The canvas is vivid with strong reds and blues, and the spectacle is grand with the camera taking in all that the able actors and the New York vistas have to offer; Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is a high gloss well-fashioned drama with a fair share of romance and humour. Karan Johar’s able direction guides the veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee effortlessly, who individually excel in some rather difficult and complex characterizations; but the show belongs to the Bachchans. Both father and son share a chemistry that is rare, and if Sarkar was testimony to the dynamite high octane drama both players can exhibit on celluloid, then Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna shows the excellent camaraderie and comic timing both share, their peppy exchanges adding life to the sometimes long-drawn events that the film’s structure suffers. Which brings us to the film’s singular flaw - the script is laborious and the screenplay fails to maintain the requisite pace and momentum that a three-hour-plus drama demands. The concatenation of events that lead up to the final denouement could easily have been spread across lesser screen time, evidence of an edit that is loose and indulgent. Nonetheless, backed by an almost flawless balance technical team with the cinematography by Anil Mehta and the sound by Stephen Gomes standing out, this is an opulent film that gives entertainment-starved viewers eye-popping imagery that is extremely satisfying.

Making relationships work is difficult in today’s world. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna takes the stand that relationships that are not based on the foundation of love, even if it is marriage, have little meaning, and are best terminated in the interests of those involved. A departure from the conventional ‘one must make marriage work’ stand that almost all Indian films take, this one even goes so far as to condone extra-marital affairs. This may sound risqué and a bit much (won’t like to spoil the film by giving out details of the central deceit hence the mere mention without getting into the characters and motives here but later certain scenes and a basic storyline have been addressed with tact), but it is sensitively handled, and the angst of broken relationships ably fleshed out. Partly inspired by Mike Nichols’ bolder drama Closer, though very different in structure, it is a modern view of the man-woman relationship, reflecting the zeitgeist when comfort is easily derived from changing partners when the existing relationship is bereft of love, and divorce is resorted to as a solution.

Passion, heartbreak, anger, sadness and deception, a multitude of emotions come together in the two central dysfunctional relationships that the story moves through, with Shah Rukh’s Dev Saran and Abhishek’s Rishi Talwar realizing that their relationships with their wives isn’t really what love stories are made of. Rishi is a go-getting event management specialist married to Rani’s Maya; Rishi doubts that Maya doesn’t love him but refuses to give up hope, working at the relationship in the hope of winning her attention and physical companionship. On the other hand, Dev is a limping handicapped disgruntled footballer who had all the success in the world but life dealt him a bad card in a freak car accident that debilitated him, reducing his super-professional sports career to that of an ordinary coach. Married to the beautiful Rhea (Preity Zinta), he has been reduced to the status of the housewife, bringing up son Arjun while Rhea starts does exceedingly well in her career at a fashion magazine. While Maya is living a life where she cannot comprehend why she doesn’t have any attraction to her doting husband, Dev is living in self-pity, grudging his wife’s success. When the two meet, they find a common bond and comfort that raises a storm difficult to quell.

The film begins on a lighter note, with the cheeky Samarjit Singh aka Sam’s sexy shenanigans, a widower living it up in New York with hot American babes as amusement! Mr Bachchan as Sam is great fun, with son Rishi addressing him as ‘Dude’, adding colour to the proceedings in true Karan Johar style. From jokes that range from a “call girl calling him” to the “Chandigarh Ass” to many more that will appear lackluster on paper in this review but shines in the film with a mischievous gleam that unfailingly makes you laugh or at times at least smile, the situational humor is well captured by the director and perfectly enacted by the lead thespians. When real life father-son act as reel-life father-son with zest and humor, the screen comes alive. This then metamorphoses into dramatic content when father Samarjit discovers his daughter-in-law’s infidelity. The wise family head dons a different hat from the ‘Rock N Roll Soniye’ one and advises her onto the right path, lying on deathbed after his third heart attack, remarkably declaring “Death and love, dono bin bulaaye mehmaan hote hain”. This is indeed a bold stand for Indian cinema of this kind, which to-date has been immersed in tradition and Indian morals have been heeded and paid respect to at every juncture of screenwriting and filmmaking.

From the fun-n-games to the serious dramatic portions, the film has a couple of clichéd but extremely well-executed sequences, like when Dev, already seeing Maya on the sly, comes face-to-face with Rhea while on a clandestine date with Maya. These are scenes that work because of the stars and the direction, not the writing. While the lines are unremarkable, the expressions of the veteran actors and the camera capturing the finer nuances of such a difficult moment make the film an involving fare. If only the writing was as sharp….

The only place where the writing is noteworthy is in the humor of Sam, and also in the scene where SRK’s Dev admits to his affair at a family dinner as a joke, a scene which brings to fore SRK’s immense dramatic strength. Also, in the scene where Abhishek’s Rishi finally explodes and questions Rani’s Maya about her physical infidelity, one really feels for Rishi (one of Abhishek’s finest performances to date), though the Closer scene with Clive Owen immediately came to mind while viewing this.

On the plus side, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music is great respite to the central drama and lightens proceedings. 'Mitwa' and 'Rock N Roll Soniye' are great fun, wonderfully choreographed by Farah Khan. The costumes and Louis Vuitton accessories add to the opulence, distracting the viewer from the dramatic shortcomings. And the supporting cast is also impressive, with Kirron Kher excelling as Dev’s mother, caught between her son’s infidelity, love for her grandson and empathy for her daughter-in-law. Arjun Rampal plays the inconsequential boss of Rhea who starts amounting to more in her life as the film ends, and Kajol and John Abraham make brief appearances to add weight to the songs.

Alas, comparisons are unavoidable when it comes to a creator’s body of work; Kuch Kuch Hota Hai had a certain zest and novelty that even this bold and seemingly innovative subject lacks. If only the conventional parting of ways and the coming together of loved ones would have also have been given a fillip… While the subject is innovative, the treatment is conventional, and one wonders how this film would have shaped up if the inner conflict of a handicapped man would have been brought to the fore; or if a husband’s frustration in not finding physical comfort and solace in his life partner and the resultant upheavals in life would have been dwelt upon; or if a father-in-law’s horror on discovering his daughter-in-law’s infidelity been addressed more emphatically…

An event picture that has a cast and director of great muscle, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is destined to work, but doesn’t emerge a classic that it could have been. Can the editing department please wake up and sum up the guts to throw out some chunks of the beautiful footage please to tighten the narrative?