her unbearably supercilious “Poo” mode) hates men and, subsequently, hates commitment. There is, therefore, the mild anticipation of the inevitably old-fashioned trajectory of Viraj and Simrita moving from hate to love. They meet, for the first time, at the aforementioned wedding, where he is aghast that Lucky has gotten hitched, and she expresses similar sentiments about Kamini. It’s only a while before they begin sniping at each other. “Dog,” she hisses at him. “Bitch,” he barks back. “Ah, true love,” we sigh, and settle down for this apparently mismatched couple to realise that they are, in reality, perfectly matched.

But instead of sexy banter and witty comebacks, we’re treated to farce – which isn’t such a bad idea, except that the unendurably broad gags are of the type where an overweight black woman squats on Viraj and subjects him to a rectal probe. (She suspects he’s carrying drugs.) Then suddenly, the film veers into drama – which, again, isn’t such a bad idea, because badly done drama is infinitely preferable to badly done comedy. For the most part, though, Kambakkht Ishq can’t seem to make up its mind whether it wants to settle into a farce or a rom-com, with mellow passages underlining the melting of hearts. Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh and Denise Richards put in guest appearances as movie-folk – they are surprisingly relevant to the story, set in Hollywood – but once again, all the heavy lifting is left to Akshay Kumar. As I said, if you’re a fan…

neelu 4 July 2009
08:19:25 am

Thanks Som. Expected exactly this based on previews so all I can say is there is no selling of false goods here. Now let us see what the movie starved Junta has to think.

Gorilla 4 July 2009
08:23:31 am

Thanks som. your views have been consistent, so even though i liked the movie more than you, your sincere review sounds good to me. I had even liked New York.

Tango 4 July 2009
09:36:10 am

Thanks Som. I was thinking of telling you last night (when you said that you will watch it) not to watch it but then I said chalo dekhne do, because I knew that its not ur type of movie.

All the same which are the cinemas in your town that are running it? Just give the name for my databank.

Som 4 July 2009
10:06:48 am

Thanks guys!

Tango: Keshari and Swati are playing it. I watched it at Keshari, matinee show (3-6 P.M), was almost 90% full, though there were tickets available(mostly the lower and middle range ones) for the next show i.e evening one.Could not really judge the audiences’ reactions, seemed a mixed bag I guess.

Som 4 July 2009
10:18:41 am

Gorilla: I thought It seriously lacked the entertainment quotient.Take something like “Welcome” which also got some bad reviews thought not as bad as KI but had the masala elements at the right place, there were few scenes which were genuinely funny and Anil and Nana’s performances were like cherry on cake,but with KI there is absolutely no redeeming factor. The meant to be “funny” scenes turned out to be ridiculous to farce.

Gorilla 4 July 2009
10:57:13 am

Som, To be frank, to me it doesn’t matter if a movie matches my sensibility. I have many friends whose sensibilities are different but i like them. Same goes with me for NGers. Same goes with me for movies.
KI is not even close to welcome or Bhool Bhulaiya. I did not like it much. But I did not hate it also. I thought it was a time pass movie with a rating that could be between 2.5 and 3 out of 5. I enjoyed its first half though the humor had its low and high.

Tango 4 July 2009
12:02:49 pm

Thanks for that info Som.

Som 4 July 2009
07:50:10 pm

Fair enough Gorilla.The humor which you thought worked for you in the first half, was pretty much arid to me.I still can’t understand what was Javed Jaffrey doing in the film?!If he was roped in make people laugh through his over the top mannerisms (he has a decent comic timing agreed but it requires at least few decent lines of writing to show that), then I am sorry to say his portions in the film were the dullest ones.

Som 4 July 2009
08:14:06 pm

Btw did anyone see there was bit of “exhibitionism”, flashing of boobs (of course the director didn’t show it to us, but it was clear what he meant) in the “Kambakkht Ishq” song?

Gorilla 4 July 2009
11:15:53 pm

‘of course the director didn’t show it to us’

Som, are you complaining?

RAJ 5 July 2009
12:14:00 am

som,

Thanks for your thoughts…

RAJ 5 July 2009
12:44:10 am

Som,

When you watched the movie at Keshari yesterday..did you purchase the tickets in black.. ? If yes at what price..Because that would give an indication of audiences’ reaction..

Som 5 July 2009
01:02:26 am

Som, are you complaining?

Yeah. At least that would have been me a reason to catch the film again and believe me the repeat value of the film would have gone up by multiple times.

Som 5 July 2009
01:05:28 am

Matinee show, Raj at Keshari. Purchased the balcony ticket on black(Original price Rs 40, Black price Rs 70).As I told to Tango It was almost 90% full though there were tickets available(mostly the lower (Rs 15) and middle range(Rs 25) ones) for the next show i.e evening one.

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Som

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