Film Review-KISNA

Isha Sharwani n Vivek Oberoi in KISNA

StarCast: Vivek Oberoi, Antonia Bernath, Isha Sharwani

Direction: Subash Ghai

Rating: * *

Showman Mr. Ghai is back but not with a bang but with a big disappointment called Kisna. The autocrat uses his power to bring out lavish sets, great cinematography, etc, all of which would have been an icing on the cake had he used his power to edge out a good script. But what we get is a rotten cake with good icing. The protagonist in the movie Kisna (Vivek Oberoi) has a clear notion about the difference between karma and dharma. Its his karma to ensure that his childhood sweetheart Catherine (Antonia Bernath) reaches England safely and its his dharma to marry his fiance' Radha (Isha Sharwani) coz its the will of his family even though he loves Catherine. Now in doing so he encounters difficult situations and even worse impregnable people.
The screenplay is not effective, there is no connection between the scenes, you expect something to happen and before you know its evolved into another scene altogether. The whole story is actually a narration from the eyes of 75 yr old Catherine whose come to India to meet her ex beau Kisna and his wife Radha (gawd knows what was she waiting for all these years). The actress playing old Catherine is an absolute ham. Kisna's mom (Zarina Wahab), his friend (Vivek Mushran)[P.S. Once upon a time this actor made his debut in ghai's Saudagar] and his friends wife (Hrishita Bhatt) play their parts effectively. Amrish Puri is absolutely wasted in a miniscule crappy part, this being one of his last films, one wished he had a memorable role. Kisna's brother ( i forget his name, Lakha of Lagaan fame) does justice to his role. Rajat Kapoor is brilliant, as the peverted rajkumar ,just plays his part perfectly. Speaking of the main lead Vivek Oberoi plays the role without any conviction, he seems absolutely disinterested in what hes doing. Debutant hoofer Isha Sharwani who was discovered by Ghai in an awards function where she was performing some rope entrechats is good when it comes to her dancing capabilities, infact is simply astounding but has a long way to go as far as acting is concerned. Infact everytime she's happy or gets angry she breaks into her crazy dance and belive me sometimes its kinda funny. This dancer is the choreographer's executant that too the choreographer being her real mom (Daksha Seth). Antonia Bernath gives a sincere performance, and just suits the character to the tee.The two stars are for Antonia and Ashok Mehta, the cinematographer who's work is par excellance and also for the song "Hum hain iss pal yahan" which is absolutely timeless and soulful.
Actually the song in the movie has the whole review in its lyrics, here is its hidden meaning. "Hum hain iss pal yahaan (in the theatre), jaane ho kal kahaan (many left half way through the movie), hum mile na mile (one wishes if he and the film had not met), hum rahe na rahe (some might think of ending their lives after the torture of watching this movie), rahengi sada yahaan (such movies will keep releasing), pyar ki yeh dastaan (our love for hindi films), sunegi sada jise yeah zameen asmaan (and we will go and watch such movies again and again i will write reviews too!!)."

-Sanketh Rao.