Ki and Ka starring Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor is fun when it is setting up the roles. But the execution, as it goes along, gets rocky. With ‘Ki and Ka’, Bollywood has got to the point of being able to place a man willing to be home, knuckle down to dull domestic chores, and wave the flag for ambitious women and progressive men. So hurrah for Ka and Ki and Balki? Yes, but only up to point. The film is fun when it is setting up the roles. But the execution, as it goes along, gets rocky. Much of it stays episodic, and starts reinforcing the very stereotypes it set out to negate. And so much of the writing is so explicatory that you begin wondering if the filmmakers really take their viewers for People Who Do Not Understand Anything Unless It Is Underlined Thrice Over.
Kia (Kareena Kapoor) and Kabir (Arjun Kapoor) get past their meet-cute in a tearing hurry, and jump into an exchange of garlands and glands. All is hunky-dory to begin with : Ka rolls out of bed, picks up after his office-going wife and mum-in-law (Swaroop Sampat ), lays out steaming hot ‘food’ ; Ki cracks open her Mac, and delivers smart campaign ideas to her advertising agency colleagues (great excuse for lots of product placements, yo), and goes up the corporate ladder. She is into marketing; he is busy home-making, and they are happy playing footsie. And then jealousy rears its ugly head, and the lines Ka and Ki had set up for themselves start to blur.
Poor (Arjun Kapoor) Ka, poor fellow, is a victim of confusion. He may say he wants to be like his mummy. He may adorn his wrist with a ‘mangalsutra’, but has no problem in using his legs to kick louts. He is shown hosting kitty parties and urging fat aunties into shape: huge stereotypes. Role was totally dampened by excessive use of cliches, When Ka is not doing all of the above, he is busy wheeling his trike up and down certain heavy-traffic bearing Delhi roads . However Ki is better drawn. The director is an ad man, so Kareena’s character is spot on. She plays it familiar but is svelte and lively enough. The office is just so, but I could not shake off the feeling that the Ka-Ki home was basically an overdressed set. The music is great, the editing was not as tight as it should have been, Ka’s character was misused and misinterpreted, he could have been more man of today rather than 90s housewife. It was good to see the premise of gender roles being reversed on celluloid.
Rating: 6/10