‘Instantly uplifts my mood’: why Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is my feelgood movie

8 hours ago 1

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon and you’ve just had a hearty lunch. You’ve settled in with the family for a little siesta and you put something comforting on TV – something that is cosy, reachable and the perfect companion to the wonderful feeling you’re wafting on. A giant bear hug that envelopes you and hits the sweet spot.

That is what Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham evokes for me. I know every scene, every line, every lyric in this three-and-a-half-hour sappy, emotional juggernaut that makes me feel all the feels – happy, sad, upset, hopeful, nostalgic. Karan Johar, the director of the movie, created a spectacle where the characters may be larger than life, but are relatable in the most basic of ways.

The Raichand family, a wealthy New Delhi-based family, are not your typical neighbors. They live in a sprawling mansion surrounded by lush lawns, which we are supposed to believe is in the national capital of India. The patriarch, Yashvardhan Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) is a man who holds tradition, family honor and reputation very dear to him and dotes on his family – wife Nandini (Jaya Bachchan) and sons Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) and Rohan (Hrithik Roshan). Yasvardhan is old-school and insists family elders choose the bride for their son, Rahul, who has returned from London after earning an MBA. But Rahul has already professed his love to Anjali (Kajol), a sweet-shop owner and commoner residing in Chandni Chowk. Yashvardhan, disappointed with his son’s decision to marry Anjali, disavows him and Rahul leaves his home. Nandini is heartbroken.

The happy family is torn apart, with Rahul in London with Anjali, her sister, the iconic Pooh AKA Pooja (Kareena Kapoor Khan) and aunt Saeeda (Farida Jalal, who is also Rahul’s daijaan). Rohan, in Haridwar to visit his grandmothers for Diwali, finds out that not only was his brother adopted, but also discovers the reason for his brother’s departure and vows to reunite the family. He jets to London on the pretext of getting his MBA (“It’s tradition, Dad!”) and finds his brother. Rohan has had a glow-up since Rahul last saw him, and so the latter unbelievably doesn’t recognise his brother, who Pooja passes off as a friend’s cousin and insists he live with them since he is from India (a soft spot for Anjali, who misses India). Pooja and Rohan scheme to reunite the family in London, but egos clash and Rahul and Yashvardhan refuse to budge. Yashvardhan’s mother’s death becomes the catalyst that ultimately brings the family together – everything said and done, forgiven and forgotten.

K3G, as the movie has come to be known, was released in December 2001 and was, and remains, a cultural phenomenon – at least for 90s kids, which I thoroughly am. Khan and Kajol’s chemistry, be it in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge or Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, is magical – the ease with which they perform together is a thing of beauty. Kapoor Khan, with her overly dramatic and effervescent Pooh (whose introduction sequence is set to Geri Haliwell’s It’s Raining Men) provides the perfect foil to Roshan’s Rohan, who effortlessly steps into the role of a dutiful son.

The callbacks to Johar’s previous movies, interspersed through the film, almost feel like an inside joke, like talking to an old friend. There’s timely comic relief provided by the powerhouse actors Johny Lever (Haldiram) and Himani Shivpuri (Haldiram’s wife). Alok Nath, Jalal and Rani Mukherji make up a solid supporting cast.

There’s a softness, an innocent charm about this movie, that seems to be lost in recent ones. It makes me yearn for a Bollywood of the past, in which, unlike now, the hero is not a “macho man” sporting six pack abs and bulging biceps, trying to save the motherland, or going to war against his enemies – a bristling, thorny protagonist that’s raging for a fight.

Scenes from this movie are seared in mind and I often quote its lines in my daily life – such is its hold on me. I am a complete sucker for the drama, the music, the pageantry, the familiar (though outdated) movie tropes, the costumes, the sets – after all, I grew up watching Bollywood movies (SRK is the love of my life, he just doesn’t know it). It is a heaping dose of nostalgia that instantly uplifts my mood and restores my spirit, no matter how in the doldrums the world around might seem.