Karan Johar's follow up to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is a lavish magnum opus boasting a cast which is enough for you to buy a ticket, let alone the merits of the film itself. It comes loaded with massive expectations and I must say, by and large, as a film, it delivers the goods. Karan Johar is in total control and moulds his film in the classic overblown bollywood fashion. This is no pathbreaking film, does not aspire to the realism of Dil Chahta hai or even the aspirations of a Lagaan. This will not project bollywood into the realms of World cinema as Asoka and Lagaan promised to do, neither will be regarded as a film of tremendous depth. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham is simply an old fashioned family drama, superbly executed.

The film opens with Yash Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) and his wife Nandini (Jaya Bhaduri) talking about love and their children, about how a father loves his child but is not often able to express this, which does not mean that he loves his child any less. Nandini adores her child Rahul who learns at a young age that he is adopted. Adored by his mother, we see him grow up to be Shahrukh Khan, who adores his mother and worships his father. There is a much younger brother Rohan and this makes up the family. But there is something amiss as the story unfolds. Rohan, now a grown man (Hrithik Roshan) goes to visit his grandmothers and stumbles across the family secret, that of Rahul's adoption and the story unfolds as to why Rahul suddenly vanished from the family. We enter the world of flashbacks again and see that Rahul has returned from his studies, much to the delight of both parents. But this is a household steeped in parampara (Traditions, customs) and parampara still rules.

The dutiful, loving but submissive wife fixes her husband's tie, makes sure the household runs, is very much in the forefront but to the extent that her husband will allow it. Ultimately, it is he who makes the decisions and has the final say. One of the traditions running through the family is that of marriage. Nandini was picked for him and he expects to do the same for his son Rahul. Rahul has a childhood friend Naina (Rani Mukherjee) who loves him and is the perfect match for him, family wise and also as a prospective wife. But Rahul has been bitten by the love bug and its not good news for him…because the girl who seems to have caught his imagination is Anjali (Kajol) a halwe ki dukaan wali, a rather coarse and loud punjaban.

Naina realises that he is not in love with her and gracefully retreats but Yash does not take kindly to Rahul's desire to marry Anjali. Disappointed, he breaks Rahul's resolve who, himself broken by the fact that he has caused his father such immense disappointment, decides that he will do what his father wants. Going to break this news to Anjali, he finds that her father has died and Anjali and her younger sister are now orphans. He decides to marry Anjali and brings her home. Yash rebukes him and tells him that this is not his home, mother nandini unable to do anything to stop her son being thrown out of the house. Rejected by his family, Rahul leaves.

We now come back to the present and Rohan vows to reunite the family and decides to go in quest of his brother and bhabhi.

Karan Johar has pieced together a film which is pure hindi cinema at its best. Apart from the odd scene here and there and one or two songs which could have been deleted, Karan does not put a foot wrong in his narrative or his control over the whole film. Where he scores is in managing such a huge cast without making anyone of them redundant. Each is playing a character which is important, each has his scenes which will be remembered, each adds nuances to his role without trying to overshadow the other.

Amitabh Bachchan plays Yash as a humane yet rigid individual, steeped in his parampara and the way he likes things to be. He was brought up in a certain way and expects that path to be followed by the others. And Bachchan is extremely good without swamping the whole film. His scenes with Shahrukh are worthy of a second viewing. Jaya Bhaduri playing the adoring mother is controlled and never lets her character resort to melodrama, the epitome of that being her final scene with Bachchan when she finally speaks her mind without as much as raising her voice or hysteria. She brings a class to the film that perhaps no one else could have. It is also perhaps the first time that she is in fact given such a glamourous role and how she carries it. Shahrukh Khan is charming and touching as ever, if perhaps simpering a little too much. But you cannot take away from the fact that he manages to take films to a higher level and his performance is one that is underplayed and genuinely touching. His interaction with Bachcan and Jaya is wonderfully executed and it is impossible not to be moved to the extreme in these scenes. Even the scenes between the two brothers is done with a great deal of sensitivity.

Kajol, in going with her character, is loud and brash, but injects her role with that special something which saves the character from being utterly crass. Hrithik Roshan has a good role and his scenes with Bachchan and especially with Shahrukh show him to be a consummate actor, playing against talents who are by now, perhaps the most respected in the industry. There appears to be genuine camaraderie between the two male stars, Shahrukh and Hrithik, and this shows on film. But he is also there to dance and please the youth of today which means three songs, one totally superfluous and this tends to deviate from the more interesting aspect of the film. Kareena really makes a hell of an impression. Entering the film after intermission, she brings a great deal of humour and zing to her role and its very difficult to imagine anyone else doing this any better than she has. Hats off to a lady who has the world at her feet. A small mention also of Rani Mukherjee who sparkles for the short while that she is on screen.

This does not mean that the film does not have its flaws. You cannot quite believe that Rahul would fall for someone like Anjali especially with the gorgeous Naina in the wings…and Rahul and Anjali's romance is hardly like the romance in Bobby. Its all a little too forced. Then Rahul vanishes for ten years, and we are expected to believe that no one knows anything about him. His younger brother in boarding school, despite having promised not to ask where he has gone to or why, is never shown even missing his brother or being affected by it. The breakdown between Nandini and Yash is never really shown even though it is referred to. Rohan's quest of his brother is all too easily resolved…but then again, this is bollywood, a fairytale which has its central message of "its all about loving your parents"…and so who cares about the small pitfalls here and there.

The film is a wonderful treat for the eyes with tremendous attention given to detail and some stunning cinematography. What does let the film down to an extent is a rather mundane music score. The title song is somewhat jaded although has a certain charm to it. Suraj hua madham soars ahead of the rest of the score. Bole Chooriyan is very popular, well picturised and easy on the ear if no classic. Deewana hai dekho is a very dull song and yeh larka hai allah seems like a reject from Kuch kuch hota hai. You are my soniya is well picturised but really, not a great song! No sir, you wont be remembering the songs of this effort in the years to come. But putting that aside, hats off to Karan Johar for giving us another well made film, tugging as it does at the heart strings, resplendent with good family values and the like.