R Balki is known for his witty and relatively unconventional movies. Ki and Ka, a gender-bender dramedy starring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan is his latest offering and I must admit that it is the only film directed by him which I have seen in its entirety. Here’s what we thought of this film which promises to be hatke. Kareena plays Kia, an ambitious corporate professional who marries Kabir played by Arjun Kapoor, who is happy being a multi- tasking house-husband.
1. Kareena Kapoor Khan looks more stunning with every passing day. She finally has quite a challenging and textured role to sink her teeth into. She’s as expressive and vibrant as ever. What we didn’t like about her character in the movie is that Kia (Ki) is often portrayed as volatile, judgemental, highly hormonal, petty and jealous of her husband ‘s unexpected success. So we found Ki and Ka rather sexist.
2. The rapid success that both Kabir and Kia achieve is unrealistic and hard to believe.
3. We loved the dignified and balanced character of Kia’s mother, played by Swaroop Sampat. It’s a delight to see her on the big screen after ages. We loved the candid equation she shares with both Kia and Kabir.
4. The film has tons of jarring product placements such as Marico, Saffola, Lakme, Vistara, Daawat Basmati Rice, etc with a lavish advertorial for Dubai Tourism. Some subtlety would have been appreciated.
5. Arjun Kapoor’s performance is easily the best of his career. He’s very natural and there’s something quite endearing about him. He manages to look good too. However, the character of Kabir, a mama’s boy who is a composed and resourceful super chef-cum-homemaker seems too good to be true.
6. Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan’ s cameo is definitely the highlight of the movie. It’s timely and significant.
7. There is plenty of unique humour and witty banter in the movie about situations at home and at workplace that all of us will identify with. Thankfully, the movie doesn’t drag much.
8. The music is nothing to rave about. Only two songs are worth mentionin – High heels and Jeehazooreen.
9. The railway-themed apartment is simply wow! We’ve seen nothing like that in ages! It is an aspirational dream home.
10. All in all, with its faults and biased flaws, Ki and Ka is a contemporary fairy tale; an entertaining and enjoyable film that is worth watching once for its theme of gender role reversal and great performances. We can have a debate over this movie that succumbs to clichés.
We will give it 2.5 stars out of 5.
