Always Kabhi Kabhi: Movie Review

In times when the nation is debating over eminence of educational institutions, Roshan Abbas' film makes the debate much simpler. " MIT aur IIT mein sirf ek alphabet ka farak hain ", self-assesses the college principal in this film. So is this film about academic evaluation? Not really! Is it about the education system? Not exactly! Is it a campus love story? Not completely! Is it about student problems and parental pressure? Kind of! Always Kabhi Kabhi remains as indecisive and inconsistent as its title and is a muddle of multiple college concerns.

Set in such fancy convent campus where girl's skirts end much above their knees and Romeo and Juliet continues to be the most important chapter in classrooms, Always Kabhi Kabhi is an Archie type... oops... archetypal campus caper with the usual suspect supporting cast of Satish Shah, Lilette Dubey, Navneet Nishan.... (Oh how did they miss Archana Puran Singh!)

Taking her daughter's name a little too literally, Aishwarya's (Giselle Monteiro) mother wants her to be Miss India. Tariq (Satyajeet Dubey) is the idealistic intellectual whose father gives him no other option but MIT for further studies. Nandini (Zoa Morani) is the tomboy whose parents are so super-rich that, as per Bollywood norms, they are supposed to have no time for their daughter. And Sameer Khanna (Ali Fazal) is blackmailed by cops when he lands himself in some drug dilemma.

Adapted from his 1999 play ' Graffiti ', Roshan Abbas' Always Kabhi Kabhi comes in a little too late in the day, addressing issues which have recently been dealt with in Bollywood to better outcome. The problem with the film is that there is hardly any problem till the interval by when the over-enthusiastic students only believe in song, dance and drama. And post interval there are so many problems with the students that the director doesn't know how to deal with them. So he conveniently puts the entire blame on the parent community (the latest Bollywood trend) for having over-ambitious expectations from their kids. So much so that it seems like an antidote to Baghban where the offspring were unanimously blamed!

Rehearsals for a Romeo-Juliet drama runs parallel to the proceedings to traditionally culminate in an inter-college competition in the climax, as a tribute to the bard. But all hell breaks loose in the climax when the college troupe's salutation to Shakespeare comes in the form of a lock-n-pop item number. What a ' Faltu ' attempt! Clearly the film lacks the sensitivity of 3 Idiots while highlighting issues like generation gap and peer-pressure.

There is hardly any graph to the narrative. Also the chemistry between couples is conspicuously absent. In fact Zoa Morani looks palpably elder to the childish Satyajeet Dubey. Dubey's voice is irritatingly amateurish and Giselle's badly-dubbed voice sounds fake and out-of-sync. There's also the girl (Preetika Chawla) whom once Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu – but with pretty much nothing to do. So actors are reduced to extras and cola jingles are played as full-blown songs in the name of in-film branding.

From the cast, Ali Fazal (last seen in 3 Idiots as Joy Lobo) is the only saving grace. He has strong screen presence and puts up a confident act but is marred by a weak script. Giselle Monteiro lacks screen presence, acting abilities, dialogue delivery and perhaps has potential restricted to cameos, like in Love Aaj Kal . Zoa Morani scores in comparison. She reminds of TV actress Kavita Kaushik, both, in terms of her looks and tomboyish performance. Satyajeet Dubey can't get over his chocolate boy image.

Too much harm has been done by the time Shah Rukh Khan makes a special appearance in the end credits. Next time he should make an effort to check the script, to start with.