Khap : Movie Review

Movie Review of Khap The thing with issue-based films is that the director needs to learn the art of tightrope-walk through a potential minefield of obvious clichés and commercial trappings. A tilt too much to artistic adherence could earn the film a tag of docu drama and consequently scare away the movie buffs, and a kowtow to commercial formula may make the issue facile and trivial. That’s precisely the problem with director Ajai Sinha’s film Khap, made with good intentions but poor sensitivity.

The film, as you all must know by now, deals with the burning issue of honour killings in villages whenever young girls and boys marry within the same gotra. What’s murder for the modern world is, however, purgation for the Khaps of the villages still steeped in age-old customs and social mores.

Om Puri plays the one such authoritarian Khap of a village. His son (Mohnish Bahl) didn’t approve of his dad’s regressive mindset and separated years ago to pursue social activism.

At the start itself, director Ajai Sinha lays out the cards with a gruesome honour killing of a couple trying to elope. Then we are treated to an internet romance between a couple (Uvika Chaudhary and Sartaj) who fall in love, only to find out that they hail from the same clan. To make matters worse, the girl is the daughter of the same headstrong Khap (Om Puri) who is dead against same gotra marriage. How will this Khap react when chickens come home to roost?

The treatment given by director Ajai Sinha to the subject is facile at best. Weaving a threadbare plot from newspaper headlines and peppering it with the routine songs and a candyfloss love story robs the film of the gravity that it might have had if in the hands of an adept director like a Kashyap or Bhardwaj. On top of it, the director also tries to absolve the Khaps with a long monologue (courtesy Alok Nath) about keeping the gene pool clean by banning same gotra marriages.

The songs are absolutely unwanted and performance strictly tolerable.

Khap, in a nutshell, trivializes a serious issue with its formulaic treatment.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Yuvika Chaudhury to be showstopper for Sabah Khan at Lakme Fashion Week

Mumbai, March 10 – Actress Yuvika Chaudhury, who featured in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Om Shanti Om”, will walk the ramp at the Lakme Fashion Week (LFW), starting Friday, for designer Sabah Khan.

“Yuvika Chaudhury would be my showstopper and she has never dressed in this style before. She has always worn classic dresses. But what she would be wearing for the show, would be very funky,” Khan told IANS.

Yuvika, who has been part of films like “Summer 2007″, “Toh Baat Pakki” and will also be seen in upcoming Govinda-starrer “Naughty @40″, will walk the ramp for Khan’s “Tuk Tuk On Linen” collection.

Apart from the fact that the young actress is Khan’s friend, the designer also chose Yuvika because she could not afford to get a bigger star for her show.

“I have just graduated from NIFD (International Institute of Fashion Design) so, from an emerging designer’s point of view, I don’t have the contacts and the backing where I can afford to give a grand fees to a big star to be my showstopper. Yuvika is a very dear friend and fits in very well, so I decided on her,” said the 21-year-old designer.

Her collection is inspired by the auto-rickshawwalas of Mumbai and will include dhoti dungarees, waterfront waistcoats, T-backs as well as bikinis and hot pants.

“I think very common things in life can inspire you to make complex things. Rickshaws are the most available medium of transport in Mumbai, which are available at every hour all across the city. These small things inspired me.

“Rickshaw is the metaphor. All the elements of Rickshaw have been combined to construct the garments for the collection. Road signs such as yellow and the white lines used to mark the divider have been used very beautifully in my collection and borders,” she added.

The collection is made to be very funky and commercially viable, says Khan.

“The garments need to be commercially viable also. Whatever we make for the ramp are roughly over the top… I needed to project myself in such a manner that people know how creative I am. When I will sit with the buyers, we will make the changes according to the requirement of our clients,” she said..