Kal ho na ho, zingy title which leaves little to the imagination as to what the content of the film is going to be. So we aren’t talking “love triangles’ here because we have been hearing all the hoopla that this is a reworking of “Anand” and know that our protagonist is heaven bound! Let me tell you that this is not a remake or reworking of Anand but one that simply borrows the same idea. In fact, it seems closer to “Safar” than “Anand”. No harm in that at all. Therefore, any comparisons to the 70s classic are unjust and unfair to Advani’s effort.

The titles bring us to New York. The voice over begins with the story of Naina Catherine Kapur (preity Zinta) and introduces us to the various characters in her life…the typical Punjabi grandmother (played loudly as ever by Sushma Seth) belting out songs with a trio of pals, ostensibly to attract the attention of her neighbour (Dara Singh), mother Jennifer (Jaya Bachchan), widow battling hard to bring up her children after her hubby seems to have committed suicide (for no discernible reason), one disabled brother and adopted sister, the latter having been rejected by the nasty grand-mother for being an outsider. Then there are the neighbours, also the Kapoors with a lusty mother (Lillette Dubey) and a dumpy daughter. Life for Naina Catherine Kapur is dull, a struggle and there is no time for love to enter her very wretched world. Her only respite is her friend Rohit (Saif Ali Khan) whom she meets at their MBA class. This is simply a buddy buddy friendship...how could it be otherwise? Naina is not unattractive but dresses ordinarily, wears specs and gives out the dowdy look. Rohit on the other hand is in expensive clothes, Louis Vuitton briefcases and is always on the look out for a new girl to ensnare. Pals, but nothing else.

Its all rather too much for all of them so one night, they all settle down to a long prayer to make life easier…praying for an angel when one enters in the guise of Aman Mathur [Shah Rukh Khan]. Watching over the praying foursome, the angel casts his immediate eye on the family when he bursts into their house the next morning. Within moments, we have our angelic hero bursting into the risible “pretty woman” and inviting himself over for tea at the Kapurs. Sure, the kids love him and the mother takes to him as well (naturally) but Naina dear cannot believe the intrusion. Somewhere along the line, we are lead to believe that our dowdy Naina has cast a spell on Aman who has fallen hook line and sinker for the charms of our dull heroine. In the picture comes Rohit and it soon becomes clear to Aman, after a night out on the town with Naina shedding her inhibitions and daring to “disco”, that Rohit and she have something special between them. So the good angel sets about trying to bring the two of them together. But as luck would have it, Naina falls for Aman who in turn has been pushing Rohit towards her, who in turn happily gives up the fight. Aman then drops the bombshell that he is married and Naina ‘s world caves in. So our angel works on Rohit and sets him onto a formula to woo Naina in the right way. By now, our angel starts to show his fallibility with his wincing and gasping for breath unknown to all except a benign mother.

KAL HO NAA HO is adeptly directed by Nikhil Advani who brings a great deal of freshness to proceedings but what can he do with the script. Written by Karan Johar, the film suffers on account of his Kuch Kuch hangover more than K3G. Johar does not believe in simplicity and pad the film with a plethora of unnecessary characters. The biggest fault must lie in the character of Aman, who would have been better off as a Bruce Willis character in the Sixth Sense than what we are expected him to believe of him now. In fact, he manages to arrive unseen at odd places and eavesdrops conversations, which is completely farcical for instance the teary scene of mother and daughter at the sea front. Also, there is absolutely no depth to this character and despite the obvious tragedy of the impending situation, there is very little real emotion that Aman as a character generates. It’s all rather superficial and frankly implausible. What transpires therefore is a film where you never actually believe that there is a great love between Aman and Naina. Bickering through their scenes, there is very little real feeling or chemistry which brings to you the passion that either may have for each other. The director therefore has an uphill task about to make you believe otherwise and many scenes that should have brought a lump to your throat fall flat completely. Aman reading Rohit’s empty diary to Naina, meant to be a testament of Aman’s feelings for her, is a scene made for emotion and yet it falls completely flat. Also, there are a plethora of characters and they have all been “Joharised”, which worked well in Kuch Kuch, and to a lesser extent in K3G but here, they are simply grating and unnecessary. Johar needs to pad out his story and the situations created to move the story along are so very clichéd, the most obvious being the disco scene. Johar’s resolution concering the acceptance of the adopted sister by the grandmother by virtue of the fact that she turns out to be her son’s indulgence on the side, is simply offensive and utterly implausible.

Where Advani (and Johar) fail is bringing real emotion to a film which has inbuilt in it, the possibility of genuine pathos and feeling. K3G had much more real emotion than any scene in this film. You don’t have to delve on the character dying to make it truly moving but KHNH does not even manage that. Its all rather perfunctory. Fortunately, the director doesn’t ponder on Aman’s illness and does not elongate the death scene but its all rather lacking in terms of being genuinely moving.

Shahrukh Khan has a dream of a role, probably cooked up with him in mind by his pal Karan Johar who probably sees Shahrukh as an angel in the real sense of the word. Dressed often in white, you simply need to attach wings to this do-gooder. Shahrukh could have made this a dream of a performance but instead, brings nothing to his role, neither subtlety nor charm. Its all rather superficial and grating, frankly overdone. In comparison, Preity impresses with a balanced and controlled performance which hits the right pitch. Preity chooses her products well and has grown from being a spontaneous actress into an intelligent one. However, the mainstay of the film, without any doubt, has to be Saif Ali Khan. Having been the “second hero” in so many films, and ending up with a raw deal, KHNH is what it is because of this extremely mature and simply outstanding performance. Let down in films like Na Tum Jano na hum and countless others, this has Saif in a role which I doubt anyone else could have played with the level of maturity and sincerity that Saif displays. Dil Chahta hai has thus far been Saif’s best effort but he surpasses that effortlessly. What works for Saif is that despite the fact that he is Mr Richie Rich, he brings to his character, a very natural feel and does not dintergreate into being your cardboard hindi film hero. His is not a supporting act, in fact, very much a lead role and Shahrukh comes off a distant second if compared to Saif in this film.

The film is handsomely shot and has a decent if uneventful score by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. Some of the humour between Saif and Shahrukh actually is very funny but tends to be overdone. As a part of a trilogy of soprts for Johar, this one comes off the worst. I felt like KHNH was like a decent steak, With all the fat trimmed off it, it could have made for a delicious dinner but sadly, it remains just an expensive meal without the proper taste.