It's incredibly cheesy and it looks like the same production designer who designed the look of Moulin Rouge also designed this film. But having said that it's actually pretty good. It's your usual Bollywood love story that's been based on a Dostoevsky story. You heard it a million times, boy meets girl who is already in love with another man who may or may not be real. Toss in a lonely old woman, a stunningly beautiful hooker with a heart of gold, a monochromatic set with lots of pretty lights and shimmering things and that's your story. Oh yeah, of course there's a bunch of songs and dance numbers that feature cheesy lyrics and lots of hip shaking navel bearing red hot brown skinned women in saris. In other words, it's just pure Bollywood fun that comes complete with cheesy songs and dance. It's got an unsual ending for a Bollywood movie but that makes it all the more fun.
If you like Bollywood, you'll like this one. I recommend it if you can find it.
I recently caught this film on Turner Classic Movie channel:
It made me realize that I am a classic art house film philistine because after years of hearing people rave about this film I must say that after finally seeing it, I hated it. Maybe I need to judge this film in the context of the time it was made in but I couldn't. I found it dull and too self conscious. Seriously, I got it right off, the kid isn't really a trouble maker, but every adult thinks he is so he stays in trouble. That's it. That's the film. I'm not kidding. See this one if you must or if you, like me, felt like you had to because it's a part of the hallowed film cannon, but honestly, it's not very good. Or maybe I'm just a Philistine who didn't understand the underlying motifs and subtext. Or maybe they've been blowing smoke up our asses about Truffaut films all our lives.
As promised yesterday, Sparky and I went to see the Bollywood film, Kabhi Kushi Kahbie Gham, last night at the same venue where we saw Rigadon and Edades. We learned from watching two films in that theatre/classroom the night before that if we wanted to save our asses from destruction we'd better bring cushions to sit on while we took in an over three hour Bollywood epic and so we walked in with our blue cushions under our arms and we found that there were about thirty people in the joint besides us, and most of them were young people of the Indian, India Indians that is, persuasion. It was an enjoyable experience, except for the loud talking during the film which a well placed dirty look silenced most of the time, watching the film with people who spoke the language spoken in the film, they'd get the jokes quicker than us peons who had to wait to read the subtitles. 
The plot of Kabhi Kushie Kabhie Gham goes a little something like this: young boy gets adopted by a rich family, boy becomes part of family, family has another son but adopted boy is still loved, adopted son falls in love with woman father disapproves of, father says no to marriage, son marries woman anyway, father tosses adopted son and new wife out, other son finds out about all this and vows to reunite family, other son goes to London to reunite brother with family, brothers reunite, younger brother manages to trick parents into coming to London to meet adopted brother and his family, father gets pissed, family gets reunited at end of long, long, long, exceedingly long ass movie during which many tears are shed and many songs sung and many dances danced.
Don't get me wrong I liked most of this film but the main problem I had with it was it's length. It clocked in at 190 minutes and 190 minutes of sitting a on a seat that was designed to break the will of a college student is a close cousin to torture. Yes, the cushion helped but it was still painful at times.
Despite some unfortunate costume choices foisted on the actor who played the youngest son, he was quite the magnetic performer. His dancing was at times humorous but always fun to watch.
Note to other Bollywood directors: No matter how much a guy works out or how buff he is, no one, and let me repeat that, NO ONE looks good in the outfit the makers of this film slapped on Hrithik Roshan. You've been warned.
For me the film fell apart when the younger brother went to London and his older adopted brother did not recognize him right away, of course I realize why he did not, it made for "compelling" melodrama that he did not recognize his own brother right away. But I could not get past the fact that the older adopted bother would have seen right off that the younger man was indeed his brother as soon as he laid eyes on him. It also added another hour to an already long film.
But honestly, who am I to complain about a film being too long that has women who look like hat in it? And not only do they look good but they also sing, dance, shimmy, and shake it like a Polaroid picture all over the place.
I've got to admit that I loved most all of the musical numbers in this film. I especially loved the birthday song and dance towards the front of the film and the numbers that took place in London. They were Bollywood musical numbers at their best. I also loved how in the birthday number that a shot of fast rotating helicopter blades dissolved into a shot of twirling dancers, it was pure genius.