Revisiting Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein, an action drama which released in 2002 starring Vikram Gokhale, Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, and Govind Namdeo.
Producer D. Rama Naidu, always known for his sincere and ardent depiction of bucolic drama, comes up with a rustic confection that scores a few brownie points for sincerity and conviction.
Recalling Tamil-Hindi filmmaker L.V. Prasad’s illustrious back-to-the-village tales, Kuch Tum Kaho… has a lot to say about the virtues of village verdancy. The film builds a fairly sharp-focussed and appealing rural arcadia with imposing ancestral homes housing egos to match.
It tells the story of a fierce family feud between two neighbouring households run by a moustache-twirling patriarch (Vikram Gokhale) and his bearded counterpart (Govind Namdeo) on the other end. Both believe in whisker’s wisdom rather than plain common sense.
Enter Fardeen Khan, in an author-backed heartwarming role as Gokhale’s estranged grandson who’s as determined as hell, or as Anil Kapoor in Badhaai Ho Badhaai, to fill the fissures and breach the dam, quite literally since there’s a dam in the village which serves as a bubbling bone of contention between the two fuming and feuding families.
Before we go any further, we must state once and for all that this is Fardeen Khan’s moment of glory, no matter what the film’s final box office outcome. As the city-slickened do-gooder with a penchant for doing up ladies’ hair in the entire household, Khan, in a role foolishly rejected by Akshay Kumar, imparts a certain earnestness. A sincerity and emotional lucidity not visible in his previous roles shines through the sugarcane-sweet role of the ever-smiling beacon of peace.
Luckily, the huge two-household gallery of characters doesn’t crowd, clutter, and smother the narrative. There’s a feeling of porous freedom in the narration afforded by director Ravi Shankar’s sincerity towards the original material. Shankar doesn’t tamper with the plot line to adapt the South Indian original Kalisundam Raa to the North Indian palate. This is the film’s main point of appeal as well as a major drawback as far as wooing Hindi-speaking audiences into the theatres is concerned.
Hence, Dadaji Vikram Gokhale’s “second marriage” with his wife Farida Jalal on their 50th marriage anniversary is a prevalent practice in the South, which might confuse Hindi audiences. Also, the romance between the family grandson and an adopted daughter in the house Mangala (Richa Pallod) might appear a trifle incestuous to viewers. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Pallod has been put in an unconventional relationship. In her debut as a child in Lamhe, she had a crush on the man who served as her guardian.
Kuch Tum Kaho… cannot be faulted for its integrity of purpose. A nobility of purpose and a perceptible lack of sleaze, which has overtaken a large chunk of “young” films from Mumbai, distinguish this fairly well-mounted though finally insignificant, South Indian product. The protagonist’s good Samaritan act (which Fardeen Khan does far more convincingly than Anil Kapoor in Badhaai Ho Badhaai because he looks the right age) within a bustling traditional Hindu joint family is much too familiar to transport our smiles into the latitude of laughter.
The film finally wins us over in moments rather than in totality. The songs (a mellifluous drizzle by Anu Malik) constantly generate warm, humorous moments between the two young lovebirds, and some of the prankish moments between them are quite heartwarming. However, director Shankar ruins the rustic rhythm of the romance by carting the couple to a glacial wonderland in Europe for a couple of songs. The quest for thrills in the second half, with villain Sharad Kapor turning murderous with a knife in the climax, looks oddly out of place in the atmosphere of tender grace.
By the time a loud and comedy track by Raghuvir Yadav is introduced and a herd of wild elephants create a stampede to facilitate Fardeen Khan’s hectic heroics, a stampede towards the theatre’s exit has already begun.
Regrettably, Khan’s sincerity cannot see the film through to a comfort zone. Repeatedly, we feel we’re watching a story and characters that have been done to death in many styles. There’s the ‘South Mumbai’ family film, patented by Sooraj Barjatya and co. Kuch Tum Kaho… moves in the South Indian tradition of family films with ritualistic symbols of familial bonding taking precedence over sleaze and gimmickry.
While veterans like Vikram Gokhale, Farida Jalal, and Govind Namdeo perform with trademark proficiency, debutante Richa Pallod seems disturbingly devoid of charm, grace, or talent. A majority of the supporting faces in the two households are played by small-time television and film actors who serve as superfluous stuffings in a rather meagre main meal.
