No, I haven’t watched Stepmom and I’m in no mood to compare We are Family with any other movie. Let us review this latest flick from Dharma productions from a neutral perspective. The movie has mega stars Kajol, Kareena and Arjum Rampal and has been directed by Siddharth Malhotra.Maya (Kajol) is the ever protective mother of her three kids Aalya, Ankush and Anjali. The kids adore Maya and naturally she is their world. Maya is divorced from Aman (Arjun Rampal who is a photographer) who lives with Shreya (Kareena who is a fashion designer). Their happy lives turn upside down when Maya is diagnosed with cervical cancer. Maya, thinking about the future of her kids, brings home Shreya to be their stepmother. What happens in the end? Do they form a happy family?
The film starts hurriedly with a rushed version of “Aankhon mein neendein” alongside title credits. Soon enough we understand that that Aman is a divorcee and lives with Kareena. Maya and her three kids live alone and Aman tries to make a hesitant Kareena to mix with his kids. But somehow every time, the kids and Kareena end up fighting with each other. Somehow the interactions between the children and Kareena are card-boardish and have no life in it. This makes Maya furious and asks Aman not to bring Kareena in front of her kids.
Disaster strikes when Kajol is diagnosed with cancer and starts to think she will be done soon (in an assigned date maybe). Aman leaves Kareena and moves in with Maya and the children. Notwithstanding the idea of her kids being without a mother, she brings Kareena home and makes her their step mother. With the mandatory tear jerking climax, we feel relieved that the movie has actually ended.
The characters are as confused as the director himself. This is so much of a drama that it is too hard to withstand. There are so many hot and cold sequences in the movie. The kids seem to fight, react, argue and run away from Kareena in one scene and seem to worship her in the next. Is it bad screenplay or poor editing? So is Kareena’s character. One wonders why she has to be so cold with the kids in the initial interactions. If only the story and screenplay were half as good as the cute baby Anjali, this movie would have fared much better. Ridiculously boring scenes, lifeless characters… what more do you need for a bad movie?
About dialogues, Niranjan Iyer could have left it to the actors themselves to speak their own dialogues. The whole audience was in splits when Kajol asks the “Am I going to die doctor?”, “Log marne ke baad taare ban jaate hai (people become stars after they die). Too filmy. I’m sure this could have been handled better. Though the songs are good, the background score is absolutely sore to the ears. There is a high pitch jarring music whenever the director feels you have to cry, especially after the interval when Kareena gets close to the kids with Kajol watching. Tiring!
Diya Sonecha as Anjali is the livewire. The kid is adorable in many places and is the only bright point of the movie alongside Kajol. Kajol, for the hugely talented actress she is, has done her part but again, the scope of her character has been limited by the director. She is a perfect mom… caring, anxious and loving. John Abraham has been wasted in a role which he just walks through. Kareena looks pale and just passes of as Shreya.
The sore points of the movie are many. Maya and Anjali? Karan Johar can think of different names in his next movie, we believe. The climax is excruciating. If you think the movie has ended, we see the characters line up, cry alone and cry together singing “Hamesha and Forever”. We feel that Siddharth, trying to create an impact, has overdone the tear-jerking episode. And above all, the arguments, fights and all family issues happen in front of the children, all three of them … is this because ‘They are Family?’
We are family is devoid of any emotions and actually makes a painful watch even if it runs for only two hours. Karan Johar said that ‘We are Family’ is very different from Step mom. It is, but on the downside.
Verdict – We are family – Dull, tedious watch.
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