Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003)

Life of a very serious girl Naina, changes on the arrival of her new neighbour, Aman, who teaches her a new way to live.

Director:

Nikhil Advani

Writers:

Niranjan Iyengar (dialogue), Karan Johar (screenplay),

Stars:

Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan

32 wins & 39 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shah Rukh Khan	...	Aman Mathur
Preity Zinta	...	Naina Catherine Kapur
Saif Ali Khan	...	Rohit
Jaya Bhaduri	...	Jennifer Kapur
Sushma Seth	...	Lajjo Kapur
Reema Lagoo	...	Aman's Mother
Lillete Dubey	...	Jaswinder "Jazz" Kapoor
Delnaaz Paul	...	Jasprit "Sweetu" Kapoor
Rani Mukerji	...	Special Appearance
Sonali Bendre	...	Dr. Priya
Sanjay Kapoor	...	Abhay
Sulabha Arya	...	Kanta Bhen (as Sulbha Arya)
Athit Naik	...	Shiv Kapur
Princey Shukla	...	Gia Kapur (as Jhanak Shukla)
Simone Singh	...	Camilla

Storyline

Naina {Preity Zinta} is a young woman, slightly ticked off for reasons more than one. His father committed suicide when she needed him the most, leaving Jennifer{Jaya bachchan}, his wife all alone. Lajjo{Sushma Seth}, Jennifer's mother-in-law blames Jennifer for the same. furthermore, Jennifer is unhappy because Lajjo refuses to accept Gia, a 6-year old girl whom Jennifer adopted. Even the restaurant Jennifer is running is not going great guns. in short, nothing is well on the Kapur family front. the only factors that redeem Naina's existence are his toiling and tolerant mother Jennifer, and her bumbling stumbling MBA classmate Rohit {Saif Ali Khan}. Meanwhile, Aman{Shah Rukh Khan}, a happy-go-lucky guy arrives in Naina's neighbourhood and soon changes everything around, thanks to his contagious joviality and jest for life. He proves to be the messiah for the Kapur family in every sort. Naina is not a happy camper initially but could remain unaffected by his charisma for long, and ...

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Plot Keywords:

restaurant | new york | adopted daughter | snow | gay slur | 

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Taglines:

A Story Of A Lifetime.......In A Heartbeat

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi Urdu Gujarati Panjabi

Release Date:

28 November 2003 (India)

Also Known As:

Tomorrow May Never Come

Filming Locations:

India

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£436,790 (UK) (28 November 2003)

Gross:

£1,549,839 (UK) (2 January 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dharma Productions, Dillywood

Technical Specs

Runtime:

186 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In one scene the song 'Maar Dala' from Devdas is partially sung by Naini's grandmother Lajjo. The title role in that movie was played by Shah Rukh Khan himself.

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Goofs

In the scene where Aman Mathur enters the kitchen to look for Rohit Patel, who has gone for a date with Camilla, he and Kanta Bhen have a conversation in the kitchen, in front of the glass door. The reflection of the boom mic is visible on the glass door.

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Quotes

Jasprit "Sweetu" Kapoor: Bye all!
Jaswinder "Jazz" Kapoor: Bye Ball!

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Connections

Spoofs Devdas (2002)

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Soundtracks

"Kal Ho Naa Ho"
Written by Javed Akhtar
Composed by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa
Performed by Sonu Nigam
© 2003 Sony Music Entertainment (India) Pvt. Ltd.

User Reviews

Entertaining

What can you say about this movie? The makers have ensured that they have greased the wheels properly before the turkey was served.

Lets look at the few aspects of the movie::

01. Story: Nothing new but well-presented. And obviously the "Anand" factor was a diversion.

02. Characters: All of them etched out well. Be it talented Jaya Bachchan, Sushma Seth, Lillette Dubey, Sweetu, Rajpal Yadav or the highlight Kantaben. Simone Singh was good as well - she attempts a bit of skin-show, desperately wanting to break-free from the Heena image.

03. Comedy: Comedy tracks have been really worked upon. There are many pokings at Gujju's directly (the audience on both my sides appeared threatening!) - but in spite of that the G.U.J.J.U. song makes up for all the damage. Clever, very clever. Kantaben was good and so was Satish Shah (and his English).

04. Location: The movie is a proper New York Darshan bus. The trivial mistakes about jogging to Central Park from Queens can be easily overlooked in the age where the scripts have crater sized holes.

05. Music: S-E-L have given one of their best compositions to date. Be it the title song or Mahi Ve - all of them stay with you for a long time. My favourite is Its the time to disco, Vasundhara Das rocks (she bring out the voice of Nazia Hassan).

06. Lyrics: The title song is definitely Javed Akhtar caliber. For the rest he should give the credit to a pseudonym.

07. Spl. Appearances: Sonali Bendre and Sanjay Kapoor have extended special appearances. And in blink-an-miss appearances by Kajol & Rani (lucky mascots of Karan Johar), Uday Chopra and Jugal Hansraj.

08. Protagonists: SRK plays his part extremely well in the author backed role as "the good Samaritan", however does succumb to a bit of his usual hamming. Saif proves yet again that he is a dependable actor and at times can steal the show right under the nose. His performance at the restaurant (proposing scene) is wonderful. Preity does full justice to her character (Kareena - sour grapes! sour grapes!).

09. Tracks: In fact the movie is full of tracks but interesting ones. Be it Kantaben, Simone Singh, the wrong house, 7-day proposing, Sweetu, revamping of the restaurant or Gia's adoption track. The director has just done a good copy-paste of it.

The makers have ensured that there is maximum utilisation of resources at all fronts. For a first-timer Nikhil Advani has done a commendable job, obviously under the baton of Karan Johar who ensured that Yash Johar films flag remains high and rising.

Definitely worth a watch.... with family.

PS: Its interesting to see that from time to time, SRK acknowledges Aamir Khan in his movies (here the Lagaan song and in K3G the Ghulam matchstick).