Always Kabhi Kabhi

Indian Express Ratings:**

Another teenage flick,dealing with themes of best friends forever,youthful angst,parental expectations,and peer pressure. Bollywood’s occasional dalliance with urban teens is now looking as if it’s here to stay,but ‘Always Kabhi Kabhi’ is not exactly the best proponent of that genre,always looking as if it’s trying too hard,only very kabhi kabhi finding its voice.

Sameer,Aishwarya,Nandini and Tariq are in the last year of school. Sameer’s ( Fazal) the trouble-prone cool dude . Aishwarya ( Monteiro) is the pretty girl with an ambitious mother-from-hell. Nandini ( Morani) is the rebel-with-a-cause. And Tariq ( Dubey) is the brainy one whose parents expect him to make it to MIT,not merely IIT. The main action revolves around a play,and a competition,which gives the young cast a chance to murder ‘Romeo and Juliet’,and us a film which tries coasting on disjointed,amateurish writing.

Coming from a brand new director,and fresh faces,this film should have felt newer,but this is stuff we’ve seen before. We know that this is a Shah Rukh Khan production because he shows up for an item number as the end credits roll. That doesn’t do anything for the film either.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com