Main Aur Mrs Khanna is heaps of romantic mush that tries too, too hard to pull your heartstrings but fails miserably. PERIOD.
Remember all those romantic dramas from the 1990s that had countless dialogues about bura waqt, farz, pyaar ka ehsaas and more of such romantic guck. ‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’ has tons of it. One such dialogue that Salman Khan mouths more than once in the film is: “Achchey waqt ki ek burai hoti hai: woh badal jaata hai. Aur burey (bad) waqt ki achchayi hai ki woh zyada der nahin rahta”. True indeed. Because the experience of watching Main Aur Mrs Khanna ends after just a little over two hours.
The film tells a story of a married couple buffeted by financial crises. Samir Khanna (Salman) first spots Raina (Kareena Kapoor) at an orphanage in Dalhousie and instantly falls in love with her. After a little wooing, he wins her love and marries her.
CUT…the next thing we see is a pale faced Raina sitting on a couch in a swanky apartment in Melbourne as Samir walks in shaking off his morning sleep and asking for a cup of coffee. The reason why she’s pale is because of Samir’s nose-diving career in financial market. It’s clear that love has fizzled out between the couple. No matter how hard she tries to please or comfort Samir, he has a stern expression on his face, looks in empty space while she talks to him, and walks out of the room even as she longs him to be with her.
The SOLUTION - change the place if you can’t change bad times. The self-centered Samir decides on his own to shift to Singapore and pack his wife off to Dalhousie. In justification he mouths a few lofty dialogues about “financial stability” being crucial for a marriage, and, of course, the aforesaid dialogue about “bura waqt”.
But Raina doesn’t board the flight to Delhi. At the airport she meets Aakash (Sohail Khan) who works as a waiter in a café and falls for her at first site. Thereafter, starts a new track between Aakash and his Mrs. Khanna. He loves her, but she keeps daydreaming about her loveless hubby who’s chalking out a new career for himself in a distant galaxy, it seems. And just when Aakash decides to pour out his heart to Raina, Mr. Khanna walks in.
‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’ is so very behind its times that it appears that writer-director Prem Soni gleaned most of the scenes from the scrapped scripts of the unmade movies from the previous decade. The worst is its juvenile humour which is supported by background sounds of grunts, growls, slurps and whip lashes. Ouch! To still top it, there’s an overdose of dramatic background score that breaks in every now and then, as if trying to tell the audience how to feel in a particular scene. Hey, Mr. Soni! The audience ain’t dumb.
If anything was left, there’s a pointless guest appearance by Preity Zinta, as a Pakistani singer who tries to entice Salman in the song ‘Happening’ that’s clearly inspired by ‘Kajra Re’.
The less spoken about the performances the better. Salman Khan almost seems to sleep-walk through his part. He’s uptight, stiff-necked and has an inexplicable beatific smile on his face even in dramatic scenes. It’s a pain to see Kareena Kapoor’s talent being wasted in a role that’s neither properly written nor fleshed out. Sohail Khan capers about as a fun-loving guy for most of his part, but flounders when he has to get emotional.
Director Prem Soni gives no reason to look forward to his next work. His writing and style of direction is outdated. Yes, there are some beautifully cinematographed shots where lighting changes in split seconds and there are also some hummable songs, but that doesn’t gloss over the plot holes so wide that a dozen Salmans can walk through them.
Sample a few - Mrs. Khanna is dressed in designer outfits but has no cellphone. Within few days of her job at the airport, she’s able to afford a swanky house of her own. Months pass by and Mr. Khanna refuses to take calls from her. Then he shows up out of nowhere one day. The chemistry between the couple revives and just when they are about to jump in bed…wham…they begin to fight again!
Movie Review : Aur loads of boredom (1/10) By N.K. Deoshi
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