Subhash K Jha looks back at Kajol-Kareena’s We Are Family as it clocks 15 years in a new edition of This Day That Year.
Some films are good to look at. Some feel good at heart. Very few mainstream films manage to look as good on the surface and also attain a beauty of the heart. We Are Family is equally appealing from the outside and at heart. It doesn’t take us long into the narration to realize that the debutant director has his own ideas on how urban man-woman relationships work. Siddharth Malhotra brings the traditional compassion and large-heartedness of Sooraj Barjatya’s films into the same line of vision as the urban fables about the man-woman relationship of Gulzar’s Ijaazat and Govind Nihalani’s Drishti. The brew is invigorating and often very, very moving in the way movies stopped moving us a long time ago. The basic premise and even chunks of sequences and dialogues are taken from Chris Columbus’ Stepmom. Are Kajol and Kareena Kapoor as powerful in portraying the wife and the other woman as Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts in the original?
What if one says the two divas in the desi Stepmom are far more empathetic in their understanding of the complexities of a marriage that has not quite terminated and the alternative relationship which doesn’t know where to go without disrespecting the earlier relationship? Kajol and Kareena share a compelling partnership in portraying a household that’s run by two women? The intricacies of the triangle are worked out with heart warming delicacy, so much so that you wonder why the director needed to keep any of elements from the Hollywood film.
We Are Family takes the Stepmom saga to another level. It’s an urban fable told with subtlety and a softness of touch which completely avoid excesses of emotions until the last ostensibly gut-wrenching finale when the narration gets excessively melodramatic. The rest of the film is remarkably devoid of extravagant emotions even though the situation described and defined by the plot is susceptible to acute bouts of overt emotion. Having three actors, who know how to play down the pitch without taking away the edge in the narration, surely helps the situation.
Kajol needs absolutely no recommendation. Her transformation from physically healthy but restless in soul, to a dying but spiritually healed entity happens right in front of our eyes. The little-little things she does with her eyes and lips just rip a hole in our soul. Yup, she is one of our all-time greats…without trying. Moments when she watches Shreya (Kareena) take charge of her children and husband find Kajol expressing a mixture of envy and resignation the way only she can. But it is Kareena Kapoor who is an utter revelation. Never before has she demonstrated such a complete understanding of her character’s inner life. To the role of Kajol’s husband’s girlfriend Kareena brings a rare and reined-in passion. Everything that she has done so far on screen is undone as Kareena redefines the role of the Other Woman in Hindi cinema. Admirably the 6 screenplay writers have worked overtime on Kareena’s part. She could easily have been the bitch who steals Kajol’s husband away. As written in the script Kareena comes across as flesh, blood, tears…and yes, as a woman of great beauty.
Arjun Rampal has been constantly evolving as an actor. Here he balances out the powerhouse performers on both his sides with a deeply felt emotional binding presence. And by the way he dances better than Kajol and Kareena in the disappointing ‘Jailhouse Rock’ number. Sensibly Siddharth Malhotra has avoided the temptation of too many confrontational moments between Kajol and Kareena. We wouldn’t have wanted this tender-sweet look at a shattered family’s attempts to hold the fabric of their togetherness in place to end up looking like one of those T. Rama Rao mera-pati-sirf-mera-hai kitsch-kitsch-hota-hai stale-tales from the 1980s. We Are Family takes the story of a broken marriage to an area of poignancy where the outer edges remain as strong as the inner fabric of the three characters who find themselves trapped in a tragedy not of their making. From the opening birthday sequence where Arjun introduces girlfriend Kareena to his wife and children, with disastrous consequences, the film exercises a high cool-and-calm quotient in its structuring. At the end when Siddharth Malhotra has taken the family fable beyond Stepmom you suddenly realize it’s been a while since we saw a film about Man, Wife and Other Woman tackle the layers of painful separation and reconciliation with such fluency and care.
Director Siddharth P Malhotra spoke to Subhash K Jha on the dream cast. “Kareena’s grandmother Mrs Krishna Raj Kapoor and my grandfather actor Premnath are siblings. So I’ve known her from my childhood. We’ve practically grown up together. When I went to Karan Johar with the idea of remaking Stepmom I told him that Kajol and Kareena were my first and last choices. Karan not only got me the remake rights he also got me the two actresses. The two actresses are the best we have. And there was never an ego issue. Both actresses were super-professional. That is why it took two years to get remake rights and only 64 shifts to make my film. Kajol was a dream. She’d arrive on the dot at 9 a.m. be on the sets for the first shot at 9.30 and we would pack up at 6 p.m. so that she could return to her baby. To me she was the ideal actress wife and mother, and that’s what she plays in my film. Kajol is addictive. No one can wok only once with her. She kept me on my toes. If you work with her you better do your homework, or she will grill you. Karan has taught me to know my characters on my finger tips.”
Siddharth says he knows no other life than films. “I watch 3-4 films a day even today in every language. I don’t go out to socialize. No parties and no late nights. I couldn’t have made a young with-it cool-and-hip film even if I wanted to. It had to be a film about family values. I have grown up in that atmosphere. And I assisted Sooraj Barjatya (on Vivah) and Karan Johar(on Kal Ho Na Ho).If you remember Sooraj-ji took the heart of Nadiya Ke Paar and made Hum Aapke Hain Koun. Likewise I’ve taken just 6-7 key elements of Stepmom and then written it on my own.”
We Are Family was the official remake of the Hollywood tearjerker Stepmom where mom Susan Sarandon asks her husband’s girlfriend Julia Roberts to look after her children after her death.
Says Siddharth, “A film that gave me love and announced my arrival into this industry with a film where there are emotions and heartbreak! Today when someone tells me it’s his favourite film, especially kids my son’s age who have watched it again and again I thank the lord that somewhere the film has found its love and affection! I wish I could revisit the edit and do a director’s cut on. I’ve thought about it many a times but when I look back fourteen years later, all I feel is gratitude as I’m still in touch with everyone who worked on it: the actors, the unit, my assistants on it who today are big writers and directors now. But the one person I am most thankful to is Karan Johar. I will always be grateful to Dharma and Karan Johar who empowered me and gave me the wings to fly! Karan truly doesn’t get enough credit for launching so many first-time directors in a way star actors get launched. So loads of gratitude to him and Dharma Productions’ CEO Apoorva Mehta. Thank the lord for Kajol back then, today and always that through this film. In Kajol, I have and always will have a friend by my side who will stand by me like a rock and always have my back as a well-wisher no matter what.”
What was it like directing Kajol and Kareena together for the first and only time after Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham? “It was a house on fire. Both Bebo (Kareena) and Kajol are are secure actors and when you work with secure actors who are on a Dharma set which is like home to them, the energy that the set feels and camera catches is full of love. These are actors who don’t need more than two takes. They are masters of their craft and have seen so much that they bring to the table , it is a delight and honour for any maker.”
