Ki & Ka: what do women want!!

Ki & ka:
Finally a weekend to myself! Or half a weekend, at least! Found rime to catch R. Balki's new release Ki & ka with a rational feminist friend! I am glad we chose this movie as it really suited the lazy Sunday mood! A short, easy-paced film, but one that neither left you wanting for more, nor looking at your watch again and again to see how much more! At a superficial level, the movie is entertaining, engrossing and even funny, you may say! At a deeper level it has the whole complex cosmos of a woman's psyche at its weirdest best! Gender stereotyping is at the core of the film, but hey, there's more to it than just that!

So, Kia, played by Kareena, is a successful marketing manager who is unabashedly a careerist and thinks marriage is for the weak hearted! The very first scene where she attends a friend's marriage as a disinterested bystander or at best as a robotic dancer,,sets the tone of the movie, particularly when she lambasts another friend on the phone for stupidly rejoicing at the marriage when in fact, she should be mourning the loss of life of their newly wedded friend! That she says this in full hearing of the wedding party, speaks volumes about the character and prepares you for the bindaas attitude of the main protagonist.

A chance meeting with the rich builder's son, Kabir, (Arjun Kapoor) on the flight is funny! The guy is a clear case of Oedipus Complex, who thinks nothing about weeping publicly in the memory of his mother! Of course, he doesn't want to be like his father. The two start dating and soon identify the distinctly reverse characteristics that they have vis-a-via their own genders! Kabir, despite being an MBA topper, doesn't wish to inherit the parental business, but wants to be a home maker, like his mom, while Kia is not willing to sacrifice her career for mundane rituals like running a home efficiently. As the two seem ideally suited, they get married!

Life is on a roll; a continuous gravy train, literally and metaphorically! Kabir designs the house around the theme of a Rail Yard, with food rolling out on a table-top train, morning and night for the wife and mother -in -law ( Swarup Sampat) The couple, who dated at the Railway Museum, took this "trip" of an unconventional life and what better than a serving trolley, designed as a train to remind you that these guys are on their own trip! And Guess what? The train stops and the trip gets over!

Kabir's happy existence as a stay-at-home husband gets noticed and he becomes a hit on the seminar circuit! Role reversal theme gets contorted when the successful careerist wife, like any other Man in her position, is unable to tolerate the success of the home-maker husband! She is jealous, fiery, insecure and abusive of the new found public identity of the husband! But hang on, she's a liberated woman, a high achiever herself! Why should a small thing like Woman's Day seminar cheese her off? Well, you are reminded of the universal truth: The hunter is supposed to go out and earn the bread and butter and the nurturer is supposed to stay in the cave and protect the family! One doesn't intrude into the role and character of the other without getting ferociously insecure and jealous!

The movie traverses and cuts across complex realms of mind, psyche and society, all at the same time! Gender stereotyping, role reversal, societal expectations, choices you have or even the lack of them, all come out in various forms! Kareena looks air-brushed but has done a good job! So has Arjun, in his easy, laconic style. Amitabh and Jaya in guest appearance, buttress the theme of choices women make! Of sacrificing pursuit of their ambition for the larger goal of nurturing the family!

Not a simple film by any standard! Complex, layered and nuanced! Leaving you wondering, pondering over the cosmic mystery, man style: WHAT DO WOMEN REALLY WANT?? Go watch it!