Random Musings

Ramesh Sippy perhaps knows that he does not know, so he refrains from directing now..

Rakesh Roshan knows that he knows, so he keeps churning out winners..

Subhash Ghai does not know that he does not know, so he keeps trying.. and failing..

Kisna is a case in point.

Made with lot of fanfare, it obviously appears to have costed a bomb, it was also promoted well. Only to disappoint ultimately…

There is a fundamental escape plot. How Kisna helps Catherine to escape to Delhi.

That being the case, the escape starts fairly early in the first half. And it is supposed to sustain till nearly the end, when the climax has to happen.

In other words, all of it is Act II, with no major sub-plots, and repetitive, trivial challenges that the hero has to face on the way. There is no strength in any of those incidents that happen right from middle of first half, to nearly the end of the movie. Everyone in the audience knows that he has to succeed, so it had to be something else that keeps them interested in their seats, and sorry to say, nothing else comes up. So the Act II drags on… almost endlessly.

Some other serious flaws of the film:

– Kisna is supposed to be the warrior poet. So says the byline of the film. Neither the poet part nor the warrior part is shown to be developing. Almost forced upon like an afterthought is shown, Vivek Oberoi scribbling away like he was writing down a grocery list, and you have to assume that its our ‘budding poet’ at work! As for the warrior part, half a scene is what is shown to convey that he is warrior too.

– There is an out of the blue scene of Amrish Puri, mama of Shankar and Kisna, taking a bribe, for inciting violence. He is shown to have personal interests and none of the patriotic ones. And yet this scene remains in isolation. You wait till the end to see if some connection to that one scene is established later on, if at all. But no.. nothing. Wonder if it was changed due to Amrish Puri’s ill health. In which case though, the earlier scene of his personal agenda, should also have been cut off. Anyway it had no other direct connection to the story, and would have not been missed at all!

– New actress Isha Shravani’s only purpose in the film it appears, is to show off the amazing flexibility of her body, as she goes into calisthenic dance sequences, although they tend to repeat after a while, and become a bit too much

– Remember the last scene in Sholay when Hema Malini and Dharmendra meet in the train? The ‘and they lived happily ever after’ scene. Most films have one, and most films have it for like 30 seconds to 2 minutes at most. Kisna has a 15 minute scene after the main story is over and done with! It was absolutely unbelievable. How can anyone do this? Why waste so much raw stock of film? Just about every person in the theatre got up and walked to the door and most disappeared out of it, and the scene kept going on and on. In case Subhashji felt that part of the story was worth telling, it should have been woven into the central portion of the story. NOT after the main story was all over and everyone knew it. If it was not possible to weave it in the central part, it should have been left OUT!

– Isha Shravani (character Laxmi in the film) is shown to be this amazing dancer with a super body, while Catherine is an average person. Both are shown to be of similar age, in their youth. And yet when the old Catherine returns from the UK to India, she is able to travel all these miles on her own,walk around alone, look a fighting fit oldie. And Laxmi, on the other hand, is shown to have aged, and needs two persons to help her move. With the kind of physical fitness that Laxmi was managing, we would have expected a fitter old lady in Laxmi!

– But yes, the voice of the 80 years old Laxmi was still like that of a 20 year old. Subhashji did not bother to change that. Here is exactly where the detailing counts, and where young dedicated directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali or Farhan Akhtar would not be caught on the wrong foot. Laxmi sounded so young at 80, that you might as well have expected her to be swinging from her favourite rope also, at that age!

Actors like Vikram Gokhale and MOhan Agashe, both of whom have so much talent, have been wasted. Vivek Oberoi might be happy to think of this as a big banner film that he is doing as a solo lead, but he has nothing much to take away from the effort.

Sorry Subhashji, but you might just be better off sticking to production now.. leave direction to the youngsters. The 2.5 stars rating that the Times gave was sheer flattery!!