05 February,2020 02:17 PM IST | Mumbai | Mohar Basu
Karan Johar and Sunny Leone on an episode of What The Love!
Karan Johar's brand of cinema is a complex one - there are moments of such warmth and depth that stay with you forever but does the product work in totality for you? Like a woman in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - Maya (Rani Mukerji) who had the most perfect husband in the world and yet she can't make that marriage work because there's no chemistry between the two. Or that legendary point in his last directorial Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, where Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor talk candidly about the power of unrequited love. Both of these films have such promising ideas but never quite transcend into great movies. Going forward on the same vein, Johar's new show on Netflix is simply half baked with such honest stories packed in them. Treading on the lines as Queer Eye, Netflix's stab at reality television is neither profound nor pulpy.
Over its seven episodes that starts off with a millennial party, KJo zeroes on six young people who need to be 'fixed'. As long as the stories stay sincere, you have a good time. It's commendable to see a public figure of Johar's stature confessing to pretty shocking things including having paid for sex. But what follows is a dull fare where each contestant in an episode learns the tricks of the trade and move towards hopefully a better dating life. It was hard to not judge a few of those stories really; but a f''k boy looking at women as nothing more than baby carriers is quite problematic. Johar manoeuvres it all gracefully, making some poignant remarks, some memorable takeaways. Personally it was Rabanne, the gay boy who falls for the wrong one each time and is looking for monogamy in the world of promiscuity, who will steal your heart. The other episode that comes close to that is of Ashi's who loves the idea of a picture-perfect wedding but needs to face the wounds of her heart for marriage. You wish the rest were as honest. The vision is grand but the heart is missing!
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