KISMAT KONNECTION : FILM REVIEW

Kismat Konnection is a feel-good NRI love stories having a customary
Indian narration in some foreign location. The kinds where every
person the hero even randomly stumbles upon speaks to him in Hindi.


Remember Raj malhotra! it is a name fixed eternally in films from
Chopra Camp. Red Chillies has adopted the same hero's name,same NRI
Lubho business model, of course cheaper as instead of locales of
America shot in Toranto (canada) shoot The kinds where the hero is
still named as Raj Malhotra. Where's the story you ask? Left to
chance.. fate, destiny, luck or Kismat as you may call it.


Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is the university topper but somehow luck
isn't favouring him. Five years post graduation he is still jobless
and waiting for his first assignment as an architect.


Kismet connects as he comes across Priya (Vidya Balan) who happens to
be his lucky charm. In her presence even the impossible turns
achievable for Raj. Raj desperately seeks her company in all his
endeavours from employment to affection.


Just when you start liking the breezy premise, the director decides to
add (rotten) meat to the story by adding a hackneyed love triangle to
stretch the screenplay by a few more cliched scenes.


Priya is already engaged with another guy but we are familiar with the
fact that the heroine will ultimately end up with the hero. And since
the third angle just happens to be some side-hero, he's also given a
bad conduct certificate of two-timing to make his exit easier.


On a parallel note Raj gets the contract to design a shopping mall
which incidentally happens to be on the same land where Priya supports
a community center.


Surprisingly the film derives the plot on the same grounds of the old
age home premise in Lagey Raho Munnabhai and more shockingly Vidya
Balan ends up playing the same character as in the earlier film.


Either director Aziz Mirza should have derived from some other source
or if the inspiration was so compelling, he should have cast some
other actress. This is deja vu on the face.


Finally Raj wins both, Priya and the project by delivering a
sentimental speech in the climax where he talks about everything from
global warming to US superpower but for the practicality of the
project.


Was there a cross connection here? And the film opts for such a
convenient conclusion that you wonder if there was any problem at the
first place.


Thought the movie starts on a promising note but soon resorts to
conventional formula. The movement of story is very slow, specially in
2nd half The second half drags with Raj's repeated attempts to win the
construction contract.


The love triangle is clearly off-track and is simply enforced to
manipulate that mandatory shadi song sequence to appease the family
and NRI audiences.


Thankfully the script steers away from sermonizing on bhartiya
sanskriti et al, an avid tendency with such genres. On the upside
Binod Pradhan's cinematography is eye-pleasing and Pritam's music is
soothing to the ears.


This time around Shahid Kapoor displays a hangover of.. no not Shah
Rukh but Amitabh Bachchan in the initial reels and also does a
complete take on his extended Namak Halaal dialogue.


Nevertheless he soon comes to his usual self and gives a sincere
performance. And those Ahmed Khan choreographed gyrations can never go
wrong. As against the notion, Vidya Balan carries a graceful charm and
is natural as ever.


Om Puri is effective in his imposing character with a Punjabi accent.
Vishal Malhotra repeats his friendly act for the nth time. Age has
caught up with Juhi Chawla and it shows onscreen.


Concisely the film only connects with the viewer intermittently and a
lot has been left to Kismat.


In college Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapur) was numero uno. In academics,
sports, dramatics and touted as the next cover of Time magazine. But
four years after winning the best-student-of-the-year trophy from his
architectural college, he's wondering why a brilliant architect like
him, with designs to ...


Cast Production Credits
Shahid Kapoor - Raj Malhotra
Vidya Balan - Priya
Juhi Chawla - Hassena Banu Jaan
Om Puri - Sanjeev Gill
Vishal Malhotra - Hiten Patel
Director: Aziz Mirza
Producer: Ramesh S. Taurani , Kumar Taurani
Written by: Sanjay Chel