REVIEW: We Are Family (2)

NO-SUDS SOAP OPERA

It’s as if Siddharth Malhotra and his producer are stuck somewhere in the fifties or in regressive Balaji TV limbo-- how else can one explain a woman telling another, that all women are born to be mothers?

The idea of ‘perfect’ motherhood in We Are Family (and in the original Stepmom) is obsessing about kids 24/7 – cooking (a make of modular kitchen and storage boxes are brand partners), packing their tiffins, reading them bedtime stories and pinning fairy wings on their birthday costumes. All of which, presumably leaves no time for being a person. In spite of that, the supermom’s teenage daughter resents her ‘uncool’ mother and the youngest one seems to be in arrested development, lost in a world of angels, fairies and magic wands. The son is the only one who appears normal.

There was plenty wrong with Stepmom (which makes you wonder why Johar even bothered to remake it) and it’s even worse in We Are Family. Forget the melodrama, what it says is that ultimately women are wives and mother and easily interchangeable for a younger, cooler model. The husband (Arjun Rampal) has already dumped frumpy ‘supermom’ (Kajol) and acquired a pretty trophy girlfriend (Kareena Kapoor), a careerwoman who has to be pushed towards her destiny of cookie-baking ‘momdom’. The kids also seem to prefer the new model, who makes chocolate smileys on boring milk glasses and makes them look smarter.

If it so fulfilling to be perfect homemaker, how comes the husband leaves and the kids look gleeful at the sight of potential stepmom? Worse, how come a successful careerwoman (and one as gorgeous as Kareena) wants nothing more than play ayah to her boyfriend’s kids and perfect the doormat role, even after he has dumped her and returned to look after dying ex-wife? Oh, you see, she lost her mother at age six and hence was misguided into thinking that she could choose a career over fulltime motherhood. The man, of course, plays the old-fashioned provider, who turns up dutifully for birthdays and school functions. The rest of the mucky stuff is not his problem, even though those three obnoxious kids are his. (They live in Australia, speak without accents and behave as if divorce is a contagious disease!)

Disturbingly, three stars—Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal—who, from all accounts, live contemporary, urban and progressive lives, think this is the kind of sap they should support? If the film succeeds, then it is Karan Johar’s marketing savvy, if it fails, then the industry will say, we told you woman-oriented films don’t work at the box-office. And as always, it will the woman’s fault—though the producer and director are male.

Comments

[parul]

atta girl....u nailed it!

[deepagahlot]

Thanks Parul... hope you saved your money

[Amjad Maruf]

That's the problem with all of Karan's movies. Superficial treatment to the subject of his movies.