Kambakht Ishq

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivadasani, Amrita Arora, Sylvester Stallone (guest)
Direction : Sabbir Khan

Music : Anu Malik, Salim - Sulaiman

The name of this new hindi film by Akshay Kumar originated from the first line of a hit song from the film ‘Pyar Tune Kya Kiya’ (Fardeen Khan-Urmila starrer produced by Ramgopal Varma in 2001). Right from his debut in the early 90’s, the 80+ films year old actor, who is also a martial arts expert has grown through films like ‘Khiladi’, ‘Mohra’, ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’, ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’, ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Ajnabee’, ‘Garam Masala’, ‘Namasthey London’, ‘Singh is King’ etc. Though the majority of them were action oriented roles, in the last 4-5years, Akshay kumar has started giving importance to comedy subjects also. ‘Kambakht Ishq’ is directed by debutant Sabbir Khan, who was working in the field as assistant director since last 14years.

In the last years, bollywood has changed a lot in many aspects especially on the technical side. Even then they are giving films like ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Lagaan’, Chak de India’ etc along with ‘Dhoom’, ‘Bhoot’, ‘Kabhi Alvida na Kehna’etc. Another important change is in the environment of story telling. The majority of the film happens in US or UK or any other country abroad. In the 60% of the films relasing here, we can’t spot out a single scene containing visuals from our country. (Personally, I am against such an attitude of the film makers, but looking on the commercial side I will prefer to be silent). Since, hindi films have got a global audience, Eros International has released ‘Kambakht Ishq’ overseas also. The film fully shot in US, has got casting of Sylvester Stallone. The intention was clear.

Viraj (Akshay) is working as dupe for Hollywood actors in action sequences. His young brother (Aftab) who also works in the same field decides to get married. This is not supported by Viraj. On the other side the proposed girl (Amrita Arora) has got a friend (Kareena) who also opposes the marriage. She tried to separate the couple blaming the stability of their job as dupes. Irritated at this, the hero advises his brother not to break up their family relation. When Viraj met with an accident, heroine who is a doctor conducts the surgery. When gone through the X-ray, she came to know that before stitching, by mistake she left her watch inside hero’s stomach. Without telling this, she started in front of him as if she loves him. When her intention of doing surgery again becomes successful, she reveals that she don’t like him. Anyway after few dramatic situations, heroine begs the hero for love in the climax and what to do, he agrees…!

Have you heard the story before? It was only at the interval time only that I identified that this film is the remake of a Kamalhassan-Simran film in the early 2000period, ‘Pammal K Sambandham’. Only thing they have done is the change of location and addition of more glamour scenes. Universal Studios in Hollywood forms the main location here. The actions scenes directed by foreign technicians are shown as a part of the hero’s profession as dupe in films. Stallone comes in two scenes, his climax fight and the shot in which he tells the word “Kambakht Ishq…” felt cinematic. The way in which the alarm rings inside the hero’s body and its impact is not realistic. Javed Jafri’s character also felt intolerable sometimes. The single comedy scene given for Boman Irani is also repetitive. The film sounds high technically. Cinematography by Vikas Shivraman is notable. Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor have done well.

The original version of this film was a flop. Here they managed to recreate it through ‘Kambakht Ishq’ to a certain extend. But, we can’t promote it as the best.

Rating : 6 / 10