Cast – Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Swaroop Sampat, Rajit Kapur
Writer/Director – R. Balki
The movie seems a valiant effort by the director who is known to make films on out-of-the-box concepts.
The story is about how a couple opts for a path less treaded… the husband is the “artist” who is the home-maker and the wife is the bread earner. It shows how they deal with the societal pressures, gender bias and their own human insecurities and follies.
The concept this time, about gender role reversals, is definitely interesting and very relevant in today’s times when more and more women are clamouring for that support and understanding from the society and family so that they can go ahead and follow their dreams and careers undeterred.
Message is definitely noble and pertinent that there shouldn’t be any stereotyping about “who does what” and “why should there be a difference in how people look at one who earns or the ones who helps the other earn or manage the home front”.
Or simply put, why can’t keeping home be a man’s domain?
But I wouldn’t be able to the say the same about the execution of the concept. The script lags miserably in creating that depth to the subject. It does manage to create humour, does pick up issues relevant but is unable to rev up enough serious emotions.
Many of the situations seem exaggerated and at many places the stereotyping of the home maker’s role seems to push back the very purpose… (of not stereotyping the roles in the family).
As Swaroop Sampath said in a well worded simple message “It’s not about ki and ka, it’s about who earns and who runs the home”… but why create a caricature of a homemaker’s role… cooking , cleaning, kitties blah blah.
Talking of performances, it was such a pleasure to watch Kareena in such a substantial role. She delivers it unfailingly every time. Arjun seems convincing in his character except in a few situations which seem to be more of script’s fault. No dearth of his efforts though.
It was good to see Swaroop Sampath after long long time. Rajat Kapoor unfortunately didn’t have much to do.
We will have to wait for another Cheeni Kum from Balki, though this one was way better than Shamitabh.
On a lighter note, I guess he should take the message of the movie seriously and we get to see another great English Vinglish from his wife Gauri.
I would personally rate it 6.5 for its novel concept and message which cannot be brushed aside and for Kareena and Arjun. 3.5 lost is surely for the lack of better script and screenplay .