Movie Review: Kismet Konnection

It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart ...

Without saying a thing, you can light up the dark...

It’s amazing how you can aptly use these lines to describe the expression in the eyes of Vidya Balan. Her smoky eyes speak a thousand words and light up the scenes in Kismat Konnection. Like Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, Kismat Konnection too moves on familiar lines. There is nothing new in the story line – in fact, the story is somewhat predictable in the way it twists and turns.

However, two notable things about the movie are the chemistry between Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) and his best friend, Hiten Patel and of course between, Raj and Priya (Vidya Balan). However, I was left feeling disappointed with the characterization of Haseena Bano Rani (a special appearance by Juhi Chawla). While I do believe that Juhi was perfect for the role, I think that the Director should have worked harder on this character rather than let Juhi act out her Kurkure-act. Still, the character eked out a few laughs from the audience but frankly, I believe Juhi was wasted in this role.

Those of you who went to watch the movie expecting another Jab We Met would have been left severely disappointed – I went in with a fresh mind, harbouring no expectations from the movie (all due to the average reviews of the movie) and I was left pleasantly surprised at the end of this 2hr, 45 min flick! I liked the movie – it had a nice, feel good factor about it! And of course, Neeraj Shreedhar rocked with the title track.. The music was decent, with Bakhuda Tumhi Ho and Kismet Konnection (ae pappi) being the highlights! Go watch it, it’s pretty decent stuff and especially, if you can’t get tickets for The Dark Knight.

Footnote: While Shahid's dressing sense is immaculate throughout the movie, Vidya Balan's dressing sense slips from pretty okay to sheeeeee as we approach the climax! Seriously guys -- I'm not joking!

Check my Kismat Konnection!

So readers, tell me what percentage of India believes in Destiny, or Karma, or Kismat? Well, I don’t about the rest of you, but there certainly are two people in the world who believe in the world of karma or Kismat: I and the other being the Director of Kismat Konnection. After reading the average reviews of this movie in various publications including the Rediff.com and The Telegraph, I had chucked the idea of catching this movie. As it is, the last few months, I’ve severely cut down on my going out for movies. So, watching a sub-standard movie was far off my mind when I ventured out of home earlier today at around 11 in the morning.

After taking care of a couple of my works, I called up my buddy, Amit Jodhani (one of those rare souls who have stayed on as my friends in Kolkata) and asked him his program. We had an educational thing to take care of and according to plans made on Friday night, we were supposed to meet up at 3 pm on Saturday, i.e. today, July 19, 2008. After taking care of my works, I thought I’d plenty of time to work out at the gym and catch Amit at 3. It was 12:25 pm when I entered my gym. As luck would have it, Amit called me up 10 minutes later and suggested that we meet up at 1. Now, I’d already changed and was ready to hit the gym floor and work up a good sweat. As a bargain for meeting so early, Amit agreed to go for a movie. After hunting through the newspapers for the movie timings, we finally agreed to watch The Dark Knight at Fame, South City. For some inexplicable reasons, INOX was not screening this movie in either of its theatres in Kolkata. It was 12:45 then and with the show beginning at 1:15 pm, we agreed to meet in 10 mins as the Fame South City multiplex was 15 mins drive from where we were.

I huffed and puffed and was able to reach the ground floor of the building (which houses my gym) but Amit was stuck in some pretty bad traffic jam. 1:15 pm came and went and Amit was finally able to pick me up at 1:25 pm.. After discussing for what seemed like ages, we decided to head for the Russell St dhaba where we finally agreed on watching the movie at 4:15 pm at the same multiplex. With plenty of time to kill, we took care of our educational queries and reached South City at 3:15 pm. However, to our utter dismay, the 4:15 show of The Dark Knight was already housefull (with only 1 ticket available – the lady at the counter was kind enough to inform us of this fact).. We then decided to choose from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na or Kung Fu Panda but as our Kismat would have it, we bought tickets for Kismat Konnection, a movie both of us had initially agreed on to skip!

Thanks to the unpredictable nature of life, we were able to watch this lovely flick – it’s not mind blowing like Jaane tu Ya jaane Na or Jab We Met but it’s still manages to be worth 1 watch atleast! I’ve written the review of this movie but I’m waiting for it to be published on Desicritics.org before I publish the same here. So, fingers crossed, I hope that your Kismat lets you watch the movie and read my review, right here, sometime tomorrow! And yes, a girl like Vidya Balan is the perfect take home material – watch the movie to understand more! :-) :-) :-) And for that person, who had originally received this remark - hope you got it! Then again, I did mention it to you at the Airport!

And a final word of caution: Besides the obvious similarity to Jab We Met, the movie also has some sequences which will remind you of Chalte Chalte and Lage Raho Munnabhai. Nonetheless, this movie is certainly a good timepass!