KANK and Dev

In 2006, Kabhi Alvida Kehna Naa came out and what came with it was people's questions and anger. Questions like how could Karan make such a movie, how can Shah Rukh do a character like Dev, how can Amitabh Bachchan do a character like Sam a.k.a Samarjit, etc. And to show this anger, people torn posters of the film, specifically of Shah Rukh and I think protested as well.

That was 5 years ago from today, 2011. Today, films like Dev D, Life in a Metro, Thank You and much more earn people's compliments and claps. All these films I mentioned had a similar topic: infidelity.

KANK, the short form of the title, is the breakthrough Bollywood film and the reason why Bollywood have more bolder movies nowadays.

KANK is a story of Dev, Rhea, Rishi and Maya. Since this blog is about Shah Rukh, I will write about Shah Rukh's character, Dev.

Dev has characteristics of a typical male HUMAN who is pretty much jealous of his wife, Rhea's success, frustrated to live a life with partial disability and has a job to teach soccer to students who simply don't keep the passion for soccer like the coach himself. He also has a rude kind of sense of humor. There are many people like him in this world but those who don't suffer the same easily criticize people like Dev. Trust the person who have said, "it's easier said than done."

Now, let's talk about Shah Rukh. Dev is the opposite of Shah Rukh himself. I feel it was very brave of Shah Rukh to do such a role but to be honest, it was far more realistic and coniving than his "best works" as Mohan of Swades, Kabir of CDI or Amar of Dil Se. The reason why I say this is because most people hate Dev. How could we hate Dev? All thanks to the brilliance of Shah Rukh. In spite of playing a character that is opposite of what he is in real life, he outstandingly got into the shoes of Dev.

In most of Shah Rukh's films, you'll get to see a lot of the real Shah Rukh, meaning a lot of characteristics of him in real life has some similarity to the roles he plays on screen. But to me, I feel Dev is like 5% of Shah Rukh.

Anyway, KANK did an incredible business overseas, still people say it was a flop. Well, the definition of a flop in a movie industry is when the costs to make the film is higher than what it earns in its lifetime at screens. Umm...KANK's production cost was like $11 million USD and it earned $25 million USD...so it made a revenue of $14 million USD, how is it a flop? If you don't like the movie and consider it a flop, that's not the right word my friend, the right phase is "I don't like it."

My family were skeptical on watching KANK, they didn't want to take me along because they had read reviews which said KANK had bold scenes. But I watched it and I guess I was old enough to understand what is a bold scene. To me, bold scenes include the following: lip-lock kiss, intimacy scenes, nudity, etc.

So tell me where were the bold scenes? I so don't consider the hotel scene a bold one. It just had a hint of intimacy. Yes, later on and before that, there were dialogues that were not very appropriate for kids. But look at Omkara and the movies releasing nowadays? Many have sex scenes, a few kissing ones, most have a lot of beeping going on.

I think KANK was one of the best movies Shah Rukh has ever starred in, a very nice narrative! It's just that, the timing of its release wasn't right, if it were to release now, it would have received a lot of positive response.