KI was an original idea: Sabbir Khan

Bollywood films have come under the scanner for ripping off story ideas from Hollywood films, other foreign films and even regional movies.
So, it was surprising that there were no reports of the plot of Sabbir Khan’s Kambakkht Ishq being similar to that of Pammal K Sambandham.
When BT contacted Sabbir, who is also one of the film’s writers, he said, “Yes, we are aware that there are influences from Pammal.... KI was scripted after a lot of trial and error. But when the idea of Akshay Kumar playing a stuntman came up, someone told us about the Kamal Haasan film. That’s when we approached the producers of Pammal... and acquired the rights.”
The director did not want to be accused of plagiarism. “Nowadays, once you’re aware of your film bearing similarities to an earlier work, it’s better to honour someone’s intellectual property rather than be accused of copying it,” said Sabbir. “I still maintain that KI was an original idea. But when we got to know about Pammal..., we thought it would be better to acquire its rights,” he added.

What does Sabbir think about the oft-used Bollywood trick of borrowing ideas from other films? “There’s nothing wrong in it. For instance, if I like an Italian film, I would definitely want to adapt it to make a film for Indian audiences. In fact, an international production house has even approached us to acquire the rights of KI,” he revealed.

Kambakkht Ishq - Forced Comedy

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Akshay Kumar, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora, Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Javed Jaffrey, Kirron Kher, Boman Irani Director: Sabbir Khan

The first thing that caught my attention is that the film is a straight rip-off from Kamal Haasan’s Tamil film ‘Pammal K. Sambandam’. I only wish that the comedy was as good, but no such luck. Taking a basic outline and working a new story around it is even understandable. But the whole story is a copy.

Viraj (Akshay Kumar) is a stuntman in Hollywood and is a regular stud. His brother Lucky (Aftab Shivdasani) gets married to Kamini (Amrita Arora) much to her friend Simrita’s (Kareena Kapoor) disgust. Viraj does not approve of Lucky’s wedding either. He believes in the motto ‘love them and leave them’. The rest of the film is about the sparks flying between Viraj and Simrita. You need not exactly watch this Bollywood flick to find out whether they get together.

Akshay gets hotter and better as he gets older. The stunt scenes that he is taking part in have been shot excellently. And the actor has done very well. Comedy, emotion, flirting, whatever – Akshay walks through with total ease. Kareena – well, the actress looks HOT! But besides that even as she has performed her role well, she is just too intense. Subtlety is definitely not her forte.

Javed Jaffrey has two and a half scenes and he has performed very well. They could have definitely made better use of him. Boman Irani has a ‘blink and miss’ role. What’s happening? I can’t but recall Akshay Kumar and his editing scissors – may be they are not a joke after all. Again, Kirron Kher – such a versatile actress as she has proved over and over again – has such a small role that has no impact at all. It gives her no chance to test her acting skills. Just anybody could have done an Aunt Dolly. Come on, this is Kirron Kher – what a waste!

If you want to go ‘gaga’ over Hollywood, the Star Walk of Fame, Beverly Hills, etc. this may not be the film for you. They show very small bits and pieces of these. There is one award function for stunt actors and the scenes showing the Hollywood stars are obvious video shots from Oscars and other award shows. I only wish they had taken shots from older award functions as Angelina Jolie’s huge emerald earrings from the latest Oscars are still to be erased from people’s memories.

Sylvester Stallone looks old, ugly and sags-all-over. I don’t understand what the excitement is all about. Denise Richards also looks too old and not quite second heroine material. Makes one wonder whether these Hollywood one-time biggies paid to be a part of this Bollywood flick.

The Censor Board has become quite lax or had gone to sleep while certifying this film. The amount of bad language used is tremendous – bitch, bastard, balls, etc. We still watch late night TV shows with words lesser than this silenced.

If you are an Akshay Kumar fan, go for it.


Courtesy:burrp