Whether he is greeting Mawnju Aunty with his deceptively cool “Hello Ma’am” or having an awkward conversation with Raja-sa, he seems genuinely immersed in his role. There’s no denying that Fawad looks every bit the leading man he is meant to be, but the best thing is that he just doesn’t look it, he feels it too. If there’s anyone acting in the film, it is Fawad. That he has a flawlessly trimmed beard adds another dimension to his sharp features.
Whenever he’s on screen it’s difficult to concentrate on anything other than that chiseled jawline and perfectly pompadoured hair. He brings to Rajkumar Vikram Rathore an intensity I’ve yet to see in any of his Indian counterparts. As soon as I ran the post Fawad Fever, I knew this was FK’s film. Seeing Humsafar’s Ashar dance and Zindagi Gulzar Hai’s Zaroon shirtless made many a girl (and something tells me a lot of boys too!) go GA-GA. If there’s one thing that Khoobsurat got right, it was Fawad Khan. To be fair, though, I’ll start with the good and then move to the bad. There was a lacking script, in fact, there was no script, little direction, horrendous editing, and a bad soundtrack, which truth be told no amount of good costumes and star power could distract from.
In this seemingly perfect universe, not unlike Disney, was there anyone willing to tell the truth? Are we so obsessed with glitz and glamour that we are willing to believe whatever the media feeds us? Are we going to disregard common sense entirely? Is that why review after review gave this film three stars some even four? Now don’t get me wrong there was much in this film that made me smile, I’d even say laugh, but a few well-scripted moments make a movie not. Webster, between the Kapoors and the head honchos at Disney? Even Andy Webster of the New York Times disappoints with his cursory paragraph on the film, no doubt at the behest of some Disney executive, suggesting “ he studio’s specialty proves a good fit.” What good fit, Mr. Similarly, Anupama Chopra, a rather well-respected film critic, writing for the Hindustan Times said “ enjoyed Sneha Khanwalkar’s music, especially Engine ki Seeti“, I guess there’s just no accounting for taste because that song was a disaster from start to finish – lyrics, music, composition, picturization, you name it.
More importantly, they were executed to perfection not as a series of disparate scenes quickly added together, as we saw in Khoobsurat. A fair assessment, both her comparisons, though, had a plot and storyline, as flimsy as they might be. As I sifted through the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, the Times of India, and even the New York Times, I came across a few recurring themes. For Ritika Handoo of Zee News, Khoobsurat was “ as good or as real as Disney films are” with a somewhat apt comparison to the Princess Diaries and High School Musical.
On a quest to find answers to my as yet unanswered questions, I stumbled upon many a review, all full of praises and in my opinion false accolades.
Right? Then what was Khoobsurat? Was it a remake of Hrishkesh Mukherjee’s cult comedy classic of the same name? Was it a Disney fairytale? Was it some combination thereof? What? I am yet to figure out what this version of Khoobsurat really was other than a cash cow for the Kapoors. Most 90s kids grew up with staple Disney fare – prince charming, damsel in distress, evil family, you know the usual, which is what you expect from a Disney film. is not naive nor is she ahem(!) inexperienced, my traditional, nostalgic, and sentimental sensibilities wanted to see the ugly duckling transformed into a beautiful swan. Even though I am fully aware that Mili C. In fact, the only redeeming factors are Khoobsurat’s two khoobsurat debuts: Fawad Khan, our Pakistani Pompadour-ed beauty, and Jasleen Royal, the girl who gives us a soulful and beautiful rendition of “ Preet“.Īs a lifelong Disney admirer (yes, I love my Ariel, Bambi, and Simba!), I was expecting some Renaldi realness in Sonam Kapoor, some series of transitions from a boisterous, loud, Punjabi girl to a sophisticated, elegant, charming yet still spunky Rajkumari-sa. Weird cuts, a lack meaningful sequences, caricatures, cheap (and maybe even vulgar) humour, and ghatiya gaanay aur unkay chichoray lyrics make this a less than memorable watch. Sorry, Sonam and (perhaps, more so) Fawad, but this was nowhere as good as the hype surrounding it. The Princess Diaries formula falls flat in its Indian context.
Khoobsurat (and as much as I hate to say this) is a really bad film. There are bad films, and then, there are really bad films.