Writer: Janak

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Watch this if you liked: “Fanaa”, “New York”

Kurbaan ("Sacrificed") tells the story of Avantika Ahuja (Kareena Kapoor) who is married to Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan), only for Avantika to find out much later that her husband is a terrorist in the making. With the help of her reporter friend Riyaaz (Vivek Oberoi), they slowly discover Ehsaan's plan and try to foil it. Along the way, Ehsaan even manages to find out that they are on to him but he reacts by planning something more devastating than the two could ever imagine.

The lead actors did well. Saif Ali Khan gave a wonderful, dark performance and Kareena Kapoor (with much better new looks) handled her emotions gracefully. Interestingly, Vivek Oberoi gave a power-packed performance and this might just be the turning point in his career. Supporting cast members such as Om Puri and Kirron Kher gave splendid performances too and Diya Mirza manages a cameo as well.

Plot wise, maiden director Renzil D'Silva does a very good job. Unlike previous Yashraj Films attempts on the terrorism subject like "Fanaa" and "New York", the man took a completely different approach and should be credited with full marks. Even though the storyline is predictable from the very start, the director does manage to shock the audience with some scenes. Perhaps with a tighter script, the movie's many loopholes in between wouldn't have been exposed. As far as cinematography is concerned, Dharma Productions never fail to showcase backdrops and backgrounds in a most beautiful way. The scenes shot in Philadelphia and Brooklyn are well presented. Karan Johar serving as the producer knew exactly what he wanted and cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi read Karan's mind. Good effort by the less known cinematographer. It's also a bonus that these effects have secondary importance as the whole movie was more character driven.

As for the songs, "Kurbaan" had a total of six songs but only two manage to live up to expectations. Tracks like "Shukran Allah" and "Ali Maula" will definitely capture your attention while the rest tended to sink. Music directors Shankar-Ehsan-Loy and Salim Sulaiman had to share the same platform in producing the songs.

In India, there were news going around about the movie having two obscene songs which were about to be banned but after having filed some petitions, they passed somehow. The movie also suffered a release hiccup in Malaysia but managed to pull through.

Overall, "Kurbaan" is not necessarily a must-watch movie just because of Dharma Productions (which has given the biggest Hindi blockbusters in recent years) but it is a good watch because of its powerful story told in a refreshing new way that is rarely showcased in Hindi cinema today. Kudos to the director once again.


Cinema Online, 23 November 2009