The Holy Trinity of Early 2000s Bollywood: Kal Ho Naa Ho

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 Kal Ho Naa Ho [2004]

Starring: Preity Zinta, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Jaya Bachchan

Direction by Nikkhil Advani

Language: Hindi 


It is common knowledge that there is a holy trinity of early 2000s Bollywood romance films: and this is one of them. I watched this movie last year, and at the time I didn't really like it: when I finished the movie, I didn't know if I was judging my satisfaction based on the relief that I felt when the movie finished, or by the movie's actual merit. However, after recently rewatching this picture, I can safely say that my opinions have changed a fair bit. 

If anything, this movie is one of empowerment and self-discovery. Naina, the main character, narrates her story as she progresses through the tumultuous time she and her family faces as a result of her father's untimely death. Naina, through the movie, learns how to grow and make sacrifices to reach logical conclusions. This is different to many other Hindi-language movies that have come before it: the full effect of grief comes to life, in all its complexities. Whilst grief is a common theme in many Hindi-language films, it only comes to the forefront in a select few scenes rather than as a whole theme through which the movie is based. I thought that this idea of grief and how it was presented was very powerful, and it gave this picture a complexity that not many other Hindi-language films have been able to achieve. 

This picture, in my opinion served as an extended metaphor for bigger societal issues, one of which being religion as a cause of conflict. One of the preliminary issues faced in the movie is the conflict between Sikhism and Christianity, and how is affects everyone in the main character's household. I feel like the exploration of this theme was a link to contemporary issues at the time: India was grappling with widespread religious riots at the time, and the ultimate reconciliation of the religious divide in the movie was, in my opinion, almost a form protest, even if it was in a subtle way. 

I won't talk of unrequited or romantic love, because those are tropes that appear commonly in many Hindi-language movies. However, one thing that I found interesting was the cynicism of the main character. Naina, the lead, was left in a state of perpetual anger and exasperation in the wake of her father's death, and to see this profound impact of grief on a person, especially because it was executed so well, was incredibly worthwhile. 

Unfortunately, despite the fact that this movie was largely very complex, it fell into a trap that many Indian movies fall into: the male saviour has a profound effect on the outcome of this movie, so saying that it was truly feminist may be a bit of a stretch. This idea of the male saviour was made very unnecessarily melodramatic (I won't spoil the plot for you, so that's the most I can really say). 

Overall, the movie was pretty good, but I think one has to watch it for a second time before it becomes worthwhile to watch. When I first watched it, I thought it was too overly dramatic, but watching it for a second time allowed me to really start appreciating it.

9/10

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