One might have guessed that at the lack of spontaneously choreographed, lip-synced Bollywood love song that something was wrong in the courting stages of the romance between Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) and Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan).
The film establishes itself completely on the seemingly innocent relationship between the protagonists, leaving us with the feeling that perhaps it was too good to be true. It was. What starts off as a cheesy, unconvincing romance between two university professors in India unexpectedly transcends into a thrilling, underground Islamic terrorist drama set in the suburbs of New York.
Upon learning that her new husband is part of a terrorist group, Avantika, caught in the whirlwind of extreme plot twist, discovers a new life of silence – a life where men organise plots to blow up subway stations in the name of Allah and their wives make them chai. Avantika, who once adorned herself in gypsy skirts and chandelier earrings, took to wearing a headscarf once she had been trapped and silenced by her fundamentalist neighbours.
Kurbaan does not depict freedom is only being restricted to women - the aptly cast Om Puri plays the elderly ringleader, similar to the elegantly clad Dons of the Italian mafia, and he has a harsh rule and influence upon the families around him.
Ehsaan, otherwise known as Khalid, an infamous highly-skilled terrorist wanted by the FBI is joined by three other Muslim men residing on the same street. Ehsaan later recruits American-Muslim Riyaaz (Vivek Oberoi), a war journalist masquerading as a fundamentalist pro-suicide bombing cadet.
The acts of “terrorism” themselves were more in favour of glamourised cinematic artistry as opposed to nitty-gritty realism. In particular, a police-chase sequence results in Ehsaan single-handedly killing a whole squad of American policemen, concluding his massacre with an enormous, expensive fire blast.
Such overstatements, which are a staple in Bollywood films, are not left out of the politically relevant Kurbaan. Avantika snooping in her neighbours’ basement and running for her life in her own home is reminiscent of every American teen horror blockbuster.
The several extreme close-ups of Ehsaan’s bullet wounds made it seem as though it was actually a bite from a B-grade zombie film where the special effects and make-up crew could self-indulge, but it did nothing for the intensity of the situation.
Apart from moments where the film exchanges narrative realism for cinematic clichés, weak dialogue and visual overstatements, Kurbaan, although formulaic in structure, as a whole turned out to be moderately complex, with social commentary as its box-office saviour. Or maybe that was due to the big budget and star studded cast.
Kurbaan plays it safe by eradicating racial and gender stereotypes and by taking no sides. Nobody wins. There is no justification for suicide bombings by Islam followers just as there is no justification for government-sanctioned bombings on innocent civilians.
Who would have thought that a university professor could be a wanted terrorist leader? Or that another university professor could fall in love with a terrorist? By the end of Kurbaan, audience empathy is felt for both Avantika and Ehsaan, as by then their relationship is comprised of mutual passion and despair.
Where Kurbaan succeeds in destroying media stereotypes, the film fails in the sense that it attempts to give reasons for suicide bombings. For example, Ehsaan is plagued by the unjust death of his ex-wife and child so he turns to Islam, bombs and political sabotage to seek revenge on those responsible – namely America.
Now, what about American-born suicide attackers who have not experienced traumatic life in the Middle East themselves?
What about suicide bombings that occur within countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, where Muslims are killed by Muslims?
Kurbaan does make a compelling point about the cyclical nature of terrorism – indeed it is both the American government and the fundamentalist Islamic world that need to change in order to co-exist.
* Manisha Anjali is a double major graduate of Film TV / Media and English from the University of Auckland